`Ilmy Notes: Surah Fatiha, The Opening [Living With Qur'an Course]

Course notes from 'Living With The Qur'an' course at Al-Markaz in Bradford, UK.
Read on quran.com, Surat Al-Fatiha, The Opening. Chapter 1:7 verses.

Surah Themes

• Revealed in Makkah
• A prayer
• Reliance on Allah
• Daily reminder
• Blessings on Muslims
• Allah’s attributes
• The Only Lord, The Entirely Compassionate, The King, The One that we worship, The One that we ask for help
• We learn about the shortest path to our goal
• We learn who has gone astray (Jews and Christians) - Ayah 7

CONTENT

• KEYWORDS 
• Al-Fatiha is nicknamed ‘Umm Ul Quran’ Mother of the Qur'an and 
• 'Al-Qur'an al-Adhim', the Great Qur'an as it encompasses the meaning of the entire Qur'an.
• Al-Fatiha means The Opening. It is the introduction to the Qur'an, the contents page and key to unlocking the Qur'an. 
• It is the Surah we recite often in our daily prayers and is a Du`a’ – a personal prayer to Allah. Sometimes likened to the Christian Lord's prayer.
• LESSON: It has been placed at the very beginning of the book to teach the reader: if you sincerely want to benefit from the Qur'an, you should offer this prayer to the Lord of the Universe.

#Hadith: The Messenger of Allah salallahu `alayhi was-salam said,

"Allah, the Glorious and Exalted, said, 'I have divided the prayer between Myself and my servant equally and My servant shall be granted what he asked for.'

Therefore when the servant says, 'all praises and thanks are due to Allah, the Lord of the universe', Allah says, 'My servant has praised Me.'

When he says,'the Entirely Compassionate, the Especially Merciful,'Allah says, 'My servant has praised Me.'

When he says, 'Master of the Day of Judgement,' Allah says, 'My servant has glorified Me.'

When he says, 'You Alone we worship and Your aid Alone do we seek,' Allah says, 'this is between Me and My servant and My servant shall have what he requested.'

When he says, 'guide us to the Straight Path, the Path of those whom You have favoured, not of those who have incurred [Your] wrath, neither of those who have gone astray,'

Allah says, 'this is for My servant and My servant shall have what he asked for.' (Imam Muslim}

• Allah swt responds to every line of the Surah. 
• The first word is 'Alhamdulillah', all praise and thanks belongs to Allah alone --> Everything else is Tafseer of this word
• We read this every day to remind us about our life. To ask Allah to remain on the pure path. Believers are already guided, but we need to stay steadfast as Shaytaan leads us astray.
• Ayah 2: He is All-Merciful and has bestowed countless of bounties on His creatures (Islam and guidance), but at the same time He is the supreme Justice and everybody will have to answer Him on the Day of Judgement for his worldly deeds. 
• Ayah 4: He alone is worthy of worship and He alone is to be asked for help because He is the Cherisher and the Master of everything in the universe. 
• Ayah 5: We ask Allah to include us by association to the Awliya, Anbiya and true believers, who followed the straight path of Islam before us and were blessed immensely because of this
• The people who received 'Ne`ma' (An-`Amta) were given revelations, provisions to survive, miraculous signs of Allah, they were were given reputation, fellowship, and most incredibly - the love of Allah and an entry ticket to Jannah
• Today, some folks believe these blessings are the technological advancements of the 21st century or science - I'm afraid this is not the same as the An-`Amta `alayhim [blessings of those whom Allah favoured over everyone else]
• When believers implore for the straight path, He always showers blessings on them and protects them from going astray. 
• Ayah 7: Ghair-il Maghdubi `alayhim
• We ask Allah to protect us from the long rebellious history of the Banu Israel aka Jewish communities that followed Prophet Moses `alayhis-salam (peace be upon him), and after all their dramas earned Allah's anger
• Walad-daaleen
• And we ask Allah to keep us on the straight and narrow so we don't become deviated or branch off into our own ideas as Christians did, for truly, their contemporary beliefs are 'daleel' - lost.
• Supplication is the core of worship and the blessed Qur'an encourages the believers for petitioning,

“And your Lord said: Invoke Me, I will respond to your supplication…” (Qur'an, 40:60).


More like this:
- Surah Fatiha Flash Word Game (For All Ages)