Basmala

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Basmala as found in most contemporary prints

The Basmala ( Arabic بسملة, DMG basmala ) is an Arabic invocation formula that, with one exception, appears at the beginning of every sura of the Koran and still plays an extremely important role in the worship and everyday life of Muslims today. It is:بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم / bismi ʾllāhi ʾr-raḥmāni ʾr-raḥīmi  / 'In the name of the merciful and gracious God'. Ar-rahman ("the merciful") and ar-rahim ("the gracious") are also the first two of the 99 names of Allah . Rahman was also one of the main names of God in the monotheistic religions of pre-Islamic Arabia .

The first three words of this Qur'anic invocation formula bismi ʾllāhi (in the name of God) merged to form the term Basmala. The verb derived from this is called basmala by the Arabic grammarians  /بسمل / 'Pronounce or write this formula'. Another name of this formula is: tasmiya , d. H. the pronouncement of the divine name by the Basmala.

Koran

In the Koran the basmala is missing before sura 9 and appears a second time in sura 27 in verse 30 as the opening formula of a letter from Solomon to the queen of Sheba . In abbreviated form, "In the name of God" Noah says it in sura 11 , verse 41:

“Get on the ship! In the name of God be his journey and his landing! "

- Translation: Rudi Paret

According to the teachings of the Hanafis , Shafiites and Hanbalites , the Basmala is part of Surah 1 al-Fatiha and is counted there as a separate verse. The Malikites, on the other hand, are of the opinion that the Basmala only represents an aya in Sura 27 (an-naml) . In other Koran suras it is only part of a verse. The controversial doctrines are underpinned by corresponding statements by Muhammad .

The Koran exegete al-Zamachschari states in his Tafsīr work that, according to the old grammarians of Basra , Medina and Syria , the Basmala was not taken into account in the counting of the Koran, but was only used as a blessing and as a separator between the individual suras. The old grammarians of Mecca and Kufa , as well as the legal scholar asch-Schafii, however, regarded this formula as part of the suras. In the Ahmadiyya translation of the Koran , the Basmala is always counted as the first verse, which is why all other verses have a numbering that deviates from the norm.

Even in the oldest Koran codices that have survived today, there were small ornamental fields as suras separators, which were inserted above the basmala of the new sura. All motifs of these sur-separators from the first and second Muslim centuries ( 7th and 8th centuries AD) are under Byzantine influence.

Instructions in hadith and legal literature

In the case of several actions, the Tasmiya - speaking the Basmala - is obligatory according to prophetic instructions, for example when performing the small ritual ablution . According to the Koran verse:

“And do not eat meat (w. Nothing) about which (during the slaughter) the name of God has not been spoken! That is sacrilege "

- Sura 6, verse 121 : Translation: Rudi Paret

the Basmala is also a religious duty when slaughtering animals (wāǧib).

Religious speeches, addresses, lectures, dedications or letters should also be introduced with the Basmala. In the books of tradition , a saying traced back to Mohammed is recorded, according to which every important and religiously obliged act that begins and is carried out without Basmala is in itself void ( batil  /باطل / bāṭil  / 'worthless, void, invalid') and devoid of any blessing ( maqtūʿ al-baraka  /مقطوع البركة / maqṭūʿ al-baraka ) is. The meat of slaughtered animals that were killed without the Basmala is not allowed to be consumed by a Muslim, as it is then not halāl . An exception is kosher meat, because an invocation in the name of God was pronounced about it .

In other life situations, the Basmala, also in the abbreviated form as "in the name of God", is still a norm ( mašrūʿ ) provided by Islamic law , but not an obligation ( wāǧib ):

Basmala in a Turkish Dolmuş (minibus)
  • before the beginning of the Koran reading,
  • before starting a trip,
  • before starting a meal,
  • before entering a house or mosque and when leaving it,
  • when lighting the evening light,
  • before marital intercourse,
  • when laying hands on a painful area of ​​a sick person,
  • at the burial of a dead man.

