Al-Fatihah

The story starts in Makkah, where al-Fatihah was revealed. Ibn Kathir gives that on the word of the Companion Ibn 'Abbas and two other early authorities. Ma'ariful Qur'an, a modern commentary from South Asia, describes a custom of the Age of Ignorance, its name for the time before Islam: people began whatever they did with the names of their idols or gods.

Against that habit, the Qur'an opens with a different name. Bismillah: in the name of Allah. The same commentary passes on reports that the Prophet ﷺ used to begin things with a shorter phrase, "in Your name, O Allah", and took up the full line once it was revealed.

Then come two words about Him, ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim, and both are about mercy. Nothing has been asked yet. Nothing has been commanded. The first thing the book says about Allah, twice, is that He is merciful.

The line is not a finished sentence. In the name of Allah... what? Ma'ariful Qur'an says a verb is left to be understood, such as "I begin" or "I recite". That is why the same line fits before eating, travelling or starting work: each person supplies the verb.

The first thing the Qur'an says about Allah, twice, is mercy.

Makkah had many gods. The next line of al-Fatihah leaves room for one. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. The word is plural. Every kind of creation is a world, says the early commentator Qatadah, as Ibn Kathir quotes him.

The word for Lord, rabb, is warmer than the English. Ma'ariful Qur'an explains it as one who nurtures: who brings a thing along stage by stage until it is complete. Ibn Kathir adds owner and master. So the line describes the one who owns everything and is raising everything.

Then mercy again: ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim, the same two words as the opening line. Why repeat them? Ma'ariful Qur'an suggests a reason. Allah does not look after creation because He needs it or because anything compels Him. He does it out of mercy. Al-Qurtubi, quoted by Ibn Kathir, hears a balance instead: "Lord" carries a warning, and the two names of mercy carry encouragement.

Only then comes the fourth line: Master of the Day of Recompense, the Day when every deed is repaid. By the time the judge is introduced, He has been called merciful four times.

Mercy is named four times before judgment is named once.

So far the surah has spoken about Allah: He is this, He is that. In the fifth line the grammar changes. "He" becomes "You". Ibn Kathir puts it simply: having praised Allah, the worshipper is now standing before Him, and speaks to Him directly.

What is said is two things. You alone we worship. You alone we ask for help. In a town of many gods, the word "alone" is the point. Ma'ariful Qur'an reads the line as the conclusion of the three before it. A person owes the past and the present to the one who made and sustains him, and the future to the master of the last Day. There is nobody else left to turn to.

In a hadith qudsi (God's words in the Prophet's telling), Allah says He has divided the prayer between Himself and His servant, and answers each line. To the opening praise: "My servant has praised Me." To this fifth line: "This is between Me and My servant, and My servant shall have what he asked."

Ma'ariful Qur'an lays out the shape. The lines of praise belong to Allah. The lines of request that end the surah belong to the person. The line in the middle is both. Early scholars, quoted by Ibn Kathir and Ma'ariful Qur'an alike, called al-Fatihah the secret of the Qur'an, and this line the secret of al-Fatihah.

The prayer is a conversation, and this line is where both sides meet.

Everything so far has been leading to a request. It could have been for anything. It is for one thing: guide us to the straight path.

Ibn Kathir passes on the explanation of the image from the early commentator al-Tabari. In the language of the Arabs, a straight path is the clear road, the one with no branches. Arabs also called an honest person straight and a wicked one crooked, much as English does.

Then the surah does something careful. It does not define the path by a rule. It defines it by people: the path of those You have favoured. Ibn Kathir and Ma'ariful Qur'an both say another ayah lists who they are (4:69): the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs or witnesses, and the righteous. And it marks off two ways of losing the road: earning anger, and going astray.

The surah ends there, on a request, with no answer given. Ma'ariful Qur'an says the whole Qur'an is really an explanation of the straight path. Wahiduddin Khan's commentary calls al-Fatihah a miniature, and the rest of the Qur'an its enlargement. The very next surah begins: "This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance" (2:2).

The surah ends on a request. The rest of the Qur'an reads as the reply.

The Prophet ﷺ said: there is no prayer for one who does not recite the Opening of the Book. So it is said in every rak'ah (unit) of every prayer. The five daily prayers have seventeen obligatory units.

The Qur'an itself appears to mention this. In another surah the Prophet ﷺ is told that he has been given "the seven oft-repeated" and the great Qur'an (15:87). Ibn Kathir quotes hadiths, one of them also recorded by al-Bukhari, in which the Prophet ﷺ says those seven are al-Fatihah.

Schools differ on one detail. The Hanafi school holds that a person praying behind an imam listens silently while the imam recites. The Shafi'i school has them recite it too. Ibn Kathir takes the second view.

And when the seven lines end, the worshippers add one word that is not part of the surah: amin. Ibn Kathir explains it as "O Allah, accept our prayer". Having asked for the road, they ask to be answered.

At least seventeen times a day, the same request for the road.