Explaining Ta’awwuz and Tasmiyah from a different perspective. How they help you gain Allah’s protection?

Muslims say Bismillah every time they start something. I was always forced to say these words whenever I even started eating my food. Despite how hungry I was, I had to say it. What it meant I never knew, precisely. They said it meant “I start in the name of Allah, Most Gracious Most Merciful” but never explained its effects. And if you forgot to say it before eating, everyone would start losing their minds.

Why?

I never got the answer until I was 23 years old. Subhan Allah.

I was studying the Arabic language from a person who had teachers from Mauritania. A very knowledgeable person, Masha ‘Allah.

“Bismillah,” he called out loudly in front of the class.

“Can anyone tell me its meaning?” He asked, smiling.

It was a very easy question. We all had the exact same answer.

“I start in the name of Allah, Most Gracious Most Merciful”

“How would you feel if I tell you that all of you are wrong?” he asked.

We laughed. Surely, he was joking.

But he wasn’t…

He pointed out that there was no word in Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem that could be translated as “I start”

Bi — Ism — Allah

He broke the word into three. Ism means Name. Allah means Allah. So, what does Bi mean?

Answering his own question and smiling at our bewildered faces he said, “Bi means using or utilizing”

With this, the entire meaning of Bismillah changed in my head.

I was totally blown away! All that time I was actually using Allah’s name who is Most Gracious and Most Merciful in everything I used to do and whenever I ate?

But what I was using it for?

I asked my teacher and he replied in just two words.

“For Protection”

But isn’t that what Tawuuz is for?

Aaa oo zu Billahi minnash shaitawnir rajeem

“I seek protection in Allah from shaitan, the rejected.”

You know where Ash Shaitan was rejected from?

I looked around.

There were many hands in the air and the most common answer was, “from Jannah”.

Our teacher was thoughtful this time.

Why would you think Shaitan was rejected from Jannah when it was our father Adam and our mother Eve who were taken out from there and sent to this world?

We had no answer to that.

There was absolute silence in the class. No one was moving even a muscle. Every last shred of our attention was towards our teacher.

“Shaitan”, he continued, “was rejected out of the Mercy of Allah, when he disobeyed just one command and here we disobey so many of His commands and we are still in His Mercy. Just one true tawbah washes away all sins. How much He loves us. How ungrateful are we all.”

There were tears in his eyes.

His voice croaked as he spoke. This is the same mercy we enter when we say Ta’awwuz. Think of it like having a modified invisibility cloak of Harry Potter around you (our teacher explains in ways that we understand). Modified because this cloak not only shields you from Ash Shaitan, it also fires lightning bolts at them whenever they try to attack or harm you.

The word “Rajeem” comes from “Rajam” and Rajam means to throw. Muslims throw stones at Shaitan during hajj and there is also a capital punishment of execution that goes by the same word. The occurrence of this word in Ta’awwuz signifies this.

SubhanAllah.

So what happens when we supplement Ta’awwuz with Tasmiyah?

Bismillah hir Rehman nir Raheem

Utilizing the name of Allah The Entirely Merciful The Especially Merciful .

You are entering the mercy of Allah, the protection of Allah, the same Ash Shaitan was expelled from and then you are using His names that signify His Merciful traits in the best possible manner to start your work. When you start anything good with this combination, Allah adds Barakah (Prosperity) in everything you do. Every good deed you do prospers. What more do you need to make everything you do an absolute success?

AllahoAkbar!

I felt goosebumps all over my body. Never had anyone explained Ta’awwuz and Tasmiyah to me like this before. I was overwhelmed by the favours that Allah has bestowed on us.

Fabi-Ayyi Ala-I Rabbikuma Tukazziban (Then which of the favours of your Lord will you deny)

If we get all this just by saying Ta’awwuz with Tasmiyah, which is not even scratching the surface of an unfathomable ocean of Allah’s mercy (The Quran), imagine what we will get if we read The Quran every day?

The benefits are infinite and so are the rewards!

Join me in reading Quran daily at QforQuran and lets benefit from the blessing of Allah that He has so graciously bestowed upon us.