In the name of Allah, Al rahman, Al rahim

This attempt is inspired by my teacher, Nouman Ali Khan. The aim is to spot the nuances, show the perfection of word choice and understand the coherence of the Quranic literature.

The Quran is regarded by muslims across the world as the literal word of God (From now on, I will use Allah). For muslims, it is the ultimate miracle to humanity. It is sometimes difficult to appreciate how incredible this book is, without an understanding of ancient Arabic. Attempts at translations often fail to capture the brilliance of this book and its coherence (may Allah bless the translators for their intentions). After my limited study of this book; I came to the realization and understanding as to why Allah chose the Arabic language to convey his message and why the Quran is impossible to fully translate. The Quran is the Quran only in Arabic. You can not fully translate the depth of the words of Allah.

This is aimed at bringing the Quran to the English speaker so they can share in the stunning journey; the Quran takes its readers through….

There are a few Arabic words, I will use often because there are really no English equivalents…
i. Allah
ii. Sura ( usually translated as chapter but that is inadequate to describe a sura)
iii. Ayah (usually translated as verse also inadequate)

I will also use transliteration of the ayah:

The Quran has 114 Surahs, all but one starts “In the name of Allah, Al Rahman, Al Rahim”. We will not discuss this start; it will take a lot of time so we will start from the ayah after it.

At the end of each surah, From time to time, we will share incredible gems in the structure of a surah…

The discussion of an ayah or a group of ayahs could be lengthy so i would post every couple of days to give people the time to read through and follow the journey.

May Allah make it a successful attempt and purify our intentions…

Surah Fatiha (The Opening)

This is first Surah to be revealed in the complete form....

Allah introduces Himself in Al faitiha and defines his relationship with us in this Surah. The focus is mainly on that relationship between Allah and people (man and Jinn) and it carries[b] a theme of balance[/b], keep this in mind.

At the end of this surah, we will share some incredible literary features-

Ayah 1:

Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena

Usually translated as: (pickthal)
Praise be to Allah, lord of the worlds…

This translation fails to capture fully what this ayah truly means. We will divide the ayah into its constituents so we can truly understand it…

i. Al hamd
ii. lillahi
ii. Alhamdulilah
iii. Rabb
iv. Alamin
v. Alhamdulilah rabbil Alamin

Al hamd

Al hamd means two things, praise and gratitude. It fuses the meanings together.

The Arabic word for praise is Al madh

The Arabic word for thanks/gratitude is shukran

AlHamd fuses the praise with gratitude,

But praise and gratitude are two very different things, aren’t they?

If i see a beautiful house, i praise it but i do not thank it

Gratitude is applied when someone helps you with something; there is an example in the Quran:

Ibrahim’s (Abraham) father was the CEO of shirk incorporated, He used to make idols for the pagans at the time of Ibrahim, Now Ibrahim cannot praise his father but he can thank him for raising him up.. Like the Quran says (roughly translated):

We have commanded people to be good to their parents: their mothers carried them, with strain upon strain, and it takes two years to wean them. Give thanks to Me and to your parents– all will return to Me. (Surah 31:14)

So clearly Praise and gratitude are two different things

I will share my (and that of Nouman) translation of alhamdulilah even though it is still poor and inadequate (we will see why)

Alhamdulilah

Praise and gratitude are for Allah

But there is more to it, Allah could have said

Almadh wa shukru lilah

Which can also be translated as

Praise and gratitude are for Allah

So why Alhamdulilah? We will start from the simpler reasons

1. Al hamd gets the message across quicker

2. When you put ‘wa’ between two words in the Arabic language, you mean ‘and’. ‘And’ indicates two separate things e.g milk and cookies, bola and simbi. It could indicate one or the other.

Al hamd is the only word that makes them (praise and gratitude) together and the same all the time.

There are deeper reasons though..

3. Al madh as praise can be used for both sincere purposes and insincere purposes

For Instance: Police stop you and your papers are not complete. You start praising police so that he doesn’t ask for papers… That praise is insincere and can be called al madh.

Another example, you praise your oga’s tie or shoes at work, that could be sincere or most likely insincere, This is al madh..

Also, Al madh can be used for both living and non-living things.

Al hamd on the other hand must be for a sincere reason and can only be applied to the living.


4. Shukran- This is gratitude for something that has been done for you.

Al hamd is independent of whether anything was done for you.

This is what makes Al hamd unique but there is more…..

So Alhamdulilah – (Sincere ) Praise and gratitude(independent of any favour) are for Allah

But that’s not all

Ayah 1 (contd):

So Why didn’t Allah say:

i. Praise Allah – a command
or
ii. We praise Allah – An action word.

i. Praise Allah is a command and as with every command it needs someone who responds to it.. It is either the person obeys it or disobeys it.

Allah says: Praise and gratitude are for Allah…

so whether you praise Him or not, the praise belongs to Him, whether you thank him or not, the gratitude belongs to him. It is independent of you, whether you do it or not, It changes nothing. The ball is not in your court.

ii. If Allah says ‘ We praise Allah”… It will mean in this case that 'praise' is a verb… What do we know about verbs?

Verbs are different from nouns:

a. Verbs have – Present tense
Past tense
Future tense

Nouns are independent of Time
Verbs are time dependent.

