Names of God   

In the Islamic tradition, God is said to have 99 names, each representing a divine attribute. These names of God are often given to or adopted by Muslims. Some common examples are:

“al-kareem” = “the generous” or “the noble”
”al-’Ali” = “the exalted”
“al-Hakeem” = “the wise”
 

The two most commonly uttered names of God are translated as “the Beneficent” and “the Merciful”:

“beneficent” = “raHmaan”
“merciful” = “raHeem”

[Hafeez had posted a beautiful gallery of paintings featuring all 99 names of God . Compare to a similar project being developed by Yousef.]

To make the word definite (e.g.: “beneficent” >> “the Beneficent”), the Arabic letters “al-“ are added. 

al-raHmaan >> ar-raHmaan = 

al-raHeem >> ar-raHeem = 

[With some letters, for ease of pronunciation, the “l” in “al-” is silent and the letter that follows (in this case, “r”) is doubled. It sounds complicated, but its done naturally by English speakers whenever they pronounce “alright” as “ar-right”, or “already” as “ar-ready”]

These two names of God are added to “bismillah” to create perhaps the most commonly used phrase in the Islamic tradition:

“In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful” =
”bismillah ar-raHmaan ar-raHeem” =

This phrase is a favorite of calligraphists. As we saw in Lessons 1 and 2, the marks are sometimes omitted:

Sometimes additional marks are added:

[The red circle highlights an alternative form that the fourth letter in “al-raHman” sometimes takes. Normally (and as seen above), it looks like a circle connected on either side.]

Sometimes the words are repositioned for artistic reasons:

And sometimes straight lines are exclusively used:

While this phrase is too long to repeat multiple times in a single image (as is sometimes done with “Allah”), it is sometimes presented twice in a single image as a mirror image of itself. Because of the symmetry, these images tend to be easy to recognize (though it can be quite challenging to pick out the words):

[If you’d like to identify the words in the above image, see below.]

Its rare to see Islamic art mentioned and not see an artist’s rendition of “bismillah ar-raHmaan ar-raHeem” right next to it. For a gallery devoted exclusively to this phrase, click here. Before you go, you may want to visit Wahiddudin to read a detailed explanation of the roots of the phrase - it more accurately captures the meaning.

End of Lesson

Special thanks to Rahila for providing some of these images.

“bism”:

“Allah”:

“ar-raHmaan”

“ar-raHeem”