Nine Words That Open the Sikh Scripture

The Mul Mantar, the Guru Granth Sahib's opening credal statement, begins the Sikh scripture with a sequence of names and qualities for the one God rather than with narrative or law. It names God as one, Ik Onkar, true name, creator, without fear, without enmity, timeless form, unborn, self existent, and known by the grace of the Guru. Each phrase adds a distinct quality to the description rather than repeating the previous one, building a composite statement of divine nature word by word before any other content of the scripture begins. Placed at the very start of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Mul Mantar functions as the text's own summary of its central theological claim, stated once in full at the opening and then referred to in shortened form throughout the rest of the scripture, so that later hymns can invoke the fuller statement without repeating every phrase. Guru Nanak is credited with composing the formula, and the Adi Granth's compilers preserved it as the fixed opening of the scripture across every later copy, a placement no subsequent editing of the text has altered, so that every printed and handwritten Guru Granth Sahib in circulation today opens with these same words in the same fixed order.