So if the Ayah said: We praise Allah
This action is only in the present tense…

If it was: We praised Allah
This action is only in the past tense…

Praise and Gratitude are for Allah is independent of time. It is permanent.

b. A verb needs a subject

We praise Allah depends on ‘We’
I praise Allah depends on ‘I’

The praise of Allah is permanent and does not need anyone.

Alhamdulilah means that everything Allah does, he deserves to be praised, not only praised but also thanked for it.

No matter what happens in our life, Praise and thanks are for Allah. I lose my keys, Alhamdulilah, I lose a loved one, alhamdulilah, I lose a job. Alhamdulialah… It does not depend on you, it is permanent.

The first thing, you have to feel as a believer is gratitude, If you do not have appreciation and gratitude, forget about guidance. Biggest problem with people who lose faith and faithless people is that they cannot get themselves to be grateful. If you complain a lot, it means you are not grateful enough.

If you can’t get past Al hamd forget about guidance.

Allah has not even told us his name before al hamd..

Ayah 1 (contd):

lillahi

So Allah does not use any of his other names; He used Allah

1. Fatiha is an introduction to the rest of the Quran and to Allah Himself, Allah introduces himself in the beginning the more appropriate thing is to introduce yourself is with your Name not your title.

EX: Imagine going for an interview and introducing yourself as Engineer;

Tbaba1234 : Hi interviewer, I am Engineer, It is ambiguous and needs further clarification.

An Example from the Quran: The sorcerers after seeing Moses staff swallow their ropes said, ‘We believe in the Lord of the Worlds ; (reference: Surah 7:120)

This statement is ambiguous, Pharoah regarded himself as lord and the sun as lord…. There was need for clarification. In the next ayah, they say: the Lord of Moses and Aaron!’

The use of Allah is the appropriate introduction and it leaves no room for ambiguity.

2. If one of the attributes is selected, then you are only praising Allah for that attribute.

For Instance: Praise and Gratitude belongs to the all wise… In this case We are only thanking Allah for the attribute of wisdom..

Only ‘Allah’ encompasses all the attributes

Alhamdulillah

There’s more

Allah could have said

Lilahi al Hamd : To Allah, praise and gratitude belongs

Or

Inna Alhamdulilah : Surely, Praise and Gratitude belongs to Allah..

So why not?

Lilahi al Hamd : This is an unnatural way of expressing this in the Arabic language,
It is like saying : “You, i love” instead of ” I love you”…

It is only applied in special circumstances for exclusivity. Like to say ‘only’ …

It means to Allah(only), praise and gratitude belongs (and it does not belong to anybody else)…

Allah uses Lillah al hamd at the end of Surah 45, where he says (rough translation): (often lost in many translations)

So to Allah(only), praise and gratitude belongs (and it does not belong to anybody else), Lord of the heavens and earth, Lord of the worlds. (Surah 45: 36)

The whole surah 45 talks of people who associate partners with Allah, those who worship idols. They acknowledge and praise Allah but they also praise their idols… This term is appropriate for those who shirk, they already recognise ‘alhamdulilah’ because they praise Allah ….so tell them lilah al hamd is more appropriate to clarify things.

Surah 45 is a debate, Surah fatiha is not… In Introducing himself Allah does not want you to think about anyone else….

Alhamdulilah is the natural way and it is not a debate….

So why not Inna Alhamdulilah?

In Arabic, there are two kinds of statements,

i. Informational Statements ( passing only information)
ii. Emotional Statements (spoken with some emotional content)

Alhamdulilah can be applied as both an informational and Emotional statement

For instance: I am teaching an Islamic class about alhamdulilah, In that case, It is informational, If I go to the road and nearly get hit by a bus and i said Alhamdulilah… It is emotional…

Inna Alhamdulilah is applied only in informational statements.The fact that Inna was not applied means it can be applied both informational and Emotionallly.Inna Alhamdulilah is used to convince someone …

Alhamdulilah is applicable for both informational and Emotional statements and it is not up for debate. That Praise and gratitude belong s to Allah is not up for debate.

So Alhamdulilah (rough translation) – (Sincere & permanent ) Praise and gratitude(independent of any favour and anyone) are for Allah.. (by the way, it is not up for debate)

It still doesn't convey everything... The more you add, the more seems to go missing

Ayah 1 (contd):

Rabb

Rabb – Owner
The one in Charge
The Caretaker
The giver of gifts
The one that makes sure, something stays Alive , Let’s call it Maintainer

These are secondary meaning of Rabb…

The primary meaning is Master and it incorporates the other attributes.

If Allah Calls Himself

Master- It means We are Slaves
Owner – It means we are property
The one in charge- It means we are under authority
Caretaker- It means we are the one being taken care of
The giver of gifts – It means we are the receivers of gifts
The one keeping alive - The one being kept a

The word ‘Rabb’ is the definition of our relationship with Allah, After al hamd belongs to Allah, he tells us who He is to us.

The Summary of the whole Quran is : Accept Allah as master, Accept yourself as slave… That is the whole Quran.

