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The first soorah[1] of the Qur-aan is appropriately named Al-Faatihah, which means “The Opener” -- a discourse that opens the Book or introduces a subject matter. The full name of the soorah is Faatihatul-Kitaab, i.e. the opener of the Book. It can be called a preamble, preface or foreword. However, as will shortly be seen in the commentary, this unique opening by Allaah Subhaanahu Wa Ta'aala [2](SWT) for His Own book is much more than a preface as we know it. Unlike most other soorahs (chapters) whose names are just symbols to identify them, the name of this soorah describes the nature of its contents as well.
Al-Faatihah was revealed in the very early Makkan stage of the Islamic mission. It is a multi-purpose soorah that miraculously packs a tremendous amount of meanings from multiple perspectives in a nutshell of seven brief verses. The following paragraphs briefly describe its teachings, messages, roles and some of its features.
The person who sincerely reflects on the universal realities around him, his own life and means of sustenance and the arrangements that Allaah has made for the growth, nurturing, sustenance and survival of human life and all other forms of life on earth can’t help but marvel at the enormity and completeness of the amazing system of nature set up by the Lord and the Sustainer of the universe for this purpose. Amazingly, the creation and sustenance of life was planned even before the creation of the universe itself that was especially done in a manner and speed that made creation of celestial bodies possible. It remained a vital consideration for everything afterwards like the values of the four fundamental forces, the formation of red giant stars to manufacture carbon, the properties of atomic particles, the structure of space, the distance between celestial bodies, the balance between their gravitational force and centrifugal forces, the size of the earth, its distance from sun, its magnetic field, the properties of different layers of its atmosphere, the existence of mountains, light and its properties, water and its properties, etc. In short, everything in the universe has been precisely designed to enable and sustain life. Even the slightest of variations in any of the features, properties or values of the aforementioned things or in any of some 20 physical constants would have made life impossible. The more we look at it, the more overwhelming, amazing and astounding the whole arrangement is. It shows the care, compassion and kindness with which the whole arrangement has been designed and created only to sustain human life. At this realization, a feeling of heartfelt and sincere praise and appreciation fills the heart and moves the lips of the person to thank and praise his wonderful Master saying,
Being Rabb [4] means being the Lord, Master, Governor, Ruler, Provider, Guardian, and Sustainer – the One Who provides sustenance, arranges growth and development, takes care, promulgates laws, dictates policies and demands obedience. Because only He is the Creator and real Sustainer, only He is the Lord and Master. No human being can be, nor should he be deemed or regarded as a lord or master in any sense.
His Lordship with all of these meanings extends to ‘Aalameen -- the whole universe and every creation and every form of life within the universe. Every one of His creations benefits from His growth-promoting and life-sustaining systems. Thus He is:
Even those human beings who, while living in His Kingdom, disobey Him, do not recognize Him or do not appreciate His mercy, continue to benefit from His systems and resources. He does not deprive them of the sustenance or the results of their efforts. Logically, denial or disobedience of the Master, Lord and Sovereign should result in instant deprival of resources of Nature, but the Most Gracious Lord (Ar-Rahmaan) allows people to continue benefiting from His provisions despite people’s treason and insubordination. This also allows the rebels an opportunity to come back to loyalty and subordination, if they ever realize their mistake. For those who come back, He is the Most Merciful (Ar-Raheem) who forgives them and accepts them back. His mercy continues in the eternal life hereafter where His obedient slaves will be awarded the eternal bliss in the Gardens of Paradise. They will be bestowed far more than they deserve. Also, they will be rewarded: according to the best of their deeds, not their overall average behaviour; according to their intentions and attitude not the results they produced; and, according to the level of their sacrifice and sincerity, not the quantity of their contribution. For the victims of crimes and excesses of other people, another dimension of His mercy is the Day of Judgment when all victims will be fully and fairly compensated for all the abuses, excesses, injustices and exploitations they endured during their life in this world. That brings us to His being:
He is the Maalik -- the owner and master who will have complete authority and control without any interference – of the day of recompense that includes both reward and punishment. He being the sole Master on the day of reward and punishment, nobody else will be of any avail to anyone at that time. Only He will decide and judge the performance of people, without any interference, intercession or influence from anyone. It is important that no one else is able to interfere in His judgment because it is only He Who has the absolute wisdom and Who has the complete knowledge of every detail required for perfect justice -- including the individual circumstances of people, the motives behinds their actions, and the effects of the actions of people on others and on the society as a whole. Hence, it is only He who can judge with perfect justice to recompense every single soul fairly and equitably.
Naturally, as only He is the Lord and Sustainer and only He is the Owner of the day of recompense:
Thus, we make a commitment:
‘Ibaadah in Arabic means slavery. Slavery as we know implies complete obedience, doing exactly as commanded without questioning or without any option to disobey, 24 hours a day for the whole of one’s life. The concept of slavery is totally unjustified and absolutely abominable when it comes to a person being a slave of another person. Nobody wants to become a slave and no one should ever be. However, when it comes to our Creator and Sustainer, He is the real Lord and Master. For that reason, a sensible person feels happy and willing from the core of his heart to be a slave of Allaah and to serve Allaah like a slave. This happy, voluntary and willing slavery to Allaah SWT and enthusiastic submission and total surrender to His will is called ‘Ibaadah[5]. It is usually translated as worship or serving, but is much more comprehensive than performance of ritual acts of worship. It includes utmost humility, complete obedience, servitude and slavery (absolute submission) to Allaah SWT in every aspect of life throughout one’s life. It is a complete way of life encompassing every field of human endeavour wherein a person has to ensure that his thoughts, words, actions and deeds are in submission to the commands of Allaah, his Lord and Creator.
