إِنَّهُۥ مِن سُلَيْمَٰنَ وَإِنَّهُۥ بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Commentary:
Some Christian orientalists, as is their wont, have vainly sought to impugn the Divine origin of the Quran by trying to show that the expression Bismillah has been borrowed from earlier Scriptures. Wherry in his "commentary" says that it has been borrowed from Zend-Avesta.
Sale has expressed an identical view, while Rodwell is of the opinion that Pre-Islamic Arabs borrowed it from Jews and subsequently it was incorporated in the Quran by the Holy Prophet. To say that because this expression was to be found in some former Scriptures, therefore it must have necessarily been borrowed from one of them by the Quran does not stand to reason. According to Muslim belief Prophets were raised among every people (35:25) and those Prophets like the Holy Prophet of Islam also received Divine revelation and therefore there can be, and there actually are to be, found in the Quran expressions of identical import with those in other Divine Scriptures. This fact, if anything, only proves that the Quran has originated from the same Source from which those Scriptures had originated. In the verse under comment the expression Bismillah is shown to have been used by Prophet Solomon. So there can be no question of its being borrowed or plagiarized by the Quran. What the Quran claims is only this that no other Scripture has used this expression in the form and manner in which it has done. And the charge is also belied by facts of history that the Holy Prophet took this expression from pre-Islamic Arabs. The Arabs had never used it before it was revealed in the Quran. On the contrary, they had a special aversion for the use of the Divine attribute Ar-Rahman (25:61) which forms an integral part of Bismillah. See also 1:1.
Some Christian orientalists, as is their practise, have vainly sought to impugn the Divine origin of the Qur’an by trying to show that the expression Bismillah has been borrowed from earlier Scriptures. Wherry in his "Commentary" says that it has been borrowed from Zend-Avesta. Sale has expressed an identical view, while Rodwell is of the opinion that pre-Islamic Arabs borrowed it from Jews and subsequently it was incorporated in the Qur’an by the Holy Prophet. To say that because this expression is found in some former Scriptures, therefore it must have necessarily been borrowed from one of them by the Qur’an is evidently a flimsy inference. If anything, it only proves that the Qur’an has originated from the same Source from which those Scriptures had originated. Moreover, no other Scripture has used this expression in the form and manner in which the Qur’an has done. Also, the pre-Islamic Arabs had never used it before it was revealed in the Qur’an. On the contrary, they had a special