If you haven’t understood that, you have not understood any of the Quran. Everything you own is a gift… A muslim is always grateful, he recognizes that everything is owned by Allah, he does not despair in loss because he recognizes it was a gift… He is thankful and grateful for all the gifts given to him always…

EX
The typical human behavior can be summed up in the behavior of child. Imagine a kid asking you for ice-cream… You tell him that he can only have a few scoops… When you come back to collect it, the child says : MINE

My house, my shoe, my car, my watch... We are so accustomed to Mine, mine, mine and forget that it is a gift and that Al hamd always belongs to Allah, the master.

This is the problem with many who adopt atheism and agnosticism, the fact that they cannot accept the fact that they have a master and he has authority over them.

Why does God do this?,
Why does God do that?

Does a slave ever question a master? Who has the right to question? The master is the one to ask the questions…
The rest of the Quran is based on this relationship.

Master/owner
A simple Illustration:

you and I own things too, Imagine your PC giving you the ‘blue screen of death’. It keeps doing that , until one day you decide to kick it. And a ‘ PC rights activist’ comes to you and says ‘ You shouldn’t do that’.

What is your response? It is mine; I will do whatever i want with it.

It is yours, you can do whatever you want with it especially if it doesn’t behave the way, you want it to.. You get mad at the things you own when they do not do what we want them to do …

Allah is our master, so by definition from our experience of what we do to things we own, Allah should do that to us, when we misbehave... But does He?

No… Emm, this is a different kind of master,

All slaves from our experience with slavery, do they love their master? Mostly not genuinely.

But Allah already told us that he is deserving of genuine thanks and praise, then he told us that he is a master…

In other words, there is no other master like this master..

No other master get praised all the time, No other gets appreciation all the time, No other master lets you keep going all the time…

Masters by definition, At the worst case, they will punish… Best case, they will stop giving you gifts…

Allah keeps giving gifts all the time.

A master has a right to give you instructions all the time…. You are a slave all the time… You are a slave when you update your Facebook status, you are a slave when you go to the night-clubs, you are a slave when you go to the movies…

When does a slave start misbehaving? When the master is not around….

When do we start misbehaving? When we stop remembering that Allah is master….

The owner and the one in charge

We own cars but we are not completely in charge of our cars…. We need to get insurance and licenses to drive it around, speed limits etc… So the fact that we own something does not mean we are in charge of it.

Caretaker

We own things but we do not take care of… The fact that we own it does not guarantee, we take care of it.

The giver of gifts

We keep getting gifts even when we misbehave unlike any other master..

This is a different kind of master, he owns us and is in complete authority, he takes care of us and he keeps giving us gift..

Ayah 1 (contd):

alAAalameena

Usually, translated as worlds… This is incorrect, The Arabic word for worlds is alawalim

alaalameen is used for ‘people’, whether angels, man , Jinn or whatever…. When Allah says this, he is not talking of the skies, the ocean, the earth, the universe, the galaxy, the oceans… None of that…. He uses samawatin wal arida (heavens and earth) when talking of them.

alaalameen means worlds of people, nations of people, tribes of people, ethnicities of people,species of people (angels, jinns, Man …), generations of people.

This clarification is important because this surah is taking about a particular relationship between master and slave (Jinn/man)… No word in this surah goes outside that relationship. It is all focused on that relationship.

Everything is perfectly placed. The Surah is not about the skies and the moon... It is not about the rest of the universe.

It is about Us and Allah.

Allah call himself master of all nations, meaning we are all slaves… And if we are all slaves, we have the same job description. If we all have the same job description, no race is better than the other…. We are all slaves, and we can’t even talk of being better or worse. Only the master has the right to be praised.

So no nation can say, I am the best or better than the other. rabbi alAAalameena kills nationalism, tribalism, racism. It kills the conversation on colour of skin, background… Just with the use of the word alAAalameena

That is the consequences of Islam, the end of racism and nationalism.. No human is superior to another, no race is superior, no nation is superior. We are all slaves

End of Ayah 1

It is pretty long but fatiha is a very indepth surah so please be patient...

Please leave a comment InshAllah,

Assalam Aleikum...

Without doubts, there is a great difference between learning the Qur'an and the pondering over its meaning. The later is what Allah always calls us to, but we hardly find time to sit and ponder over this miracle of miracles.
Brother, may Allah reward you abundantly for your efforts in bringinging out the truth of the message of islam amin.
I once heard or read sometimes ago that the more you dig deep into the Qur'an, the more you find new things that blows your mind and subdues you. I have found that to be true, thus dispels my thought that the past shuyuk of the deen have done more than enough in terms of almost all branches of knowledge in islam.
"aalameen" some translators use the universe to depict the meaning and i so much tend to agree with them cos it encompasses everything living and non-living...i would say, this goes to show that Allah is the master of all that exist, what we know of and what we dont. Since 'alam is the word used, and from the root word "'alima" which means to know, we can extend it to convey all that exist within which only Allah knows.
Indeed, surah fatha is deep, may Allah preserve our lives as i look forward to subsequent posts Inshallah.

sino: Without doubts, there is a great difference between learning the Qur'an and the pondering over its meaning. The later is what Allah always calls us to, but we hardly find time to sit and ponder over this miracle of miracles.
Brother, may Allah reward you abundantly for your efforts in bringinging out the truth of the message of islam amin.
I once heard or read sometimes ago that the more you dig deep into the Qur'an, the more you find new things that blows your mind and subdues you. I have found that to be true, thus dispels my thought that the past shuyuk of the deen have done more than enough in terms of almost all branches of knowledge in islam.
"aalameen" some translators use the universe to depict the meaning and i so much tend to agree with them cos it encompasses everything living and non-living...i would say, this goes to show that Allah is the master of all that exist, what we know of and what we dont. Since 'alam is the word used, and from the root word "'alima" which means to know, we can extend it to convey all that exist within which only Allah knows.
Indeed, surah fatha is deep, may Allah preserve our lives as i look forward to subsequent posts Inshallah.

