"بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم"

The Holy Quran starts with the sentence "بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم". It means that “In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the eternally merciful.” This formula has an important impact on the life of a God-believing person. A person, who believes in God, should start all of his tasks by pronouncing the name of God.

A person starts a task on the basis of some support. That support might be the intellectual and physical capabilities of person, it may be his/her wealth, it may be his/her friends and companions, or it may be the favorable circumstances. Quran requires a person that (s)he should base his/her tasks on the help of Almighty God. Therefore, Prophet Muhammad صلی اللہ علیہ واٰلہ وسلم said that any task without pronouncing Allah’s name remains blessing less.

The Quran is the last book of Almighty Allah. Its basic objective is to guide mankind about how to live a good life that pleases their Lord. The Quran starts by pronouncing Allah’s name to show that this book is from their Lord and no one else.

The concept of starting any task with God’s name is not limited to Islam only. Allah, God, Khuda, Ram, Permashore are the names used in different languages to describe only and only one entity. Many people around the globe, who believe in a single God, start their tasks by evoking His name.

The first sentence of Quran describes two attributes of Allah i.e. beneficent and merciful. The mercy of God is continuously flowing like a river – hence He is called beneficent – but on specific occasions, this mercy manifests itself with utmost intensity to reach what may be called its pinnacle – this aspect is referred to in his attribute “merciful”. Both these attributes signify a great blessing for the humanity. This means that the relationship of God with human beings is that of love, compassion and affection.

Due to ignorance, some people think that God is not at all merciful since He let them suffer and face hardships of life on the face of this earth. Furthermore, they think that God becomes angry on petty issues and threatens His people with agonies of life in the hellfire.

This concept is completely wrong. The first verse of Quran describes that Allah is the beneficent, and His love and affection is eternal. It is true that He gets angry but His anger is limited to those people who are arrogant in front of Him. Majority of human beings are not arrogant in front of the Almighty God. With them, Allah’s relation is that of love and mercy. He is merciful to them and in case of any mistake; He accepts their repentance and forgives them.

A person should continuously think that what should be his/her behavior with that loving and caring Lord.

(Author: Mubashir Nazir, Reviewed by: Jhangeer Hanif)