According to a prophet's saying, ritually impure people, including women during menstruation and in childbirth, are not allowed to recite the Koran and consequently also not speak the Basmala. The Malikites, on the other hand, are of the opinion that they are allowed to recite the Koran for study purposes and when teaching third parties. However, through the great ritual ablution (ghusl) they have to reach the state of Tahara in order to be able to continue to recite the Koran with the Basmala.

According to a prophetic word narrated about Anas ibn Mālik, it is particularly meritorious to pick up a sheet ( qirṭās ) with the Basmala on it from the ground. Whoever does this to keep the leaf from being trodden down should be listed with God among the "truthful" ( ṣiddīqūn ) and the grave torment should be relieved for his parents, even if they belonged to the "co-sellers" ( mušrikūn ) .

history

The basmala at the beginning of the founding inscription of the Bou Fatata Mosque in Sousse . 9th century

In pre-Islamic Arabia , invocation formulas such as “in the name of al-ʿUzzā ” or “in the name of al-Lat ” were common, so the great deities worshiped at that time were invoked. The oldest evidence of the Basmala in its full form is Koran verse 27:30, a passage that is assigned to the Mediterranean period. It is not known whether and from when Muhammad put the Basmala at the head of the Suras. Although it is generally assumed in Islamic tradition that it is the oldest revelation, there is also a different tradition that Mohammed only used the Basmala after the revelation of verse 27:30.

In non-Quranic documents from the time of the Prophet, however, the Basmala is not used. The treaty of al-Hudaiybiya, which Mohammed concluded with his Meccan opponents, began with the formula already known in pre-Islamic times: bismika Allāhumma : "In your name, Lord God", that is, with the divine designation Allāhumma , which is known to the polytheists and used by Islam in connection with the Islamic pilgrimage ceremonies. A letter from Muhammad to the Byzantine governor of Egypt al-Muqauqis also begins in a variant not with the Basmala, but with the formula bismika Allāhumma .

Muhammad's letter to the bishops of Najran ( asāqifat naǧrān ) begins with the formula that occurs several times in both the Old Testament and the New Testament: bismi ilāhi Ibrāhīma wa-Isḥāqa wa-Yaʿqūba , d. H. “In the name of God, Abraham , Isaac and Jacob ”.

The archaic invocation formula with Allāhumma remained in use even in post-prophetic times, as the oldest paleographically documented inscription, which is dated March 17, 666, shows.

The oldest evidence for the use of the Basmala can be found in the secular area on coins from the middle of the 7th century. The Umayyād governor in Iraq, Ziyād ibn Abī Sufyān, proclaimed his political authority on coins with “ bi-smi llāhi rabbī ”: In the name of God, my lord. The governor al-Ḥakam ibn al-ʿĀṣ in Kirmān , where he ruled between 675 and 678, added his own name to this formula: "In the name of God, the Lord of Ḥakam". The complete religious formula of the Basmala does not appear here, the expression "bi-smi llāhi" is initially a kind of guarantee of authenticity, as is the minting of ǧayyid (good / genuine) on Syrian copper coins.

The Basmala on a private letter. Papyrus. Fustat . 10-11. century

In Islamic epigraphy , the Basmala is first documented in 653 on a stone found in Aswan ; An inscription from the time of the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan , which contains both the Basmala and the Shahada , is only slightly more recent . The fact that the Basmala was not used consistently in the oldest epigraphic documents is shown by the find from Taif from the reign of Muʿāwiya I from the year 677. Epigraphic finds from the 2nd Muslim century, which the Saudi scientist Saʿd ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Saʿd ar-Rāšid collected near Medina and published in 1993, the Basmala do not contain anything, although all 55 texts are religious in content; only the ancient invocation Allahumma appears in two of the published inscriptions.

