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801 Can you please comment on why many consider the number 786 to be auspicious ... and what it's relevance is in Islam?
The number 786 represents "Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim". This is according to the Abjad letter-numeral system. In this method each letter has an arithmetic value assigned to it from one to one thousand.

This arrangement was done, most probably in the 3rd century of Hijrah during the 'Abbasid period. If you take the numeric values of all the letters of the Bismillah, according to the Abjad order, the total will be 786. In the Indian subcontinent the Abjad numerals became quite popular. Some people, mostly in India and Pakistan, use 786 as a substitute for Bismillah. They write this number to avoid writing the name of Allah or the Qur'anic ayah on ordinary papers.

The great contemporary Scholar Jibrael Haddad wrote that there is nothing wrong with this practice, though it is technically a Bid’ah. Adding that if there is fear of disrespect for the Bismillah, if written in full then it may be preferable to use the number 786 instead.

(Answered by: Alims at Islamic Centre, Leicester, UK.)
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