Tafseer of Surah Fatiha:

Bismilaahir rahmanir Rahim

The meaning of Basmallah

In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful

Difference of opinion

There is a difference of opinion among the scholars whether Basmalah comes before
the beginning of each surah or whether it is actually part of the surah

Nouman Ali Khan’s view:

Basmalah is not part of the surah

Reason:

NAK hold this opinion because of a hadith qudsi given by the prophet. A Hadith
qudsi is a hadith in which the prophet paraphrases Allah. A hadith qudsi is when
the message is from Allah but is in the prophets own words. So this hadith qudsi
says ‘ I divided the prayer into two halves between myself and my slave. And when
my slave say alhamdu lilah I respond Hamidani abdi.’ And then lathe rest of surah
fatihah is recited and Allah responds accordingly after each ayaat. This shows us
two things one that the heart of the prayer is surah fatihah as Allah mentions
surah fatihah to be equivalent to the prayer. And number two that surah faithah
begins with alhamdu lilah and not bismillah because otherwise when quoting surah
fatihah the prophet would have started of with bismillah but rather here he started
of with alhamdu lilah.

Introduction to Al fatihah

Meaning:

Al-Fatihah literally means ‘The Opening’ because the Quran opens with it. It is the
first chapter (surah) of the Quran and is considered its ‘greatest surah’
It is seen to be a precise table of contents of the Quranic message because some
scholars of exegesis have stated that this chapter is a summary of the whole Quran

Names:

It has other names as well, such as, the Mother of the Book, The Cure, The
Commendation (Hamd), and others

Another name is The Seven Oft-Repeated Verses because it is recited daily in the
salah

Tafseer of verses:

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alameen Ar Rahmaanir Raheem Maaliki Yawmid Deen

Iyaaka na'budu wa 'iyyaka nasta'een
Ihdinas Siraatal Mustaqeem
Siraatal lazeena'an 'am ta'alayhim, ghayril marghdoobi 'alayhim wa lad daalleen

1 A :
alhamdu lilah:

Possible translations: Praise be to Allah,All praise be to Allah, Praise is only

for Allah

Correct transaltion: Praise And Gratitude be to Allah.

Note:In order to find the correct translation we have to look at the operative word
in the sentence which is the word hamd, hamd is a combination of the Arabic words
for gratitude and praise.)

Note: in The Arabic language we do have a word of Praise ( mahd ) and a word for
gratitude ( shukr ) but when we need to use them together we use the word hamd.

1.11:

In order to truly understand the importance of the word hamd we have to first look
at the differences between praise and gratitude. Most people usually think that
gratitude and praise are the same, but they are actually quite different.

Praise but no gratitude:

You see a beautiful car in the parking lot and comment in its outstanding features.
What you just did was praise the car for its beauty but that doesn’t mean that you
were grateful to the car for being beautiful and went up to it and thanked it.
Things like seeing beautiful scenery and beautiful object is all just praise.

Gratitude but no praise

Ibrahim (A.S) one of the greatest men that ever lived had a father or uncle who was
though of as quite a despicable person. So what was it that made him so despicable.
It was the fact that he used to manufacture idols so not only did he constantly do
shirk he actually promoted shirk.But despite all of that Ibrahim (A.S) was grateful
to his father/uncle this is because it is our obligation to do so. This is proven
in an ayaah of the Quran in which Allah says that “we gave the human being very
strong instructions to be the best they can be to their parents” and at the end of
the ayaah he say “be grateful to me and to both your parents” Allah didn’t say
praise me and both your parents. So even though Ibrahim (A.S) father was a
questionable man and did not deserve praise it is still Ibrahim’s obligation to be
grateful to his father. And this is an example of gratitude without praise.

Verb & Noun:

Verb: a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence. A verb has a present
a past and a future

Example of a verb:
I prayed (past)
I will pray ( future)
I pray (present)

Noun: A noun is a person thing, or a place or an idea. A noun is timeless

Example on noun:

Hell
Heaven
Muhammad

Verb or noun?

