In article <4od32m$43s@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu>, marjan@gate.ioa.com (AbdulraHman Lomax) writes: as-salamu 'alaykum. kwirasub@worldbank.org (kwirasub) wrote: >I am not a Khalifite and not a scholar in Arabic, but it seems to me >there are 19 letters in basmallah, they are: [BSM ALLH ALRHMN ALRHYM] It is not uncommon for those eager to refute Khalifa's theories to overstate the case. In the traditional, so-called Uthmanic spelling in which many Qur'ans are written (and which is *always* used for the bismillah), there are indeed 19 letters, plus other marks (which were not used in the original Qur'ans). However, it is also possible to write the same sentence, pronounced the same way, with other letters. In particular, the BSM can be written B ASM and the ALRHMN as ALRHMAN. This is the meaning of the claim that there are 21 letters. In both cases the pronunciation does not change at all (since the initial A in ASM is wasl and the additional A in ALRHMAN is already pronounced long -- as shown by its being marked by upright fetha). In terms of meaning, BSM is, in fact, B ASM, so it is not unreasonable to make a claim that the A is there, but not written. In fact, Khalifa did count, for this word, ASM in the Qur'an, and did *not* count BSM. So if he thought the word was there, why did he not count on of its letters? Nevertheless, if you ask me how many letters there are in the bismillah, I will without hesitation say 19. AbdulraHman Lomax marjan@gate.ioa.com P.O. Box 25133 Asheville, NC 28813
Overview on numerical features in different scriptures
Answering Islam Home Page