Literary papyri - d. H. Profane and non-Koranic documents - from the areas of purchase and inheritance law, marriage contracts, deeds of gift, etc. since the early 3rd Muslim century (9th century) already contain the Basmala throughout.

Popular piety

The basmala on a stone as a garden decoration

According to the popular Islamic prophetic legends ( Qisas al-Anbiya ), the Basmala was written: on Adam's thigh, on the wings of the Archangel Gabriel, on the seal of King Solomon and on the tongue of Jesus.

The formula plays an important role in Islamic popular belief , in magic - on amulets  - and in Islamic mysticism . Because it was necessary to carry out the Islamization of the amulet system, to lead the magical customs and traditions from the profane into the realm of faith. Nothing is more suitable for this than the Basmala, "with which the devout Muslim usually opens every handwriting" and replaces the representation of human or animal figures in Islam with characters. Like the Basmala, the mention of the 99 names of God in magical practices and on amulets also serves the same purpose.

Even before the Shahada, the Basmala was the most common motif in Arabic calligraphy .

Basmala in the Kufic style, 9th century

literature

  • Abdullah el-Azzeh: The Halhul Inscription 55H / 674 AD The oldest Islamic Inscription in Palestine . Ramallah 1990.
  • Hans-Caspar von Bothmer, Karl-Heinz Ohling, Gerd-Rüdiger Puin: New ways of researching the Koran . In: magazine research . tape 1 . Saarland University, 1999, p. 33-46 .
  • E. Doutté : Magic et religion dans l'Afrique du Nord . Alger, 1909 (French, index).
  • Alexander Fodor: Amulets from the Islamic World . In: Catalog of the Exhibition held in Budapest in 1988 . 1990, ISSN  0239-1619 , pp. 42-192 .
  • Adam Gacek: The Arabic Manuscript Tradition. A Glossary of Technical Terms & Bibliography. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section One. Volume 58. Brill, Leiden 2001, ISBN 90-04-12061-0 .
  • R. Kriss: Popular belief in the field of Islam . tape 2 : Amulets and incantations . Wiesbaden 1961.
  • Edward William Lane: Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians . East-West Publications, The Hague and London, ISBN 0-85692-010-X , pp. 249 ff . (Reprinted 1978).
  • Klaus Kreiser , Werner Diem , Hans Georg Majer: Lexicon of the Islamic World . Volume I. 89. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-17-002160-5 .
  • Raif Georges Khoury: Chrestomathie de Papyrologie Arabe. Documents relatifs à la vie privée, sociale et administrative dans les premiers siècles islamiques . Brill, Leiden 1993, ISBN 90-04-09551-9 .
  • GC Miles: Early Islamic Inscription Near Ta'if in the Hidjaz . In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies (JNES) . tape 11 , 1948, pp. 236-242 .
  • Rudi Paret: Symbolism of Islam . In: Ferdinand Hermann (Ed.): Symbolism of Religions . Anton Hiersmann, Stuttgart 1958, p. 86-92 .
  • Sa'd 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Sa'd al-Rashid: Kitābāt islāmiyya ġair manšūra min “Ruwāwa” al-Madīna al-munawwara . Riyadh 1993.
  • Moshe Sharon: An Arabic Inscription from the of the Caliph 'Abd el-Malik . In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (BSOAS) . tape 29 , 1966, pp. 367-372 .
