(Makki)^{1In as-Sa‘di’s original work, these notes are mentioned with some chapters, but not mentioned with all 114 chapters. (Editor)}

1:1. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.^{2The meanings of the verses of the Qur’an in this book (with some minor changes to the punctuation) have been translated by the translator. (Editor)}

1:2. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds,

1:3. The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

1:4. Master of the Day of Judgement.

1:5. You [alone] we worship, and You [alone] we ask for help;

1:6. Guide us to the straight path,

1:7. The path of those whom You have blessed; not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.

﴾In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful﴿ that is, I begin with every name of Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta ‘ala - Glorified and Exalted is He); this includes all the (beautiful) names of Allah.

﴾Allah﴿ - He is the One Who is worshipped, the only One Who deserves to be worshipped, because of the divine attributes He has, which are attributes of perfection.

﴾the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful﴿. These two names indicate that He possesses great mercy that encompasses all things and includes all living beings, and He has decreed it for the pious, the followers of His Prophets and Messengers. Absolute mercy is for them; others have a share of it.

It should be noted that one of the basic principles on which the early generations of the Ummah and its leading scholars are agreed is belief in the names and attributes of Allah and how those attributes are manifested. For example, they believe that He is Most Gracious, Most Merciful; He possesses mercy that is one of His attributes and this mercy has an impact on His creation. So all types of blessings are signs of His mercy. The same applies to all of His names. We may say concerning the All-Knowing that He has (unlimited) knowledge, by means of which He knows all things. Similarly, the All-Powerful is possessed of might and has power over all things.

﴾Praise be to Allah'p. This refers to praising Allah for the attributes of perfection and for His actions that are based on generosity and justice. So to Him be perfect praise in all ways.

﴾the Lord of the worlds﴿. The Lord is the One Who sustains all creatures - which refers to all beings other than Allah - because Hecreated them, granted them everything that they need and bestowed great blessings upon them; if they were deprived of those blessings they would not be able to survive, for whatever blessings they enjoy come from Him.

He sustains His creation in two ways, general and specific.

In general terms, this refers to His creation of all creatures, His granting of provision to them and His guiding them to that which is in their best interests, which enables them to survive in this world.

In specific terms, it refers to His cherishing of His close friends, by means of instilling faith in their hearts, guiding them to it, perfecting it for them and warding off from them distractions and obstacles that come between them and faith. In real terms, this means guiding them to everything that is good and protecting them from everything that is bad. Perhaps it is for this reason that most of the supplications of the Prophets used the word Lord (Rabb),^{3Wherever possible, Arabic terms have been translated into English. In cases where we have chosen to retain the Arabic, the transliterated word or phrase is shown in italics the first time it appears in the text. The term is also defined in the glossary found at the end of this book. (Editor)} since all their requests and needs came under His special cherishing.

The phrase (﴾the Lord of the worlds﴿ indicates that He alone has the power to create, and He alone controls His creation, bestows blessings and is completely independent of means, whilst all of creation is dependent upon Him in all respects.

﴾Master of the Day of Judgement﴿ The Master (Malik) is the one who possesses the attributes of sovereignty, one of the implications of which is that He enjoins and forbids, rewards and punishes, and controls His subjects in all ways. This sovereignty is connected to the Day of Judgement, which is the Day of Resurrection, the day on which people will be judged on the basis of their deeds, both good and bad. On that day. His perfect sovereignty, justice and wisdomwill become completely clear to His creation, and they will realise that created beings have no sovereignty at all. On that day, kings and subjects, slaves and free, will all be equal and will submit fully to His might, awaiting the reckoning, hoping for His reward and fearing His punishment. Hence this day is singled out for mention; otherwise, He is the Master of the Day of Judgement and of all other days.

﴾You [alone] we worship, and You [alone] we ask for help﴿ that is, we single out You alone to worship and ask for help. Putting the object at the beginning of the sentence conveys the meaning of exclusivity. In other words: we worship You, and we do not worship anyone other than You; we ask You for help and we do not ask anyone other than You for help.

