Al-Fatiha

Sura 1 of the Quran

الْفَاتِحَة Al-Fātiḥah The Opening
Arabic text  Audio file (info • help) English translation
Classification	Meccan

Translation

1. In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful.
2. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds,
3. The compassionate, the merciful.
4. Master of the day of judgment,
5. You do we worship, you do we ask for help.
6. Guide us to the straight path,
7. The path of those whom you have favored, not of those who have earned your anger, or of those who have gone astray.

Name

The word Fatiha is derived from the Arabic word "Fathun" which means "opening up". It has been named in accordance with the content of this Surah. The one with the help of which a subject, book or thing is inaugurated is called 'Fatiha'. In other words, the word conveys the meaning of introduction and beginning of speech.

There are four other names of this surah in the hadith, one of which is Ummul. However, there are at least 23 titles of this surah in Islamic writing. It is called Saba Masani or the widely read seven verses.

There are several other names for this surah. Such as- Fatihatul Kitab, Ummul Kitab, Suratul-Hamd, Suratus-Salat, As-Sabi'ul Masani.

Time of revelation

As this sura is the foundation of Islamic prayer, most Islamic scholars hold that it was revealed in Mecca early in Muhammad's career. One tradition has Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad's son-in-law, one of his earliest followers and his rightful successor in the eyes of Shi'ite Muslims, saying: "The Opening of the Book was revealed in Mecca from a treasure beneath the divine throne." The eleventh-century Islamic scholar al-Wahidi relates a tradition in which the Fatiha constituted the first revelation of the Qur’an, rather than the famous demand from the angel that Muhammad "recite," which sura 96 currently enshrines as the first revelation of the Qur'an. Al-Awahidi adds, "This is also the opinion of Ali ibn Abi Talib." This belief persisted to the extent that the twelfth-century Persian Islamic Scholar and jurist Zamakhshari states that most Qur'an commentators at the time he was writing believed that the Fatiha was the first sura revealed. The idea is that the Fatiha was the beginning of the Qur'anic revelation. However, it is a minority view, with mainstream Islamic scholars today holding that sura 96, or at least the start of it, was the first revelation to come to Muhammad.

Variants

Instead of "Praise be to Allah," the seventeenth-century Shi'ite scholar Muhammad Baqir Majlisi has, "We greatly praise Allah."

Instead of "the compassionate, the merciful" (ar-rahman ar-rahim), a variant seen in Cairo by the Qur'anic scholar Arthur Jeffery (1892-1959) has "the sustainer, the merciful" (ar-razzaqi ar-rahimi).

Instead of "master of the day of judgment," the Warsh Qur'an has "king of the day of judgment."

Al-Fatiha Media

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  Headings for Al-Fatiha, and for Chapter 2, Al-Baqara. From the Qur'an of Ibn al-Bawwab. Baghdad, 1000/1001. Chester Beatty Library

Other websites

• Text of Surah al-Fatiha with multiple available translations