(His phrase) “fa yabhashu” means “he rushes.” In Ibn al-Athīr’s al-Nihāyah it is stated: “When a person looks at something, finds it pleasing, desires it, and hastens toward it, one says, ‘qad bahasha ilayhi.’”

71 – “Whenever food was brought near him he would say, ‘Bismillah.’ When he had finished he would say, ‘O Allah, You have fed, given drink, enriched, guided, and given life; so to Allah belongs all praise for what You have bestowed.’”

Ahmad (4/62; 5/375) and Abū Shaykh in The Character of the Prophet ﷺ (p. 238) narrated it through Bakr ibn ʿAmr, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Hubayrah al-Sabāʾī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr, who said that a man who had served the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for eight years told him that he used to hear the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, whenever food was brought near, utter the above invocation … I say: This chain is authentic; every narrator is trustworthy and figures in Muslim’s collection.

“Aqnayta” means “You granted possession of wealth and the like.”

This ḥadīth shows that the prescribed formula at the start of a meal is simply “Bismillah,” without any addition. All the sound reports on this topic, including this one, contain no extra wording, and I know of no authentic narration that does. Any addition is therefore an innovation (bidʿah) according to the jurists’ usage of the term. As for the blind imitators, their standard reply is well known: “Shu fiha?!”—“What’s wrong with it?!”

We answer: Everything is wrong with it, for it amounts to correcting the Wise Lawgiver, who has omitted nothing that draws us near to Allah without commanding and legislating it for us. Had that addition been sanctioned and harmless, he would have done it at least once. Is this addition anything other than like the practice of adding extra blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ by one who sneezes after