Worship is mentioned before seeking help by way of mentioning what is general before what is specific, and also to give precedence to Allah’s dues over those of His slaves.

“Worship” (‘ibadah) refers to everything that Allah loves and is pleased with of actions and words, both outward and inward. “Seeking help” refers to relying upon Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) when seeking to attain what is beneficial and ward off what is harmful, whilst trusting that one will attain that.

Worshipping Allah and seeking His help is the means of attaining eternal happiness and salvation from all evils; there is no other way of attaining salvation apart from doing these two things. True worship can only be that which is learned from the Messenger of Allah (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam - blessings and peace be upon him) and done with the intention of seeking the pleasure of Allah. If it includes these two things, then it is worship. Seeking help is mentioned after worship, even though it is a part of worship, because in offering all types of worship the individual needs the help of Allah (سبحانه وتعالى); if Allah does not help him, he will not attain what he wants to of fulfilling commands and heeding prohibitions.

﴾Guide us to the straight path﴿ that is, show us and help us to follow the straight path, which is the clear path that leads to Allah and to His paradise, which in turn means knowing the truth and acting upon it. (This is a prayer) for guidance to the straight path and guidance when following the path. Guidance to the straight path means adhering to the religion of Islam and forsaking all other religions; guidance when following the path includes guidance concerning all the details of religion, in knowledge and action. This supplication is one of the most concise, comprehensive and beneficial of supplications. Hence it is obligatory to call upon Allah with it in every rak 'ah of the prayer, because we are in need of that.

This straight path is ﴾The path of those whom You have blessed﴿, namely the Prophets, siddeeqeen (strong and true in faith), martyrs and righteous people.

﴾not﴿ the path ﴾of those who have incurred Your wrath'p those who came to know the truth but drifted away from it, such as the Jews and others like them; and not the path ﴾fof those who have gone astray﴿, those who drifted away from the truth because of ignorance and misguidance, such as the Christians and others like them.

Although this soorah is brief, it contains that which no other soorah of the Qur’an contains. It refers to the three types of tawheed (affirmation of the oneness of Allah). Tawheed ar-ruboobiyah (affirmation of the oneness of the divine Lordship) is seen in the verse ﴾the Lord of the worlds﴿. Tawheed al-uloohiyah (affirmation of the oneness of divinity), which refers to worshipping Allah alone, is seen in the phrases ﴾Praise be to Allah﴿ and ﴾You [alone] we worship﴿. Tawheed al-asma ’ was-sifat (affirmation of the oneness of the divine names and attributes), which means affirming that the attributes of perfection belong to Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) alone, which He ascribed to Himself and which His Messenger (ﷺ) affirmed, without denyingthe apparent meanings or likening Him to His creation, is seen in the word ﴾Praise﴿, as discussed above.

It affirms prophethood in the words ﴾Guide us to the straight path﴿, because that guidance is not possible without sending Messengers.

It affirms recompense for deeds in the words ﴾Master of the Day of Judgement﴿, and tells us that the recompense will be on the basis of justice, because this is the meaning of the word judgement.

It affirms the divine decree, and tells us that humans act on the basis of free will, which is contrary to the views of the Qadaris^{4Qadari: follower of a theological school of thought that denied the divine will and decree, and said that man has absolute free will, therefore whatever he does is purely his choice and his will is independent of the will of Allah.} and Jabaris.^{5Jabari: follower of a theological school of thought that said that man has no free will, and whatever he does of good or evil is because it is decreed for him, and he is therefore compelled to do it and has no choice in the matter.} In fact, it refutes all the followers of innovation [and misguidance] in the verse ﴾Guide us to the straight path﴿ because the straight path is knowing the truth and acting upon it, but everyone who follows innovation [and misguidance] does the opposite of that.

It speaks of being sincere towards Allah in terms of worship and seeking help, in the verse ﴾You [alone] we worship, and You [alone] we ask for help﴿.

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

This is the end of the commentary on Soorat al-Fatihah.

All praise and thanks are for Allah, and may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). his family, and his Companions abundantly until the Day of Judgement.