Basmala

Basmala (Arabic بسملة) is an Arabic language noun which is used as the collective name of the whole of the recurring Islamic phrase bismi-llāhi ar-raḥmāni ar-raḥīmi.

This phrase constitutes the first verse of every “Sura” (or chapter) of the Qur’an (but one), and is used in a number of contexts by Muslims. It is recited several times as part of Muslim daily prayers, and it is usually the first phrase in the preamble of the constitutions of Islamic countries.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
bismi-llāhi ar-raḥmāni ar-raḥīmi
“In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful”

The Basmala is encoded as a ligature at Unicode codepoint U+FDFD

Alternative Christian meaning: Arabic-speaking Christians sometimes use the word Basmala (Arabic: بسملة‎) to refer to the Christian liturgical formula “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (باسم الآب والابن والروح القدس, bismi-l-’abi wa-l-ibni wa-r-rūḥi l-qudusi), from Matthew 28:19.