Recently I read an article about the Number 19 and its mysterious mention in the Qur'an. If it is true that this number provides a basis for the constructions of the Qur'an and if this can be proved by a computer study, it may be the ultimate proof to convince non-Muslims about the divine origin of the book. Kindly enlighten us on any studies undertaken in this regard,
There is no mysterious mention of the Number 19 in the Qur'an. It is mentioned in a clear verse which mentions that angels in charge of hell are 19. That verse is No. 30 Surah 74, entitled "Al Muddassir" or "The Cloaked One."
A few years back, many people were fascinated with a theory which stated that the Number has something special with regard to the Qur'anic construction. It mentions that certain letters always occur in the multiples of 19 throughout the Qur'an or throughout certain surahs. It also mentioned that the number or surahs in the Qur'an, which is 114, is 6 times of 19. I do not know that many people found it very interesting and repeated it in their social gatherings.
It is certainly important to ask whether this theory has any basis. If it had, you would have expected that the Qur'anic verse which mentioned this number would be verse No. 19 in a surah which again should be No. 19 or at least should have a number which is a multiple of 19. That is not the case. As I have already said, it is Verse 30 of Surah 74. Moreover, Surah 19, entitled Mary, has 98 verses, which is not a multiple of 19.
Again, the theory which makes a great deal of the claim that the phrase "Bismillah hir-Rahman er-Raheem," which translates as "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Beneficent," and which occurs at the beginning of every surah in the Qur'an with the exception of Surah 9 has 19 letters. But even this claim does not stand to careful scrutiny. It is true that the way this phrase is written in Arabic, it has 19 letters. But if you are to count the sounds of this phrase, you will find that the three definite articles which occur in this phrase have one letter each which is not pronounced, while two long vowels are not written. Since the Qur'an is the word of Allah, you would have expected Him to make both numbers 19, if the number was of any importance. But is it?
The Qur'an is a book which has no room for fanciful theories or arguments. This method of digital symmetry is nothing more than a ballyhoo which has no relevance to the subject matter of the Qur'an. The Qur'an has a message to tell us and only one number has anything to do with that message. The number is one and it relates to the Oneness of Allah.
Let me pose this question. What does it prove if this theory is right or wrong? Allah tells us in the Qur'an that there are 19 angels in charge of hell. What if this number does not tally with anything in the Qur'an? Does the Qur'an lose its relevance to our lives or to the sort of society which Allah wants us to build? It is true that some surahs have a number of verses which is the multiple of 19, but the majority of surahs do not conform to that rule. What does that prove? It only proves the irrelevance of Number 19. If it had, all surahs of the Qur'an would have varying numbers of verses which are divided by 19.
Moreover, there is nothing in the Qur'an or the Sunnah to tell us that the Number 19 is of any relevance. Would you imagine that if it had any relevance, Allah would have not told us about it or the Prophet, peace be upon him, would not have explained it? The fact that both the Qur'an and the Sunnah are quiet about it proves that to indulge in finding multiples of 19 occurring here and there is at best a useless arithmetic or mental exercise. The message of the Qur'an is not proved through how the "Q" sound occurs in a particular surah, simply because it starts with that letter, but in how this surah relates to human life, the fate of human beings and how they earn the pleasure of Allah and conduct a happy human life.
May I turn to another aspect of this question. The fuss that is made over it comes from suspicious sources. Perhaps we need to remember that the Number 19 is given some importance by the Bahais. They have a calendar of 19 months with each month having 19 days. They further make irrelevant assertions about this figure. You are perhaps aware that Bahaism started as a splinter group of Islam. Its founder claimed to be a new prophet, bring a new message. He concocted a book which is hardly intelligible to anyone who claims that his fabrications were revelations from Allah. He claimed first that he was endorsing the message of Islam, then he claimed to be a new prophet and messenger and he ultimately claimed to be the Lord Himself.
The history of the founder of Bahaism is a very suspicious one, full of intrigue and confirmed agency to powers known to be hostile to Islam. Indeed, they had close relations with the embassy of czarist Russia in Persia. Both the Russian ambassador and the British ambassador tried to help him when he was arrested and sentenced to death. Indeed, there was a plot by those embassies to try to save him. The man was not saved and was executed for his distortion of Islamic faith and for his lies and false claims against Allah.
As I have said, the Number 19 is given arbitrary importance by the Bahais. If you try to impose it on Islam, you may be unwittingly helping Bahais to establish some relation with Islam. They have already declared that they are not Muslims. To try to work out some association between Bahaism and Islam is certainly wrong. Let them do whatever they like with their faith; it has no relevance to our faith. If it has, we will be certainly the first to admit it. But it proves nothing to claim that something is of any particular relevance which it has none whatsoever.
• Numbers: Figure 786 vice Bismillah...
I used to write the figure 786 at the top of my correspondence as a substitute for ‘Bismillah hir-Rahman er-Raheem.’ I was recently told that this is not proper. Is that correct?
The number 786 is claimed by some people to be equivalent to the phrase you have mentioned which means ‘In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.’ Muslims are recommended to start any action of importance with this phrase. However, in order not to write the name of God or His attributes on a piece of paper which may be torn or thrown in the rubbish bin, they replaced it with this figure. The rely on a weird way of calculation, which assigns a number to each letter of the Arabic alphabet and add those up to reach the number 786 for the word Bismillah.
This is certainly absurd. No one ever feels that this figure or any other figure represents the inspiring meaning of the phrase. Besides, there is no evidence that such a method of replacing letters with figures is acceptable or desirable.