Bismillah is the start of all good things.
How can we go with God, to get through the ups and the downs? The highs and the lows?
Bismillah – saying it can also be to say al-Hamdulillah, in sha’Allah, etc.
وَلا تَقولَنَّ لِشَيءٍ إِنّي فاعِلٌ ذٰلِكَ غَدًا
إِلّا أَن يَشاءَ اللَّهُ ۚ وَاذكُر رَبَّكَ إِذا نَسيتَ وَقُل عَسىٰ أَن يَهدِيَنِ رَبّي لِأَقرَبَ مِن هٰذا رَشَدًا
“Never say about anything, ‘I will do that tomorrow,’. without adding ‘If Allah wills.’ Remember your Lord when you forget, and say, ‘Hopefully my Lord will guide me to something closer to right guidance than this’.” Qur’an, 18: 23-24
Bismillah – Imagine one needs to travel through the desert. You will need to travel in the name of the Chief, so you may be under his protection and if you are assailed or attacked, you can be recompensed.
Bismillah – two men go on a journey. One invokes Allah’s name, the other not. The first travels in dignity, whether he is attacked or not. For he knows if there is any wrong that is brought down upon him, Allah will recompense him. And that it was merely a test. The second will experience the same calamities but it will crush his soul. He will cry out, “Why me?!”
Bismillah – it’s what allows us to be saved from the indecency of begging from the world and all those in it, and instead, beg from the Creator of the world and the Seven Heavens.
الْيَدُ الْعُلْيَا خَيْرٌ مِنَ الْيَدِ السُّفْلَى وَالْيَدُ الْعُلْيَا الْمُنْفِقَةُ وَالسُّفْلَى السَّائِلَةُ
Abdullah b. Umar reported that as Allah’s Messenger ﷺ was sitting on the pulpit and talking about Sadaqa and abstention from begging, he said, “The upper hand is better than the lower one, the upper being the one which bestows and the lower one which begs.” Sahih Muslim, #1033
Acting in the Name of Allah is empowering. It is in this way that small things, like seeds and grains bear huge trees on their miniscule heads.
Acting in the Name of Allah is how lowly grass, the roots of small things are able to pierce and breakthrough hard rocks and earth. In the same manner, by remembering, praising, thanking, and acting on the Name of Allah that you will achieve victory in your life: now and here-after.
When one lives one’s life in the Name of Allah, you can break through the most difficult barriers (like the tree) and those struggles will simultaneously bear fruit. For even the hardness of stones is under the command of Allah.
وَإِذِ استَسقىٰ موسىٰ لِقَومِهِ فَقُلنَا اضرِب بِعَصاكَ الحَجَرَ ۖ فَانفَجَرَت مِنهُ اثنَتا عَشرَةَ عَينًا
“And when Musa was looking for water for his people, We said, ‘Strike the rock with your staff.’ Then twelve fountains gushed out from it.” Qur’an, 2: 60
Abu Hurayrah reported Allah’s Messenger ﷺ as saying:
Miskin is not he who is dismissed with one or two dates, and with one morsel or two morsels. (In fact) miskin is he who abstains (from begging). Read if you so desire (the verse):” They beg not of men importunately)” (ii. 273). Sahih al-Bukhari 1476
لَيْسَ الْمِسْكِينُ بِالَّذِي تَرُدُّهُ التَّمْرَةُ وَالتَّمْرَتَانِ وَلاَ اللُّقْمَةُ وَاللُّقْمَتَانِ إِنَّمَا الْمِسْكِينُ الْمُتَعَفِّفُ اقْرَءُوا إِنْ شِئْتُمْ
Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger ﷺ as saying, “Miskin is not he who is dismissed with one or two dates, and with one morsel or two morsels. But in fact miskin is he who abstains from begging. “They beg not of men importunately” (referring to the verse in Qur’an, 2: 273).
لَيسَ عَلَيكَ هُداهُم وَلٰكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهدي مَن يَشاءُ ۗ وَما تُنفِقوا مِن خَيرٍ فَلِأَنفُسِكُم ۚ وَما تُنفِقونَ إِلَّا ابتِغاءَ وَجهِ اللَّهِ ۚ وَما تُنفِقوا مِن خَيرٍ يُوَفَّ إِلَيكُم وَأَنتُم لا تُظلَمونَ
لِلفُقَراءِ الَّذينَ أُحصِروا في سَبيلِ اللَّهِ لا يَستَطيعونَ ضَربًا فِي الأَرضِ يَحسَبُهُمُ الجاهِلُ أَغنِياءَ مِنَ التَّعَفُّفِ تَعرِفُهُم بِسيماهُم لا يَسأَلونَ النّاسَ إِلحافًا ۗ وَما تُنفِقوا مِن خَيرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَليمٌ
“You are not responsible for their guidance, but Allah guides whomever He wills. Whatever good you give away is to your own benefit, when you give desiring only the Face of Allah. Whatever good you give away will be repaid to you in full. You will not be wronged. It is for the poor who are held back in the Way of Allah, unable to travel in the land. The ignorant consider them rich because of their reticence. You will know them by their mark. They do not ask from people insistently. Whatever good you give away, Allah knows it.” Qur’an, 2: 272-273