  • Stephan Guth : Basmala . In: Ralf Elger, Friederike Stolleis (eds.): Kleines Islam-Lexikon . License issue: Federal Agency for Civic Education. Beck, Bonn 2002 ( [1] ).
  • The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Volume I. 1084. Brill, Leiden.
  • al-Mausū ʿ a al-fiqhiyya . 5th edition. tape 8 . Kuwait 2003, p. 83-92 (Arabic).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Translation: Rudi Paret: The Koran . 10th edition. Kohlhammer-Verlag, 2007, p. 439-440 . "Within the Basmala (and below verse 3) ar-raḥmān (as well as ar-raḥīm ) does not stand as an independent noun, but as an attribute" ( Rudi Paret : Der Koran. Commentary and concordance . P. 11)
  2. ↑ al-mausūʿa al-fiqhiyya . 5th edition. Kuwait 2003. Volume 8, p. 83; Adam Gacek: The Arabic Manuscript Tradition. Pp. 12-13.
  3. ↑ al-mausūʿa al-fiqhiyya. 5th edition. Kuwait 2003. Volume 8, p. 83
  4. ↑ al-mausūʿa al-fiqhiyya. 5th edition. Kuwait 2003. Volume 8, pp. 84 and 87
  5. ↑ al-mausūʿa al-fiqhiyya . 5th edition. Kuwait 2003. Volume 8, pp. 83-85
  6. ↑ von Bothmer-Ohlig-Puin: New ways of researching the Koran . Pp. 36, 43-45
  7. ↑ al-mausūʿa al-fiqhiyya . 5th edition. Kuwait 2003. Volume 8, pp. 89-90
  8. ↑ Adam Gacek: The Arabic manuscript tradition , pp 12-13
  9. ↑ al-mausūʿa al-fiqhiyya . Volume 8, p. 92
  10. ↑ al-mausūʿa al-fiqhiyya . 5th edition. Kuwait 2003. Volume 8, p. 86
  11. ↑ Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḫuttalī: Kitāb ad-Dībāǧ . Ed. Ibrāhīm Ḥālim. Damascus 1994. p. 105.
  12. ↑ Cf. Theodor Nöldeke: History of the Qorāns. Part One: On the Origin of the Qorān . 2nd edition, edited by F. Schwally. Leipzig 1909. p. 117.
  13. ↑ MJ Kister: Labbayka, Allahumma, Labbayka ... ; On a Monotheistic Aspect of a Jāhiliyya Practice. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (JSAI). Volume 2 (1980), pp. 33-57
  14. ↑ Muḥammad Ḥamīdullāh: Maǧmū ʿ at al-waṯā ʾ iq as-siyāsiyya lil- ʿ ahd al-nabawī wal-ḫilāfati r-rāšida . 3. Edition. Beirut 1969, p. 108 .
  15. ↑ for the first time Ex 3.6  EU
  16. ↑ For example, Mk 12,26  EU , Mt 22,32  EU
  17. ↑ Muḥammad Ḥamīdullāh, op.cit. P. 139
  18. ^ Adolf Grohmann: A new Arabic inscription from the first half of the 1st century of the Higra . In: Mélanges Taha Husain (ed.): Publiés par Abdurrahman Badawi . Cairo 1962, p. 39-40 .
  19. ^ Stefan Heidemann: The Evolving Representation of the Early Islamic Empire and its Religion on Coin Imagery. In: Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai, Michael Marx (eds.): The Qurʾān in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾānic Milieu . Brill, Leiden 2010. pp. 149-196; here pp. 165–166
  20. ^ Stefan Heidemann (2010), p. 163 and note 46
  21. ^ Abdullah el-Azzeh, Figure 4
  22. ↑ See Moshe Sharon, passim
  23. ^ GC Miles, passim
  24. ↑ Kitābāt islāmiyya , pp. 51 and 63
  25. ↑ R. G. Khoury: Chrestomathie . (passim; 98 documents in the original, in the edition and translation).
  26. ↑ E. Doutté: Magic et religion . In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. I.1084 (B. Carra de Vaux; L. Gardet), p. 211 .
  27. ↑ Rudi Paret: Symbolism of Islam . S. 91 .
  28. ↑ See the illustrations in A. Fodor: Amulets. No. 107, 177, 291 on rings, plaques and pendants.
  29. ↑ E. Doutté: Magic et religion . S. 203-207 . ; R. Paret: Symbolism in Islam . S. 86-87 .