The Essence of Qurʾānic Knowledge in Sūrah al-Ḥamd

This chapter begins by exalting the names of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. It continues by praising and enumerating the attributes of beauty and majesty of God, the Glorified, and restricting worship and seeking help to Him alone, and it ends with beseeching guidance from His Majestic Presence. In spite of its utmost brevity and conciseness, the chapter encompasses the very essence of the vast knowledge of the Noble Qurʾān. This is because it expresses, in the most concise words and clearest meanings, the general outlines and threefold principles of religious knowledge—knowing the Origin (_mabda_ʾ), knowing the Return (maʿād), and knowing prophethood (risālat)—which are the substance of guiding the wayfarers to the well-being of this world and the Hereafter. Sūrah al-Ḥamd lays out the path for man’s spiritual wayfaring towards his Lord.

Sūrah Fātiḥat al-Kitāb is the speech of God, the Glorified, but on behalf of a servant wayfarer who has turned the face of his soul towards the Holy Essence of God, engaging in intimate and devoted whispered conversation with Him.

In this chapter, God, the Glorified, has taught humankind the proper etiquette of how to praise Him, the manner of expressing servitude, and the way for the servant wayfarer to converse with the Lord, the Master, to the wayfarers of His path. He has made it the pillar of religion: “There is no prayer except with Fātiḥat al-Kitāb”.(8) He has made its recitation ten times every day and night obligatory on those who draw near through obligations, and many times more than that recommended for those yearning for nearness through supererogatory acts.

If Sūrah al-Ḥamd did not contain the essence of Qurʾānic knowledge, which are the secrets of the Origin and the Return and the knowledge of man’s spiritual wayfaring towards the Lord, it would not have been made the counterpart of the Great Qurʾān in the Book of God, and it would not have been mentioned with such grandeur in the words of the exemplars of wayfaring to God—the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.).