Welcome
Wonders

You know,

it's hard to find words we can use for things

that don't fit into our normal understanding of our life experience,

things that go against how we think the world works.

We call them miracles

if we believe they are manifestations of a higher power,

or call them magic

if we prefer to suggest that they are somehow

powers available to humans,

which can be used for mischief and misdirection,

or fraudulent claims to such

through prestidigitation and illusion.

Strangely, as opposed to magic,

the word magical

is not usually seen as pejorative,

even by the most materialistic of scientists

when trying to describe the wonders of creation.

The sense of wonder is unavoidable

when facing the creation,

but is it not better to see through the creation

and wonder at the power and glory

of the One that created it,

and the One that can change it at will.

God could make the fire cool for Abraham,

part the waters of the sea for Moses,

and perform all kinds of miracles for Jesus.

These are not fairy tales

invented for some unknown reason

in the dawn of human history,

but recordings of events,

occasions when the Creator intervened in human history,

the memory of which was zealously preserved.

Those times when the Creator Self-revealed

as a reminder and guide for humankind.

The Qur'an mentions these revelations

along with many others,

and gives witness as to their veracity,

which may have been more than enough for those

who were experiencing the miraculous nature of the Qur'an directly,

but how can the Qur'an confirm these wondrous events

now that it too has become an event

that many recognise only as some kind of fairy tale.

Unless it had some kind of built-in confirmation of its source,

perhaps like a complex mathematical pattern

running through the words and letters.

The number nineteen has a certain clear connection to the bismillah and the surahs,

Most people agree that the bismillah itself is made up of nineteen letters,

and the number of Suras in the Qur'an is 114,

neatly divisible by that same number 19*6

So with one bismillah at the start of each Sura that would be the same,

but there is no bismillah at the start of Sura 9.

Yet lo and behold, 19 suras later,

as part of Surah 27, the Ant,

there is one singular bismillah

that turns up in the middle of the sura,

conveniently bringing the number up to 114

6*19 again

But of course you can't see any patterns until

you pay a little more attention.

There are a few other ways in which the words of the bismillah

form patterns of 19 that might impress you.

Let's start at the beginning, with the "ism"

a word that appears in the Qur'an a total of 19 times,

matching the number of letters in the bismillah 19*1

followed by "Allah"

that appears 2698 times 19*142

and "Rahman" that appears 57 times 19*3

These are completed by "Rahim"

which appears 114 times 6*19

matching the total number of Suras

Isn't that incredibly beautiful?

So simple, yet so unlikely.

Three Names for God, all linked to 19,

yet of all the other Names

only one more does so,

Shahid, the Witness,

that appears exactly 19 times.

Now this little bismillah numerical jewel

may be delightful, but it is still only operating on the level of words

and there are other ways the Qur'an can beguile us.

In fact

what really starts to drop the jaw and take the breath away

is when we look to see what patterns

we can find down at the level of the letters,

and especially the patterns displayed

in relation to those mysterious letters at the start of so many suras,

the individual letters known as the Muqatt'at,

The Magic of the Muqatt'at