Meaning of 786

Question:

aslamalaykum shaykh hisham

what is the meaning behind the numbers 786, some people say these numbers represent Bismillaharahmanaraheem

Answer:

wa `alaykum salam,

The value 786 represents Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem because it is the sum of the abjad values of the letters composing this holy phrase. The abjad numerals are a decimal numeral system in which the letters of the Arabic alphabet are assigned numerical values. These values are ancient and are used in numerology.

Some may say this knowledge does not exist in Islam. We therefore refer them to the following hadith:

The Jews of Medina went to the Prophet (s) and said, “Your Quran is initialed with alif lam mim, and these initials determine the lifespan of your religion. Since ‘alif‘ is 1, ‘lam‘ is 30, and ‘mim‘ is 40, this means that your religion will survive only 71 years.” Sayyidina Muhammad said, “We also have alif lam mim sad.” They said, “The ‘alif‘ is 1, the ‘lam‘ is 30, the ‘mim‘ is 40, and the ‘sad‘ is 90. This adds up to 161. Do you have anything else?” The Prophet said, “Yes, alif lam mim ra.” They said, “This is longer and heavier; the ‘alif‘ is 1, the ‘lam‘ is 30, ‘mim‘ is 40, and ‘ra‘ is 200, making the total 271.” They finally gave up, saying, “We do not know how many of these initials he was given!” (Al-Suyuti’s Itqan)

Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem has a numeric value of 786 from a letter-by-letter sum: of 2+60+40+1+30+30+5+1+30+200+8+40+50+1+30+200+8+10+40.

Taher Siddiqui