Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim: the Key to Paradise

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is adapted from a swuhbah from Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim Adil al-Haqqani (q.s.) on the 18^th February 2002. 

“Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim” is the key to Paradise.  “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim” is the crown of Islam on the heads of Muslims.  We must try to keep it.  Every closed door is opening through “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim”; every treasure from Earth and through the Heavens is Opened through “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim”.  And that is the sign of sincerity or of obedience.  The sign of an obedient person is to say, “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim”. 

Shaythan is constantly trying to make Muslims forget it.  He wants them to be heedless.  The most heedless people in the world today are Muslims.  Why they are heedless?  Muslims, through their heedlessness, accuse Islam and its principles of being outdated, and try to change Islamic principles into secular ones.  The whole gets by on imitation principles instead of the principles of Revelation.  But they claim that what they have is better than what Islam brings.  And the heedless among the Muslims follow them.  Muslims have been seduced, thinking that the West reached its ‘advanced’ civilisation through its technology and scientific advances.  But they have left their values behind. 

For example, the Muslim leaders of some nations think that since the West has nuclear weapons, they must have nuclear weapons.  Nuclear weapons are haram in Islam.  But these heedless Muslims change their religion to make it permissible.  Is this their understanding of civilisation and advancement?  To kill each other, the animals, and the plants; and destroy the land?  If to kill and destroy is the measure of civilisation, may Allah (s.w.t.) Curse them.  If their measure of civilisation is to cause people to suffer and die and to destroy their cities, villages and farms, may Allah (s.w.t.) Curse them and their technology.  People have been deluded into believing that the measure of civilisation is the pinnacle of technological advancement.  To be occupied with the sole pursuit of technological advancement is to be occupied with materialism.  By itself, it has no good characteristics since it belongs to the material world.  The heedless leaders of Muslim nations believe some form of technocracy is a means of civilizational advancement.  They have lied to the people and cheated them of their true birthright of Islam, taqwa. 

The entire world is in a technology race, and yet it will not help anyone since the focus is on destruction.  When animals are aggressive, that is because they are animals.  Humanity is supposed to better than that, instead of behaving like animals.  In fact, they are worse animals.  Our violence is borne of heedlessness, not nature.  And now, technology has become the means to increase that violence on an exponential scale.  People have ceased their education in spirituality, and worshipped materialism.  It has become a reality that the vast majority of the news we receive is about violence.  It is about violence between nations, tribes, ethnic groups, religious groups, political groups, families and even against our selves.  As long as people neglect spirituality, there will be violence.  And the more they leave their spirituality, the more there will be violence.  People do not even know how to give peace to their souls.  How are they going to give peace to others?  If they cannot have peace at home, how is there going to be peace in the community? 

Therefore, we should be constantly reciting, “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim”.  The Basmallah is a reminder of the honour Bestowed upon us, the honour of servanthood.  The heedless and the dishonoured do not use the Name of Allah (s.w.t.) in anything.  They seek the names of people, name dropping, and basking in their borrowed honour.  They have put these people ahead of Allah (s.w.t.).  And they oppose those who say, “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim”.  They want to confine His Names to the mosques.  They dispute the Divine Commands and confine Revelation to the past.  Such people are the friends of Shaythan.  When we say, “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim,” Allah (s.w.t.) Sends an angel to keep is on the Straight Path to His Pleasure.  There is no way to His Divine Blessings without saying, “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim”.  There is no way to Paradise without it.  The scent of Paradise can be smelt by the believers from a distance of 500 years.  Those who reject “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim” do not smell it at all.