Sūrah al-Ḥamd from the Perspective of the Qurʾān and the ʿItra (a.s.)

Sūrah al-Ḥamd, which is the opening of the Book and the beginning of the speech of God, the Glorified, has been honored in the divine discourse as equivalent to the Great Qurʾān: “And We have certainly given you seven of the oft-repeated [verses] (mathānī) and the Great Qurʾān.” (15:87)

In the narrations of the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) and the sayings of the Pure ʿItra (a.s.), the Qurʾān has been associated with names and descriptions such as: The most comprehensive wisdom, a treasure of the Divine Throne, the noblest treasure from the repositories of the Divine Throne, the healing chapter, the great and weighty blessing, and the best chapter of the Qurʾān:

“There is nothing in the Qurʾān and speech that combines the comprehensive goodness and wisdom as is combined in Sūrah al-Ḥamd.”(1)

“Indeed, the Opening of the Book (Fātiḥat al-Kitāb) is the noblest of the treasuries of the divine Throne contain.”(2)

“The Opening of the Book is a healing from every disease.”(3)

“So He singled out the favor upon me with the Opening of the Book.”(4)

When proposing to teach this chapter to Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Anṣārī, the Prophet (s.a.w.) introduced it as the best chapter of the Book of God:

“Shall I not teach you the best chapter that God has revealed in His Book?” Jābir said to him: “Yes, may my father and mother be sacrificed for you, O Messenger of God, teach it to me.” So he taught him al-Ḥamd, the Mother of the Book.(5)

As he specified the extent of this superiority in another ḥadīth, saying:

“If the Opening of the Book was placed on one side of the scale and the [rest of the] Qurʾān was placed on [the other] side, the Opening of the Book would outweigh it seven times.”(6)

The Prophet (s.a.w.) also compared Sūrah al-Ḥamd with other divinely revealed scriptures, saying:

“By the One in whose hand is my soul, God has not revealed in the Torah, nor in the Gospel, nor in the Psalms, nor in the [rest of the] Qurʾān anything like it. It is the Mother of the Book.”(7)