Al-Faatihah The Opener - Part 1
Name, Background, Teachings and Commentary
The Name and Background
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 Teachings and the Running Commentary
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,
All the grateful, appreciative praise[3]is
really for Allaah, the Lord of the universe.
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:
The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
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:
The Owner of the Day of Recompense.
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:
- Only He deserves our obedience, submission, slavery, servitude, worship and devotion;
and,
- Only He has the power, authority and means to respond to our needs, requests, supplications
and prayers.
Thus, we make a commitment:
Only You we serve as slaves and only You we call upon for help.
‘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,
Guide us to and keep us on the Straight Path
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,
the path of those whom You blessed,
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,
not those who attracted anger, nor the misguided.
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.
Foot Notes
[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.
ICTruth.info