Noun:
Hamd: is a noun

Reason: hamd is a noun because it’s an idea

Verb:
Inna Alhamdulillah, Nahmadahoo, Wa nastaeenahoo,......
Reason: has a time (present,past,future)
Time: it means we praise Allah which is present tense

Question: Why use a noun not a verb ?

I:

First we have to look at the difference between a noun and a verb.

Difference between nouns and verbs:

Nouns are timeless and don’t have a tense and as such are permanent while verbs are
restricted by time and have tenses and are thus temporary.

Derived: this means that Allah says that his hamd is done not only in the present
or the past or the future but in the present as well as the past and the future.

II:

First we have to look at the difference between a noun and a verb.

Difference between nouns and verbs:

Verbs are dependent on someone to perform them.

Example: I am praying. The verb praying requires me to pray and without the word I
or without my existence the sentence would be false and wouldn’t make sense.

Conclusion: a verb is always dependent and can never be used by itself.

A Noun, however does not need someone to perform it and as such is independent and
can be used by itself

Conclusion: When we say that we praise Allah it needs us to praise him and here we
use praise as a verb but when we use hamd as a noun we say that whether the entire
universe is doing Allah’s hamd or nothing is doing Allah’s hamd. Hamd is still for
Allah.

Why use the word ‘Al’:

Importance

When we use the word Al we say that all hamd, every hamd and the perfect hamd
belong to Allah.
Replacement?

Now a possible replacement could be that we could use the word inna used in the
sentence Inna Alhamdulillah...., so why don’t we. First we look at the meaning of
inna.

Inna: verily,definitely, for sure.

Difference:

Here we can obviously that inna is more impactful than the word Al and is actually
used quite often in the Quran.

Example:

Inna lilahi wa,Inna-Laaha ala kuli

Sentences of Information & emotion:

Before we go further into the differences between inna & Al we must first learn
what sentences of information & emotion are.

Information:

We use sentences of information whenever we are attempting to reach someone

something and not when we are feeling something.

Example:

let’s say you are an Arabic teacher and you are teaching your students about the
meaning of Alhamdulilah, in this case you are relating information to your students
and are thus using a sentence of information.

Emotion:

We use sentences of emotion whenever we attempt to express some sort of

overwhelming emotion in the form of a sentence.

Example:

Let’s say that after teaching your Arabic class you leave school and are crossing a
road to get to your car. As soon as you start crossing this road you see a car
driving straight at you and you desperately attempt to evade it and in the end are
barely able to keep your life and say Alhamdulilah. In this case you have used a
sentence of emotion as you attempt to express the overwhelming relief of being able
to survive.

Conclusion:

According to the rules of Arabic whenever we use inna the sentence has to be
informational and so since we don’t use inna this sentence is emotional and appeals
to both the heart and mind. And because appeals to the emotion it results in a
sentence of absolute sincerity with no deception whatsoever.

Command?

Another point worth noting is that Allah doesn’t say praise me but rather he says
“praise is for Allah” This means that Allah doesn’t require us for anything and
that his praise doesn’t happen but is actually just there. This point also
nullifies the atheist cliche in which atheists ask “ why does God need us lowly
humans to praise him” well the answer to that is that he doesn’t need us.

Replacement?

If you have attended the end prayer then you’ve probably heard the phrase
lilahilhamd and this has also been used quite often in the Quran. So why does Allah
use the word Alhamdulilah instead of lilahilhamd

Difference:

The difference between the two is that there the reversed versions of each other.
In alhumalilah the hamd part comes first and the lilah part comes second on the
other hand in lilahilhamd the lilah part comes first and the hamd part comes
second.

Example:

The difference between Alhamdulilah and lilahilhamd is like the difference between:

I am praying and praying I am

Or

I am eating and eating I am

So the difference between these two is that Alhamdulilah is normal and lilahilhamd
is unusual. So how does using an usual sentence affect the meaning of the sentence.

