The Missing Basmalah

Every sura in the Quran opens with the statement “In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful,” known as the Basmalah, with the exception of Sura 9. This conspicuous absence of the Basmalah from Sura 9 has been an intriguing feature of the Quran for 14 centuries. Many theories have been advanced to explain this phenomenon.

Now we learn that the missing Basmalahplays a significant role as (1) a significant constituent of the Quran's mathematical miracle, and (2) a glaring sign from the Most Gracious that Sura 9 has been tampered with and must be purified (Appendix 24). Both roles were revealed with the discovery of the Quran's mathematical code.

[1] Since the Basmalahconsists of 19 Arabic letters, and prefixes all the suras except one, it can be considered the foundation of the Quran's 19-based code. The absence of the Basmalah from Sura 9 causes the number of this crucial opening statement to be 113, which does not conform with the code. However, this deficiency is compensated for in Sura 27, where two Basmalahs occur — one as an opener and one in Verse 30. This restores the total number of Basmalahs in the Quran to 114 = 19×6.

[2] From the missing Basmalah of Sura 9 to the extra Basmalah of Sura 27, there are exactly 19 suras.

[3] The sum of sura numbers from the missing Basmalah (Sura 9) to the extra Basmalah(Sura 27) is 9+10+11+…+27 = 342 = 19×18. This equals the number of words from the first Basmalah of Sura 27 to the second Basmalah in 27:30.

[4] The occurrence of the extra Basmalah in 27:30 conforms with the Quran's code: the sura number plus the verse number is a multiple of 19 (27+30 = 57 = 19×3).

[5] The occurrence of the extra Basmalah in Verse 30 compares with the occurrence of the number 19 itself in Verse 30 of Sura 74.

[6] The Quran contains 6234 numbered verses. The absence of the Basmalah from Sura 9, and its compensation in Verse 30 of Sura 27, gives us two numbered Basmalahs (1:1 & 27:30) and 112 un-numbered Basmalahs. The total number of verses becomes 6234+112 = 6346 = 19×334.

[7] From the missing Basmalah to the extra Basmalah, the number of verses containing the word “Allah” is 513 = 19×27. Note that 27 is the sura number where the extra Basmalah occurs (Table 1).

[8] The sum of verse numbers (1+2+3+…+n), plus the number of verses, from the missing Basmalah to the extra Basmalahis 119,624 = 19×6296 (Table 2).

[9] This item also proves that Sura 9 consists of 127 verses, not 129 (see Appendix 24). The sum of digits of 127 is 1+2+7=10. By finding all the verses whose digits add up to 10, from the missing Basmalah of Sura 9 to the extra Basmalah of Sura 27, then adding the number of these verses to the total number of verses from the missing Basmalah to the extra Basmalah, we get 2128 = 19×112 (Table 3).

[10] Sura 9 is an odd-numbered sura whose number of verses (127) is also odd. From the missing Basmalah to the extra Basmalah, there are 7 suras that possess this property: Suras 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 25, and 27. By adding the digits that make up the sura numbers and the numbers of verses, the grand total is 114 = 19×6 (Table 4).

[11] If we take the same suras listed in Table 4 and write down the number of every sura, followed by its number of verses, the resulting long number (30 digits) is a multiple of 19:

[12] If we write down the number of every sura, followed by the last digit in every verse in that sura, we end up with a long number of 1988 digits which is divisible by 19.