The use of 'een" in 'aalameen' means it can only refer to 'people'(man, angels, jinns and whatever else).... the theme of the surah is about a particular relationship it doesn't go beyond that relationship.... worlds/ nations of 'people' would be more appropriate. Nouman disagrees very strongly with the 'worlds' translation. Allahu alim

JazakAllahu Khairan....

^ok, i think i get it bro, using universe or worlds will include created things which are not included in the relationship this surah tends to portray...
Waiyakum, looking forward to next ayah...

^Exactly

Ayah 2

Ar rahman Ar rahim

Usually translated as:
Most Gracious, Most Merciful (Yusuf Ali) or The Beneficent, the Merciful. (Pickhall)

When last did you use the word beneficient? E.g : Maclatunji is so beneficient…

This is one of the most beautiful ayah of this surah, not captured at all in translations at all..

So Allah is telling us about himself, He is giving us Knowledge about himself; first of all, He tells us, He is master, then he tells us about his attribute of mercy.

Ar rahman and Ar rahim carry the attribute of mercy ; They both come from the root word ‘rahma’ which means mercy… So how did the ancient arab understand ‘rahma’.

To give us an understanding of how the ancient arab understood mercy, another word derived from rahma is rahem which means ‘womb’.

A child is in the womb of the mother:
- His rent is paid
- The food is covered
- All its needs are covered

He has no need for anything, the mum takes care of every issue. He is immersed in mercy..
- The baby kicks and punches
- The baby makes the mum puke
- The baby consumes all the food of the mum
- It invades the mother’s space..

Mercy to the ancient arab is when you are completely engulfed and taken care of from every angle, The ancient arab definition of mercy is what a mum does for her child…

So Ar rahman and Ar Rahim both have to do with mercy ..

So what makes them different? What two words are placed side to side in Arabic, the point is to show what makes them different not what makes them similar. They both carry the attribute of mercy .

So what makes them different..

Ayah 2 (Contd)...

Ar rahman

Ar rahman has 3 main qualities…

1. It means extremely merciful, unimaginably merciful, incredibly merciful, extraordinarily merciful... I think you get the idea….

2. That extreme mercy is taking place right now…. At this very moment, that mercy is being exhibited…

To help you understand this, let me give an illustration :

If i say, my sister is kind to someone.. Does it mean she is exhibiting it right now? At this very point… Not neccessrily right now.. I just described an attribute of hers…

It is inadequate to translate Ar rahman as ‘ the extremely merciful’ because it does not incorporate the attribute of being merciful ‘right now’.

A more accurate translation of

Ar rahman – The one that is being extremely merciful (right now)

3. The third quality is the most scary quality, Ar rahman indicates transience… temporary.

I will explain, words similar to Ar rahman (carry the same quality) in the Arabic language include thirsty, angry, hungry… they are temporary..

In order to end thirst - You need water

In order to end hunger – you need food

For anger- something happens that take the anger away….

So although Allah is extremely merciful right now, We could do something that takes that mercy away… That is scary…..

Ar Rahim

Ar Rahim has two qualities

1. It is permanent – always merciful, permanently merciful

2. It is not necessarily happening right now….

Ex: A strong person is always strong even if they are not applying their strength right now..


Now look at the two words together;
A. if Allah described himself as Ar rahman alone then it will mean that it is not permanent so Allah adds a word that makes it permanent.

B. If Allah said described himself as Ar Rahim alone, it does not guarantee that it is happening right now and it is not extreme.

So how do you describe Allah mercy if you want to make it permanent, extreme, happening right now?

Allah covers mercy from every possible angle by describing himself as Ar rahman and Ar Rahim. It is comprehensive and covers every possible angle. In two words only, Allah has described his mercy. SubahanAllah.

Ayah 2 (cont'd)

Why sequence?

Suppose you are extremely hungry and you have not paid your house rent and a friend come to you and starts talking about stocks in the stock market. That is the least thing in your mind… You are more concerned about the immediate.

When we have immediate problems, the future is not that important. You are not interested in future stocks, you want your problems to be solved right now..
On the other hand, if you are set for now… You begin to worry about the future. We are programmed to worry about the future …

So we have two kinds of people:

i. Those worried about now

ii. Those worried about the future.

Now imagine;

You are an employee living from paycheck to paycheck… Today is payday, but oga is yet to show up…. You close at 5pm, It is 4:45pm, no oga….. phone is off… You need this money…. Oga is usually reliable but does that matter? You need your money now….. You are worried…. 4:55pm, Oga drives in…. pays you your money…..

What happens immediately? You start thinking of plans to spend the money… what to do with the money becomes the issue?