Affect:

In Arabic when we use this unusual order we mean to use the form of the sentence as
a substitute of the word only.

Example:

Lunch I ate.

Meaning: I did not have breakfast or dinner all I had was lunch.

Only:

Whenever try to use the word only or any of its equivalents for that matter. We are
trying to convey something in parentheses.

Example:

I am not the only one who did something wrong.

In parentheses: there are other people who did something wrong.

Use:

Another use of the word only is that we use it whenever we are trying to create
some sort of impact. And we usually create this impact against someone who we are
arguing against.
Example:

Let’s say you are trying to convince a non-muslim. You say:

“ praise and gratitude only belong to God “

Derive:

what we derive from this is that when we use only we are trying to convince someone
and this means there isn’t mutual understanding between us but if we don’t use only
there is mutual understanding between us and this means that the phrase
Alhamdulilah is reserved only for people who believe in God and everything he says.

The correct name:

We all know that Allah has many names and 99 of those have been revealed to use. So
why does God use the name Allah in particular. Why is it that he didn’t use another
one of his names like rahman or aziz.

I:

Surah fatiha is Allah introducing himself to us. So when you introduce yourself to
someone you start of with your name not your occupation or attribute.

Example:

Correct: Hello my name is Ahmad.

Incorrect: Hello, I am a teacher.

Or

Correct: Hello my name is Muhammad .

Incorrect: Hello, I am good at basketball.

Conclusion:

so when Allah introduces himself he introduces himself not with one of his
attributes and occupation but the main name he gave us to call him by.

II:

Let’s say that we replace the word Allah with the word at rahman then we would be
saying that we are thankful to Allah for his rahmah, this means that we are
thankful to him for only his one attribute of rahmah. So in order to thank him for
all of his attributes we use the word Allah which refers to all his attributes at
the same time.

Rabbil aalameen

Rabb:

Possible translation: the one who cares, the one who owns

Correct translations:
Primary:
The master

Secondary:
The owner , giver of gifts, maintainer, caretaker

Secondary + Primary:
The master that is the owner, the maintainer as well as the caretaker and giver of
gifts.

Importance:

Rabbil alameen is importance because this is the first description of the

relationship between Allah and us that Allah uses after Alhamdulilah which means it
is more important and more of a foundation for our relationship with Allah then the
descriptions that come after it such as ar rahman or ar rahim tells.

Derive from translation:

This means that Allah owns you and me. And we all have something we own

Example:

You own a car or a pen or a bookshelf.

But when we own something it doesn’t necessarily mean that we will take care of it
but Allah goes out of his way and says he is also the caretaker.

Conclusion:

So this means that he owns you and me and has full authority over us but also takes
care of us.

Part 1:

Giver of gifts:

When we profit from something we worked hard for and earn we don’t call the profit
that we get a gift but rather we call it our income. So if someone gives you
something less than the amount you deserve you complain. But when you are given
something by someone without even having worked for it then we call what you get a
gift. In this case you can’t complain that the gift is too small because you didn’t
work hard to earn that gift.

Example:

Scenario:

If you have a monthly salary of SAR 10,000 and if at the end of your month your
employer gives you SAR 5,000 for your work then obviously you are going to
complain.

Why:

because the SAR 10,000 is something you earned and worked hard for and thus it is
rightfully yours
If you are given SAR 500 for your birthday do you say that you have not given me
enough and complain.
Why: because this is not something you earned but rather something someone did the
favor of giving to you.

Conclusion:

Our money, our family and even our life is a gift from Allah and thus we cannot be
ungrateful

Part 2:

The one who maintains:

This means that Allah is the one we depend on, in other words we are not capable
of doing anything except with the will of Allah. This also means that Allah is
always with us, because you can’t maintain someone if you are not with them.

