Sūrah al-Fātiḥah
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Overview
Sūrah al-Fātiḥah is a Makkan sūrah with 7 āyāt. The word fātiḥah means ‘opener’, and is the well-known title of this sūrah due to it being the opening chapter of the Qur’an. It is simultaneously the introduction of the Qur’an as well as its summary. It is the greatest sūrah to be revealed. At its heart, Sūrah al-Fātiḥah is a supplication—a duʿā. We call upon our creator and sustainer, praising and exalting His majestic sovereignty and divine sublimity. We invoke Him via two of His most venerable and endearing names: al-Raḥmān and al-Raḥīm. We acknowledge the Day of Recompense, and that His is the court where all debts will be settled. In the centre of the sūrah, we recite the āyah that summarises our reason for being: “It is You whom we worship, and it is You we ask for help.” We thereafter beseech Him for guidance towards and steadfastness upon the straight path, recognising that it is traversed not by the intellectually superior or particularly shrewd—whomever He blesses is guided. We finally seek refuge in Him lest we be among those who have incurred divine anger or those who have gone astray.
Context
The Prophet ﷺ was given the best of revelations, the Qur’an, and the best of the Qur’an is Sūrah al-Fātiḥah. It is relayed that Ubayy ibn Kaʿb recited this sūrah to the Prophet ﷺ, upon which he ﷺ said: “By the One in whose hand is my soul, Allah has not revealed anything like it in the Tawrāh, the Injīl, or the Zabūr. It is the Seven Repeated Ones (al-Sabʿ al-Mathānī) and the Great Qur’an (al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm).” ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib is reported to have said that Sūrah al-Fātiḥah came to Makkah from a treasure below the Throne. Furthermore, prayer is a pillar of Islam, and Sūrah al-Fātiḥah is a pillar of the prayer. It is an inseparable part of every Muslim’s life.”
Themes
Sūrah al-Fātiḥah teaches us our place and purpose in the world. It teaches us who Allah is, and consequently who we necessarily must be in relation to Him: devoted and submissive servants who rely upon Him in all their affairs and seek His aid in every endeavour.
Unique Features
- From a ḥadīth qudsī, Allah has divided the prayer into two sections:
- The first part is praise of Allah.
- The second is a supplication.
- It has many titles:
- al-Fātiḥah — The Opener
- al-Kāfiyah — The Sufficer
- al-Shāfiyah — The Cure
- al-Rāqiyah — The Exorciser
- Umm al-Kitāb — The Mother of the Book
- al-Sabʿ al-Mathānī — The Seven Repeated Ones
- al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm — The Great Qur’an
Lessons
1. Sūrah al-Fātiḥah has two mentions of Allah’s names al-Raḥmān and al-Raḥīm. It begins with:
2. Praise is at the core of Islam. Adoration of the Almighty and being in awe of Him is what constitutes all sound worship. The word ḥamd is not simply to give thanks—that is shukr. Ḥamd is instead an amalgam of admiration and reverence. In other words, ḥamd is to be entranced by the indescribable beauty of the Divine as well as completely awestruck at His overwhelming majesty. Thus, in happiness and in sadness, during expansion and constriction, at every single moment: al-ḥamdu lillāh!
3. Allah guides whom He wills. We must appreciate it is He and He alone who gives His chosen slaves His special grace of tawfīq to do all that is good and noble.
4. The path marks the man, not vice versa. Allah teaches us to say: “Guide us to the straight path, the path of those You have blessed.” Not: “Guide us to the path of those You have blessed, the straight path.” The truth is the truth even if all mankind follows falsehood.
5. The two groups rebuked at the end—al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim and al-ḍāllīn—are understood to be the Jews and the Christians respectively. But the reference is deeper than that. Among other things, the dichotomy is between knowledge without action and action without knowledge. Allah has made us a middle, moderate nation: a community of action guided by correct knowledge.
Virtues and Valuable Information
1. It is said that all revelation is perfected in the Qur’an, and the Qur’an’s core11 themes are found in Sūrah al-Baqarah, and the latter is an explanation of Sūrah al-Fātiḥah, and Sūrah al-Fātiḥah is atomised in: