The Basmala in the Qur'an

Question: Is basmala considered a part of fatiha by the hanafi jurists? if one, inadvertently leaves it out, is sajda sahw required?

This question was dealt with by Shaykh al-Islam Abu al-Su`udin his masterly tafsir, Irshadal-`Aqlal-Saleem(famous as ‘TafsirAbu al-Su`ud’), which many consider to be the greatest and most eloquent tafsirof the Qur’anand gave its author the title of ‘Khatibal-Mufassirin’.

He said:

(In the Name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful) The imams differed concerning the basmala[‘Bimsillahal-Rahmanal-Rahim’] at the beginning of the noble suras. Some said it is not from the Qur’anat all, this being the stand of IbnMas`ud(Allah be pleased with him), and the position of Malik, and the famous position of early Hanafi scholars, and upon it as the Qur’anrecitersof Madina, Basra , and Sham. Others said that it is a single verse of the Qur’anthat was revealed to separate [between suras] and to seek baraka[by beginning in the name of Allah], this being the correct position of the Hanafi school…” [1: 8]

Imam ZafarAhmad Usmani explained, in his Ahkamal-Qur’an[1: 5-6]:

“(The Ruling of Saying The BasmalaBefore the FatihaAccording  to Abu Hanifa)

The transmission differed from Abu Hanifa(Allah have mercy on him) regarding this. According to the famous narration (zahiral-riwaya)[1], it is a confirmed sunna…

Fakhral-Din al-Razispoke at length on this issue, and presented sixteen arguments to prove that the basmalais a verse of the Fatiha. None of these arguments amount to much, however, because some of the arguments are easily answered and others do not negate our position, because the correct position of our school is that the basmalais a single, separate verse of the Qur’an, even though it is not from the Fatihaitself… And the author of Ruhal-Ma`ani[the great 19<sup>th</sup> Century tafsirin 30 volumes by Imam al-Alusiof Baghdad] answered every argument of Fakhral-Din in detail, so whoever seeks a detailed answer should look there or in I`la’ al-Sunan[the 21-volume work on the hadithproofs of the Hanafi school, by the author].”

Therefore, given that the basmalais not necessary (wajib) but a confirmed sunna, one does not perform forgetfulness prostrations for leaving it out, because these are only required if one leaves a necessary (wajib) act. [Maraqi, Hashiya]

And Allah knows best.

Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani.

[1] Zahiral-Riwaya (‘Famous narrations’) denotes the positions of our 3 imams (Abu Hanifa, Abu Yusuf, and Muhammad ibnal-Hasan) that were transmitted in the 6 most famous works of Imam Muhammad, all of which were made famous by the large number of students who transmitted them.