Example:

If we breathe we are breathing because of Allah

If we talk we are talking because of Allah
If we walk we are walking because of Allah

Affect:

This statement nullifies the statement where is Allah when I need help because the
answer to that is he is always with you because if he wasn’t then how would you be
able to live.

Part 3:

The word status and relationship are usually linked.

Example:

Teacher = student
Parent = child
Rabb ( Master ) = Ard ( slave )

Note:

some of Allah’s names have relationship and others don’t

Example:
Creator = created
Wise = no relationship

Derive :

When Allah says that he is rabb or master we immediately become ard or salve.

Importance:

The relationship between ard and rabb is actually the summary of the Quran. In
other words if we truly become the slaves of Allah then we have become true
Muslims.

Question:
Now the question arises that if Allah is rabb then why does he remind us of it
again and again.

Answer:

Because it is quite often that people don’t play their part in a relationship

Example:

Student not acting like a student with his teacher.

Child not acting like a child with his parents
A wife not acting like a wife with her husband or vice versa.

So that is why Allah constantly reminds us that we are slaves so that we don’t
forget our role and end up in hell.

Unique:

The master and slave relationship between Allah and us is unique in the manner that
when in this world a slave praises a master he doesn’t really mean it and his
feelings of love for the master are not genuine but due to the previous phrase we
have already established that the relationship between us and Allah is completely
genuine.

Part 4:

The Arabic word ‘alameen (worlds) has multiple meanings:

1. Nations of people
2. Ethnicities of people
3. Societies of people
4. Different species (angels, jinn, animals, etc.)
5. People of different worlds
6. Generations of people

Derive:

this means that Allah is the rabb of every nation, every ethnicity, every species
e.t.c

Ar rahman ar rahim:

Possible translation: most gracious most merciful

Subject matter: love and care

Rahmah:

The word rahmah means when someone is completely taken care of and covered

Example:

Child in mothers womb

An:

The word an is added to make something extreme this means Allah wants to convey
extreme rahmah

Qualities of rahman:

1: it is extreme
2: it is happening right now
3:temporary

Derive:

this means that when Allah gives his rahmah he gives it in an extreme sense and
when is he giving his rahmah. Now. another point worth mentioning is that you have
his rahmah until you get rid of it because that’s the essence of the word
temporary.

Rahim:

Qualities:

It is permanent
It is not necessarily happening right now.
It is for the believers

Derive:

this means that Allah is always rahim when he is rahim. In order to truly
understand its importance we have to look at the opposite case

Example:

If you say someone is a good guy it doesn’t mean that he is always a good guy,
there is the possibility that he is being a terribly someone or was a terrible
someone or is gonna be a terrible someone.

So Allah says that if you get Allah’s mercy then it’s always gonna be with you.

Next Allah says that it doesn’t have to be happening right now this means that this
is only for some people and the people as later mentioned are the believers

Beauty:

The beauty of ar rahman and rahim is that they perfectly complete each other

Example:

Rahman is temporary , rahim is permanent

Rahim is not happening right now rahman is happening right now

Order:

When we have an immediate problem we only want that immediately problem fixed but
when we dn’t have that immediate problem we start thinking about the future.
So in this case Allah puts the immediate first ( rahman) and the future second
( rahim )
Conclusion: Allah is saying that he will take care of both your present and future.
Maliki yaum ud din:

Translation: master of the day of judgement

So after telling us that he is ar rahman and ar rahim Allah tells us that he is

also Maliki yaumidin. This means that although Allah says that he is ar rahman and
at rahim, we shouldn’t take this as a way to be too open and so Allah warns us by
saying that we will be held accountable.Because whenever someone is nice people
take advantage of his niceness and get too ahead of themselves.