Once these fundamentals are clear in a thinking person’s mind, he feels the need to know how Allaah wants him to live. He recognizes that this is not something he can just think through and arrive at on his own or discover it in his laboratories. It can be specified only by the Lord Himself through revelations to some selected persons – the prophets and messengers. Human philosophers and theorists can come up with only guesswork and experimental theories, which the subsequent research often proves wrong. He does not want to be a test subject of those theories; he wants definite answers based on the infinite and eternal knowledge and wisdom of the Creator.
He is also cognizant of the difficulties of lifelong obedience where he will need frequent reminders and continuous help to stay on course. So the believer humbly requests,
Ihdinaa is translated as ‘guide us to’ or ‘show us’. However, the use of this verb without an Arabic adverb implies that the request is comprehensive in that it includes an eagerness for seeking the straight path, clarity of thinking about the straightness of the path itself, and help in staying on it continuously.
The straight path is the shortest and the most efficient course that takes you to your destination. The request is for a definite straight path of well-being according to the eternal knowledge of the All-Knowing and Absolutely-Wise Creator. Islam is and always has been the straight path taught by all prophets and messengers. It takes the believers towards the development of the best personality in this life, establishment of the best society in this world and the attainment of ultimate success in the Hereafter, straight to these goals without confusions, dilemmas, twists and turns along the way. As the believer wants to succeed in the service of Allaah and wants to earn his Lord’s approval, pleasure and reward, the path is further qualified,
This covers all blessings, bounties and rewards – the ones being talked about here are not the temporary successes of this world, but the permanent and sustainable rewards in the form of peace and tranquility in this world and the eternal bounties of the Hereafter. Soorah Nisaa [6] explains that people who are blessed and bestowed bounties include all the prophets and messengers of Islam[7] from Adam to Muhammad, their true and committed companions who testify to and stand up for the Truth of Islam in the toughest of circumstances, martyrs who gave their life in witnessing the Truth and righteous believers who obey Allaah and practise Islam to the highest level of excellence possible.
The next verse clarifies the point further by taking an exception to those people who incurred His wrath or were misguided. A believer also realizes that Islam is not a new religion. It was the only way of life that Allaah had prescribed for people to follow since the advent of Adam. Since that time people had fallen off the path time and again and were brought back by various prophets and messengers. So the believer needs to be on guard from falling into the same pitfalls and traps that earlier people fell into, which again is not easy without the help from Allaah SWT. Hence the believer further requests,
There is a clear difference between the two rejected groups. The first group is of those who are condemned with wrath and anger. They are the people who claim to know the teachings and what is expected of them but as a community are lax in their practice. Although there may be some individual cases of good behaviour or practice of personal teaching of Islam, collectively the requirements of Islam for the society as a whole are disregarded, ignored and forgotten. Even the personal practice is partial, consisting only of rituals rather than being mission-oriented. Even in the practice of rituals, their focus is the intricacies of the rules and regulations rather than the spirit of worship. When they are reminded about their true and full responsibilities, they reject or persecute those who remind them. A prime example of such people are the Israelites.
The second group is of those who spend all their energies in specifying and defining the concepts that are beyond human comprehension or in giving physical meanings to allegorical concepts. And in that attempt, they lose the way completely through their exaggerations, innovations and heresies. As a community they tend to practice their adulterated, heretical theologies, which unfortunately is not the religion of their Lord. The prime example of this group is the Christians who are following a religion not taught by Jesus, peace be upon him, but concocted with heresies and innovations by Paul and his followers.
In summary, soorah Faatihah represents the inner feelings of rightly thinking people. Allaah SWT Himself put the sentiments of the rightly thinking people in beautiful, concise words and taught them how to express their sentiments and desires to Him. In addition, this soorah also identifies indirectly the basic stimulus that brings people towards the worship of God. When people who are close to nature (who are uninfluenced by satanic thoughts, culture and civilization) consider the signs of the mercy of God in human physique and psyche and in the systems of nature, it induces a strong feeling of appreciation for the Creator. That feeling of gratitude leads people to the obedience of God and to a quest for finding how God wants us to live. The fear enters one’s thought process at a later stage in the form of worry lest we lose the path of God and, consequently His favours. The basic instinct that brings people to the worship of God remains the feeling of appreciation and gratitude.
[1] The Qur-aan is composed of 114 soorahs. Soorah is usually translated as “Chapter”. However, there is subtle difference between a soorah and a chapter: A chapter of a book is expected to have a topic or a title that describes chapter contents; while a soorah of the Qur-aan does not have such a distinct topic or descriptive title. The Qur-aan being a book of guidance, each soorah deals with multiple dimensions of guidance. The soorahs are thus a series of tracts of guidance that are mostly identified by symbolic names, not topics.
[2] This phrase means, “The Glorified and Exalted”. The mention of Allaah will usually be followed by this phrase or its abbreviation SWT.
[3] The Arabic word, Al-hamd, is usually translated as “the praise” or “all the praise”, which does not describe the nature of the praise. Al-hamdu signifies a praise that ensues from a heartfelt appreciation, gratitude and thankfulness for the bounties and favours of a superb benefactor. That is why a Muslim thanks Allaah SWT by saying “Al-hamdu lillaah” – all appreciative praise and gratitude is for Allaah.
[4] The Arabic used in the verse that is generally translated as Lord.
[5] The Islamic mission is to free people from the slavery of people and bring them to the slavery of the One and Only real Lord and Master.
[6] An-Nisaa 4:69
[7] All prophets and messengers including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David and Jesus were prophets of Islam. They all preached for and invited people to Islam.