Humans need Allah’s mercy, When do human require Allah’s mercy?

RIGHT NOW..

We pray for things, and expect them right now. When now is taken care of, we begin to worry about the future…

So Allah first describes Himself as Ar rahman, the one that is extremely merciful right now,

Immediately the human mind hears that the now is covered , He begins to worry about the future..

So Allah says do not worry, it is always there…. Ar Rahim…

Doesn’t Allah know who He created? SubhanAllah. Allah took care of our ‘now’ first, He took care of our present first with Ar rahman, the mercy that occurs right now and immediately our minds wander to the future and Allah says Ar Rahim…. It is always there…

Ayah 2 (cont'd)

Beyond your Imagination

The attributes of the mercy together are beyond our imagination, no one can imagine Ar rahman and Ar Rahim at the same time.

Ar rahman- extremely merciful, right now, transience

Ar Rahim – Permanent, not necessarily right now…

One of the scholars (couldn’t note the name) from the past said: If you want to imagine the mercy of Allah captured in Al rahman, Al Rahim.

Al Rahman is like the high waves of the ocean that are extreme and strong and Al Rahim is like the calm ocean that is vast and endless.

And we cannot imagine the two at the same time; No one can imagine Ar rahman and Ar Rahim at the same time. Allah’s mercy is beyond our imagination.

It can not be limited to our own imagination, NEVER compare Allah’s mercy to that of any creature…

This is one of the biggest problems with people, who lose their faith.

They question how Allah can be merciful when this is happening or that is happening… How can Allah be merciful when there is disease or earthquake or floods etc

They ask those questions because they think they can understand the mercy of Allah. Allah’s mercy is beyond imagination.

These questions come from people that do not realize they are slave, They do not recognize Alhamdulilah…When you start complaining, you have killed Alhamdulilah…

Ayah 2 (cont'd)

Story time

Imagine there is a human master and he has a slave… He instructs his slave to do whatever he wants but tells the slave to not step over that white line on the ground. Master sits and watches slave

Day 1: Slave plays around playing near line, then he trips over the line. He looks at master and master says nothing…

Day 2: Slave says: Hey, that wasn’t so bad…. So this time he pretends to trip over the line… Master says nothing

Day 3: Slave starts playing with one on one side and the other across the white line. Crossing the barrier, Master does nothing

Day 4 : Slave is over the white line and playing on the other side;

His fellow asks him : Bros what are you doing on the other side…

He replies: Oga, is very nice, nothing will happen… You should come here too….
I fell over - Master did nothing
I pretended to fall: Master did nothing
I put leg across the line - Master did nothing
Bros join the party

A few years later, master calls slave

Master : Remember i told you not to cross line….

Slave: yea, that was a funny one

Master: I have been counting the number of times you crossed the line and it amounts to about 2000 times… I am going to whip you for every time you cross the line …

Slave (*shocked): But you were so nice…

Master: That mercy was not going to last forever, It is only for those that remained slaves and obeyed…

It is the slaves fault and he has no one to blame but himself.

Ibn abbass said that Al rahman is for all creations on the earth, believers or not, but it will expire for those that were disobedient and rejected faith .... Al Rahim is only for the believers, only for those who remain slaves…

We see that mercy can be taken for granted, if Allah left it at just mercy, there will be chaos in the world. So Allah gives us more knowledge of Himself by reminding us of accountability in the next Ayah….

End of Ayah 2

.....

Ayah 3

Maliki yawmi alddeeni

Usually translated as:

Master of the Day of Judgment. (Yusuf Ali), Owner of the Day of Judgment, ( Pickthall)

Allah keeps giving us Knowledge about himself. The day of Judgment: A day where precise accurate audit will take place,

Allah is telling Us: I own that day entirely….

This means don’t start thinking, I am just merciful, I am going to take your account too…

The word ‘deen’ means accurate, precise loans that are owed on a particular day. It is like you owe Allah your deeds and you owe him all you did in this world and Allah owes you ccompensation, rewards, punishment… etc… It is often translated as the day of recompense.

There are two variants of the word malik, depending on how you pronounce it..

Maalik – Owner
Malik - king

The two recitations are correct… The owner covers the micro things that will take place on the day of judgement, The king takes care of the macro things that will take place on the day of Judgement. You are the owner of your pencil, you are not the king of it. A king covers a much larger territory. Allah will take account of both little and big things on that day. Allah is the owner of the little things that will happen on that day and He is the king of the big things that will take place on that day.

So why did Allah not say ‘Owner of Judgment’?
Why was day added?

If I say i own a package, i mean i own everything in that package… Allah tells us, he is the king and owner of the Day of Judgment meaning that every single detail of that day is owned by him and He is in complete control of that day.

Day is an object of time… Now imagine one second… There are billions of things that take place in one second. Allah is control of every single little activity that takes place on that day. Everything is completely controlled by Allah.

The opposite of Mercy is punishment… But Allah does not mention punishment in the Fatiha… He only talks about Mercy and Justice…

In Islam, there are only two kinds of people on Judgement day…
i. Those who get Allah’s mercy
ii. Those who get Allah’s Justice

i. There will be people that will have an easy audit, …

whoever is given his record in his right hand will have an easy reckoning and return to his people well pleased (Surah Al-Inshiqaq : 7-9)

ii. Those who are questioned about their deeds are destroyed:

the prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) said: "Destroyed is the one who has his account settled on the Day of Resurrection” , (Bukhari , reported by Aisha)

Anyone who gets interrogated once on that day is finished …. There is no difference between the Justice and the punishment.

