OccurrenceIn the Qur'an, the phrase is usually numbered as the first verse of the first sura, but according to the view adopted by Al-Tabari, it precedes the first verse.

The practice of giving often-repeated phrases special names is paralleled by the phrase Allahu Akbar, which is referred to as the 'Takbir' (also Ta'awwudh, etc.) and the method of coining a quadriliteral name from the consonants of such a phrase is paralleled by the name 'Hamdala' for Alhamdulillah. This abstract consonantal root was used to derive the noun basmala, as well as related verb forms which mean 'to recite the basmala'. were taken as a quadriliteral consonantal root b-s-m-l (ب س م ل). The Basmala artistically rendered in the shape of a pearThe word 'basmala' itself was derived by a slightly unusual procedure in which the first four pronounced consonants of the phrase bismi-llāhi.