Example:

There's a master and a slave. And the master said to the slave, 'did you see that
line over there? dont go to the other side. You can do anything you like inside but
dont cross the line'. So the slave is playing around not doing any work, he goes
close to the line and he sees the master sitting there. The master doesnt say
anything. He didnt say 'hey hey get away from the line'. So the slave goes to the
line and he falls, he falls on the other side. And immediately, the slave looked at
the master but the master didnt say anything. The slave said 'I'm sorry I'm sorry'
and the master didnt say anything. And the next day, the slave pretends to fall and
he still checks if he gets into trouble and he didnt get into trouble. The next
day, he doesnt pretend to fall, instead he puts one foot in this side, one foot on
the other side. The master still doesnt say anything. The next day he's already on
the other side. A couple of years go by and the master calls him one day and asks
him 'hey remember few years ago I told you dont walk to the other side?' and he
says 'yeah I remember'. The master said 'I recorded how many times you went on the
other side and I decided to punish you for all, the whole at once, so I'm going to
punish you for each of those immediately right now!'.

Part 1:

Mid deen

The word mid deen which is derived form the word din which is the exact loan
payment that you owe someone. This means that Allah says to us that he will take
our payment from us at our mid deen which is the day of judgement.

Note:

On the day of judgement He gives a book . Some people get their books in the left
hand, some in the right. This book has everything you did and everything you said
from beginning to the end. Now a lot of those things are good but many many things
are not so good. So you have over the book over to the angel, and he will start
going through the records. What's happening to you? you're scared, it's your book,
it's been read. It's your Mid Deen, everything will be calculated. But for some
people, ' Fa'ammaa man 'ootiya kitaabahoo biyameenih, fasawfa yuhaasabu hisaaban
yaseera' (84:7-8) you'll be given easy account/reckoning. The Angels might say to
you 'thank you, you can go, it's ok' . In other words, you don't get checked for
every line, the angels say it's ok, they understand, they're good. So on the day of
judgement, there are 2 kinds of people, the people who gets checked on every item
and the people who gets easy account. For the people who gets checked, our prophet
said for the ones who gets interrogated on judgment day , it's over. But for you
and I, pray to Allah that insyaallah we'll get the easy hisab. So either they'll
have people who'll enjoy Ar Rahman Ar Rahim or they'll have people who get punished
by maliki yaumidin.

Conclusion of introduction:

These 3 ayaat that we have taken up until now are enough for Allah’s introduction.
And thus introduction is about absolute balance

Balance?

Example:

In the second ayaah Allah talks about his rahmah which is a positive thing and then
in the next ayaah he warns us this creates a good balance between love and justice

Positivity?

Now some people say that allah is too cruel but this is actually quite untrue and
this is evident in these 3 verses. Because in the second ayaat he says something
positive and instead of backing it up with something negative Allah backs it up
with something neutral, this shows that Allah encourages love more than fear.

4. It is You we give ourselves to completely and You we ask for help

a. Meaning it is You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help

i. When the previous three verses are understood properly, it will naturally lead
to this

b. Another meaning is that we give ourselves to Allah in totality

i. We can only truly be free when we enslave ourselves to our creator

c. The words “master” and “guidance” are very frequently mentioned together in the
Quran

i. Guidance is a set of instructions

1. A master can only be a master if he is giving instructions else he is

Not a master. Hence Allah is our master, thus, He gives instructions to His slaves
(guidance)
d. The meaning of the second part of the verse (‘and You we ask for help’)

i. It means help in matters we are currently struggling with

1. You’re telling Allah, “O Allah I am already trying to do this but

struggling, so please help me because I cannot do it by myself”

a. We do not rely on supplication alone, rather, we make attempts on our own

with it as well. We cannot just sit in our house without making any effort and just
rely on supplication. We have to do both

e. The first part of this verse is related to worship, which means our primary task
is to be His slave and submit to Him. The second part relates to seeking His aid:

i. It is mentioned in this order because worship and submission is for Him,

whereas, seeking His aid is for us. The first qualifies us for the second part,
which means if we are not submitting ourselves to Him, then we do not qualify for
His aid

f. Some also suggest that the second part of the verse (seeking His aid) is
requesting Allah to help us with the first part of the verse (worshipping and
submitting to Him)