The Quran records the reaction those that were successful :

Anyone who is given his Record in his right hand will say, ‘Here is my Record, read it. I knew I would meet my Reckoning,’ and so he will have a pleasant life in a lofty Garden, with clustered fruit within his reach. (Surah 69:19-22)

SubhanAllah!! May Allah make us of those that are successful. All of us have plenty of mistakes on our record, may Allah skip over the precise reckoning and grant us mercy amin.

Summary of Allah introduction to Himself

The first three ayahs are Allah's Introduction to Himself, This is all a human needs to know about Allah.. Allah gave us Knowledge about himself.

Knowledge leads to results and action... Islam is all about knowledge and Action...

The natural consequence and result of this knowledge about Allah is captured in the next Ayah.

All of this knowledge lead to one thing... Ayah 4 is the natural result of this knowledge..

End of Ayah 3

Questions and comments are welcome...

JazakAllahu Khairan..

Brother may Allah reward you with aljannah firdaus amin.
Concerning Ayah 2, you said its not possible to imagine both Allah's Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem. Can someone experience them both in this life? For example those Allah specifically selected for His message or like those sahabas given the certificate of Aljanah.

Ayah 3, this is where all muslims should always pause and have a really deep thought on#me dey vex small o, the tin too short na, its like you left out some gist...
My question is regarding Malik and Maalik, using the former wouldnt it negate the tajweed that comes with reciting that verse?

sino: Brother may Allah reward you with aljannah firdaus amin.
Concerning Ayah 2, you said its not possible to imagine both Allah's Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem. Can someone experience them both in this life? For example those Allah specifically selected for His message or like those sahabas given the certificate of Aljanah.

Ayah 3, this is where all muslims should always pause and have a really deep thought on#me dey vex small o, the tin too short na, its like you left out some gist...
My question is regarding Malik and Maalik, using the former wouldnt it negate the tajweed that comes with reciting that verse?

1. Ar rahman and Ar rahim are experienced in this life by the believer and remains in the after-life... Every second we experience Allah's rahma, ... The believers and the disbeliever experience Ar rahman; We all breathe in air, have sight, hearing etc, we all benefit from mercy.... The disbeliever does not experience ar rahim unless he becomes muslim and if he dies rejecting faith... ar rahman expires for him... Ar rahim is permanent for some people... Ar rahman will expire for some people... May Allah protect us....

We can not truly understand and imagine Allah's mercy or wisdom... Remember the story of khidr and Musa in the Quran....

2. It is not a tajweed issue, there are 7 dialects used to recite the Quran right from the time of the prophet, 1 dialect reads "maalik" while the rest of the 7 dialects read "malik" in the very first chapter..... They are both correct...

Do not worry, there is a lot more to come in the next few ayahs insha Allah...

Ayah 4

Iyyaka naAAbudu wa-iyyaka nastaAAeenu

Usually translated as:
Thee do we wor ship, and Thine aid we seek (Yusuf Ali), (4) Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. (Picktall)

As usual, Translations do not capture the depth of the conversation here. We split the discussion into two parts :

i. Iyyaka naAAbudu

ii. iyyaka nastaAAeenu

Iyyaka naAAbudu

Allah gave us knowledge himself

1. Alhamdu lillahi
2. Rabbil alameen
3. Ar rahman
4. Ar Rahim
5. Maliki yawmi alddeeni

A natural consequence of knowledge is action, so we make a declaration: We declare we are going to enslave ourselves to Allah

Why?
We enslave ourselves to you because sincere praise and gratitude always belongs to Allah (Alhamdu lillahi)

We enslave ourselves to you because you are the master, owner, caretaker, gift giver, and life sustainer of all nations of people, worlds of people and generations of people (Men, jinn and whatever else) (Rabbil alameen)

We enslave ourself because you are the one being unimaginably merciful right now…. (Ar rahman)

We enslave ourselves because you are permanently merciful (Ar Rahim)

And If that is not enough, We enslave ourselves because you are the king and owner of the day when precise, accurate account of deeds will be taken. (Maliki yawmi alddeeni)

Ya Allah, you have given me enough reasons to enslave myself to you.

A proper translation of Iyyaka naAAbudu (using Nouman’s translation) : It is only to you we give ourselves totally and absolutely in slavery and worship…

Allah does not command us in this ayah. He told us what we should be saying as a result… If we understand the meaning of the first three ayahs, you know he is listening.

Allah told us about himself first and a natural result of this is We talking to him and declaring our dependence on him. We are talking to Allah in the Fatiha.

This is a declaration of slavery, a declaration of dependence on Allah.

The only time we can truly be free is when we declare our slavery to Allah. This means

- You are not enslaved to fashion
- You are not enslaved to entertainment
- You are not enslaved to money
- You are not enslaved to culture
- You are not enslaved to friends
- You are not enslaved to false ideology
- You don’t have to talk like anybody else
- You don’t have to dress like anybody
- You do not care whether you are too short or too thin or too fat or too t
- You are not trying to fit in

You are not in need of any of that because the only one, you have to impress is Allah.

