Bismillah (lesson 2)

So lets begin the lesson 2 with a question that was posed to Humbal.

Question:

Normally when we read Bismillah in english its "In the name of Allah ....". You said Bay means "With". So does this mean that "in" and "with" have the sames meaning/use in Arabic?

Answer:
Every language has its own way of saying things.In English we start a task IN the name of Allah. In Urdu hum Allah Kay naam SAY (from) shuru kartay hain. Naam Kay ander (in) say nahin hai. Similarly in Arabic hum Allah kay naam kay saath (with) shuru kartay hain. I will be focusing on literal meaning of words. Leaving everybody to deduce the figurative meaning themselves. And that is when the Qur'an starts speaking with every individual.

Lesson 2:

In lesson 1 of Bismillah we learned one Arabic word and one grammatical rule.  The Arabic word we learned was ISM meaning "name". The Grammatical rule we learned was the use of Arabic letter BAY when attached before another word would mean "With".

Today we'll look at two most powerful Arabic words: Ar-Rahman & Ar-Raheem. Both are Allah's names. The Qur'an refers to Allah with 99 different names, each name refers to one of His attribute / quality. Since Allah has used them to describe himself nobody is sure exactly what they mean. But many scholars give different opinions about their meaning.
Both these names belong to the root "Ra Ha Ma" (Ray Hay Meem) which directly translates into Urdu as Reham meaning "Mercy".
So although both Rehman and Raheem mean "Merciful"..  we're not sure about the fine difference between them.
One scholar which appealed to me most thinks that one means "limitlessly merciful (in amount of mercy) " and the other means "continuously Merciful (unlimited in time and frequency)".
While requesting for forgiveness in dua call Him by the name of Ya-Rahman Ya- Raheem. 

Rabbe zidni ilma
My Lord! Increase me in knowledge.
 Amin.

Bismillah (lesson 1)

Today's word is Bismillah. This is all simple Urdu. It consists of three words:

Ba-Ism-Allah

In Arabic grammar whenever you put the letter BAY before a word it means "With".

As in Urdu we say:
"ba maa' Ahl O Ayyaal" meaning "With Family"

ISM is also an Urdu word meaning Noun. Bachpan main Ism ki iqsaam parhtay thay Urdu mai. In Arabic it means "name". Arabic people used to have long names. We only have first name and family name but the Arabs have Ism, Laqab, Nasab, Nisbah and Dynasty. Out of these ISM is the personal name. The name most closest to you.

So Be-ISM-Allah literally means "with Name (of) Allah"

Notice there's no arabic word for "OF". Arabic being a very efficient language, unlike Urdu and English, conveys meaning beautifully without redundant use of words. Even letters have meaning. Like the use of letter BAY we saw today.

Rabbe zidni ilma
My Lord! Increase me in knowledge.


Amin.