This is the real declaration of independence; It is independence from everything else… It is independence from money, independence from the praise of people and everything else.

It is a combination of slavery and worship… It is possible to worship Allah without enslaving yourself to Him. It is only when we worship Allah and enslave ourselves to him that we can truly be independent…

A slave is one who does not do what he wants but what his master wants… The only time a slave does what he wants is when it is approved by the master. A master gives rules and sets limits, a slave follows these rules…

Many times in the Quran, the word Rabb (master) comes in close proximity with the word huda (guidance)…… Master and guidance are close to each other in the Quran.

Ex: (rough translation) : Such people are following their masters’s guidance and it is they who will prosper. (Surah 2:5)

…..Now clear evidence, guidance, and mercy have come to you from your master. Who could be more wrong than someone who rejects God’s revelations and turns away from them? (Surah 6:157)

So what is the relationship between master and guidance?

A master gives instruction to a slave, that instruction is guidance… If we accept that Allah is master then the first thing you need is guidance from the master. Therefore after declaring our dependence on Allah, the first thing, we ask for is guidance…

The two things are logically tied to each other, without instruction from the master, how do you want to be a slave? You can’t be a slave without guidance.

Revelation is the guidance for us, it is the guidance we asked for…

Ayah 4 (Cont'd)

wa-iyyaka nastaAAeenu

This roughly means: 'It is only your 'help' that we need' but there is a lot more to it though

nastaAAeenu is a bit more detailed in Arabic than just ‘help’.. It means help in matters you are already struggling with..

EX: You have a flat tire on third mainland bridge, you stay in your car listening to news and you call someone on the road to help you change the tire while you stay in your car listening to the news…. This is not nasstaaeen

If you are already struggling to fix the tire and you call for help… That is nasstaaeen…

By using that word nastaaeen, we are telling Allah that we are already struggling, trying our best and we are seeking help because we cannot do it on our own..

In other words if we are not making any effort, we have no right to ask Allah for help.

- What is Allah saying? Don’t you dare ask for help unless you are making struggling already… This is a model for our lives..
-you cannot play around and then ask for help in an exam without studying…

This is the formula throughout the Quran, first you struggle then Allah’s help comes… First the Muslims go into the battle of badr, then the angels come down… First, Ibrahim is thrown in the fire then the fire is cooled….

When we ask Allah for help, we are claiming that ‘ya Allah, i am already trying’… You better not be lying to Allah..

If you stand in salah saying iyyaka nastaAAeenu and you are not making any struggles than you are not just lying to yourself, you are lying to Allah… watch it!

You stand before Allah and say ‘ i submit myself totally to you and i need your help to make myself better because i am already putting in effort myself’ and immediately after salat… you turn on the inappropriate movie or music.. Is that not lying to Allah? Is that not insulting? Is that submission? Watch it!!

Salah (prayer) is not a joke, It is not hit and run…. It is supposed to transform your personality…

We recite the shortest surahs and rush through the prayer… for instance: We recite “ wal asr” to quickly finish the prayer and the surah is telling you that “by declining time, all of mankind is in loss”… The whole surah is telling you are in trouble because you don’t have any time and you are reciting it to quickly finish the prayer… SubhanAllah..

Ayah 4 (cont'd)

Why sequence?

Iyyaka naAAbudu wa-iyyaka nastaAAeenu – It is only to you we give ourselves totally and absolutely in slavery and worship and it is from you alone we seek help from after putting in efforts ourselves..

So why did Allah use this sequence? There are a couple of beautiful benefits..

1. Our primary purpose of life is to worship Allah and to enslave ourselves to Him, We need help to help us to that. The primary task is mentioned first before the secondary task. Iyyaka naAAbudu first then iyyaka nastaAAeenu.

2. When we worship it is for the sake of Allah, when we ask for help, it is for our own selves… (Keep this in mind)… What you owe Allah should be mentioned first out of respect and what you want for yourself should be mentioned last… You are secondary… What Allah wants is primary….

What Allah wants comes first, What you want comes second…

Are you making haram money and asking Allah for help? Are you cheating people and asking Allah for help? Allah comes first. Satisfy that first..

Don’t come to Allah on the 27th of Ramadan when you have not fulfilled what Allah asked of you the entire year….

You have to be doing your job first before you have the guts to stand before Allah and say Iyyaka naAAbudu and make sure you are doing your best before asking for help iyyaka nastaAAeenu …

If we really honestly do that, then we are beginning to understand what fatiha is and what fatiha is supposed to do for us as muslims..

Why iyyaka nastaAAeenu?

We asked Allah for help but help with what? There are several benefits of this

i. Allah already knows what we need help with..

ii. The list is very long… we need help with finances, health, family, business, job, salat etc… We need help with everything… The list would have been too long so we just say help…

iii. Imagine you are hanging on a cliff; about to fall; what do you scream? Help, no time to add anything else.. The third implication of just using help is that it is call of desperation

iv. The principle of proximity, we just said that we are going to enslave ourselves absolutely to Allah, this is not an easy thing to do so we seek Allah’s help to achieve that…

The first thing to ask for help for is how to worship and enslave ourselves to Allah. Of all our needs this is the most important one.

To fulfill this duty, we need instructions and this is why we ask for instructions next… This instruction is the most specific kind of help, all the other things we need Allah will cover… Allah gave us this one thing to ask for because if we get this one thing right all our problems will be taken care of… The one thing we ask Allah is that guidance… This leads us to Ayah 5….

End of Ayah 4

Leave your comments and Questions, Insha Allah...

Thank you very much for the insight into the first 3 ayahs of Surat-ul-Fatihah. Giving the time and the energy you have devoted explaining the ayahs, infact a deep understanding of these 3 ayahs alone can make us live the kind of life our Master expects of us.
I was also able to draw my own link between ayah 2 and ayah 3.
There is a connection between the Maliki yawmideen (ayah 3) and Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim (ayah 2).
Allah describes Himself as One whose Mercy can be temporary and whose Mercy can be permanent.
On this yawmideen, the Mercy of Allah on some people will cease while it will remain permanent for others.
May Allah count us among those who will have this permanent Mercy.

Ajii20: Thank you very much for the insight into the first 3 ayahs of Surat-ul-Fatihah. Giving the time and the energy you have devoted explaining the ayahs, infact a deep understanding of these 3 ayahs alone can make us live the kind of life our Master expects of us.
I was also able to draw my own link between ayah 2 and ayah 3.
There is a connection between the Maliki yawmideen (ayah 3) and Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim (ayah 2).
Allah describes Himself as One whose Mercy can be temporary and whose Mercy can be permanent.
On this yawmideen, the Mercy of Allah on some people will cease while it will remain permanent for others.
May Allah count us among those who will have this permanent Mercy.

JazakAllahu Khairan

Amin....

tbaba1234:

1. Ar rahman and Ar rahim are experienced in this life by the believer and remains in the after-life... Every second we experience Allah's rahma, ... The believers and the disbeliever experience Ar rahman; We all breathe in air, have sight, hearing etc, we all benefit from mercy.... The disbeliever does not experience ar rahim unless he becomes muslim and if he dies rejecting faith... ar rahman expires for him... Ar rahim is permanent for some people... Ar rahman will expire for some people... May Allah protect us....

We can not truly understand and imagine Allah's mercy or wisdom... Remember the story of khidr and Musa in the Quran....

2. It is not a tajweed issue, there are 7 dialects used to recite the Quran right from the time of the prophet, 1 dialect reads "maalik" while the rest of the 7 dialects read "malik" in the very first chapter..... They are both correct...

Do not worry, there is a lot more to come in the next few ayahs insha Allah...

Alhamdulilah, Jazaks for the clarification.

tbaba1234: Ayah 4 (cont'd)

Why sequence?

Iyyaka naAAbudu wa-iyyaka nastaAAeenu – It is only to you we give ourselves totally and absolutely in slavery and worship and it is from you alone we seek help from after putting in efforts ourselves..

So why did Allah use this sequence? There are a couple of beautiful benefits..

1. Our primary purpose of life is to worship Allah and to enslave ourselves to Him, We need help to help us to that. The primary task is mentioned first before the secondary task. Iyyaka naAAbudu first then iyyaka nastaAAeenu.

2. When we worship it is for the sake of Allah, when we ask for help, it is for our own selves… (Keep this in mind)… What you owe Allah should be mentioned first out of respect and what you want for yourself should be mentioned last… You are secondary… What Allah wants is primary….

What Allah wants comes first, What you want comes second…

Are you making haram money and asking Allah for help? Are you cheating people and asking Allah for help? Allah comes first. Satisfy that first..

Don’t come to Allah on the 27th of Ramadan when you have not fulfilled what Allah asked of you the entire year….

You have to be doing your job first before you have the guts to stand before Allah and say Iyyaka naAAbudu and make sure you are doing your best before asking for help iyyaka nastaAAeenu …

If we really honestly do that, then we are beginning to understand what fatiha is and what fatiha is supposed to do for us as muslims..

Why iyyaka nastaAAeenu?

We asked Allah for help but help with what? There are several benefits of this

i. Allah already knows what we need help with..

ii. The list is very long… we need help with finances, health, family, business, job, salat etc… We need help with everything… The list would have been too long so we just say help…

iii. Imagine you are hanging on a cliff; about to fall; what do you scream? Help, no time to add anything else.. The third implication of just using help is that it is call of desperation

iv. The principle of proximity, we just said that we are going to enslave ourselves absolutely to Allah, this is not an easy thing to do so we seek Allah’s help to achieve that…

The first thing to ask for help for is how to worship and enslave ourselves to Allah. Of all our needs this is the most important one.

To fulfill this duty, we need instructions and this is why we ask for instructions next… This instruction is the most specific kind of help, all the other things we need Allah will cover… Allah gave us this one thing to ask for because if we get this one thing right all our problems will be taken care of… The one thing we ask Allah is that guidance… This leads us to Ayah 5….

End of Ayah 4

Subhanallah! How i wish i can always bring this to the fore whenever i pray... With this interpretation, a person who truly seek to worship his creator will definitely be guided. I think every Muslim should internalize this and work with it perhaps, all these issues of this sect, that sect will be resolved, for Allah(SWT) will guide one to His true worship.