The Opening of the Qur'an

]The Opening
]The Qur'an starts with the Surah
(chapter) called "Al-Fatihah" which means "the
opener" as it opens the Qur'an it is sometimes also able to
open people's hearts
[b][font=Arial][size=12]1 In the name of Allah Most
Gracious Most Merciful.
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Praise be to Allah the
Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds.

</blockquote>
</blockquote> Most Gracious Most Merciful.
4 Master of the Day of Judgement.
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
5 It is you we worship and
serve and it is you we seek help from.

</blockquote>
</blockquote>6 Show us the straight way.
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
]7 The way of those upon
whom You bestowed Your Grace, not those upon whom is
anger, nor those who go astray.[/size]
</blockquote>The importance of these verses to
</blockquote>the practising Muslim is very great. The closest comparable thing
in Christianity is 'The Lord's Prayer' (Our father, who art in
heaven, give us our daily bread....). These verses of the Qur'an
are a prayer that forms the core of the obligatory and
non-obligatory formal prayers of all Muslims. They recite it and
reflection it at least 17 times a day. It sets the state of the
mind, heart and soul at the beginning of each prayer and
therefore sets the outlook on the day and hence indicates the
whole perspective on life of a Muslim. It contains, in a few
short verses, all the basic principles of Islam.
"bismillahi-Rahmani-Rahim" - In the name of Allah the
most Gracious the Most Merciful - is a key part of the everyday
life of Muslims. Muslims are encouraged to start every act with
these words since by doing so, that act becomes a direct 'ibadah'
(worship & service) of Allah provided that what is being done
is in accordance with Islamic law. It therefore helps to develop
in Muslims a good habit of reflecting on the moral value of all
their actions at the point they are about to do them. Indeed, all
permissible acts in Islam can be a form of worship of Allah -
including sex with your spouse.
If we look a little more closely
at the Arabic words we might give the following clarification.
Firstly, the words that are Allah’s names are in an
intensive form. The basic word of rahman is an adjective meaning
showing kindness and giving benefits. The intensive form implies
that you can basically ignore all other rahman in comparison.
Al-Rahman means THE Gracious - the one whose grace totally
eclipses the grace of others. Al Rahim is a very similar word but
implies definite action taking place. So Allah is the one who is
actively bestowing of grace so much more than any other that the
others are negligible by comparison
The name Allah is also of this
form. It literally means "The god" in comparison to
which all other (would be) gods are as nothing.
Verse 2
Verse 1 has the effect of saying
"now we begin". After it is said, we start the actual
prayer:
Alhamdu lillah - literally:
"the praise is for Allah" This is very fundamental to
Islam - God is the source of all good and consequently when we
appreciate anything of His creation, we exclaim praise to He who
is responsible - Allah. This exclamation contains the driving
idea of Islam and ties in exactly to the value argument presented
earlier in the section on the Sin of Disbelief. The exclamation
forms a key part in the Muslim outlook on life. When Muslims are
happy at some good thing happening they exclaim alhamdu lillah -
praise be to God. This helps prevent arrogance from thinking that
this good is from yourself rather than from the source of all
good. If things happen that to you seem bad you should also say
"alhamdu lillah!" to counter the idea that Allah causes
bad to happen to you. This has the effect of turning perceived
problems into opportunities. It reminds one to show moral virtues
like patience and trying to learn how to solve the problem. It
put one in the frame of mind that looks towards how to achieve
good deeds out of this situation.
After the exclamation the
explanation comes in a superbly condensed form. "Rabb
al-‘alamin" - the lord of the worlds. The word meaning
'worlds' implies all possible worlds known to exist. This was
interpreted at the time to mean the spirit world, the world of
the heavens, the world of human beings. Essentially each realm of
known existence. (the word in fact comes from the root verb
"to know"). A modern interpretation might consider the
worlds to mean different planets or even parallel universes as in
the 'many worlds' theory which some physicists seem to like at
the moment.
]The word Rabb means primarily the
person in charge - the authority figure. The person who makes the
decisions. This goes to the heart of the argument made earlier
about seeking deeper explanations. The ultimate explanation
behind all of the ways that existence functions is the decision
of Allah. The word Rabb also has the implicit meaning of
cherishing, sustaining and bringing to maturity. Allah cares for
all the worlds He has created.[/size][/font][/b]
[b][font=Arial][size=12]This verse sets the initial
perspective of the reader or person praying towards the ultimates
of existence: the ultimate authority behind existence and the
]Verse 3
This re-iterates the meaning from
verse 1 and guides the perspective more towards the relationship
of humans to Allah. The primary reality of this relationship is
authority of Allah over His creation as expressed in the word
"Rabb". This relationship however must never be thought
of as an arbitrary authority. It is authority with a purpose. The
authority is used for the good; it is used for "rahma"
and this is verse three that brings this point home. It the
recognition of the grace of Allah towards His creation.
The Qur'an now brings the focus
Humanity's relation to Allah. Human beings, unlike any other part
of Allah's creation have free will. They can be part of the
divine purpose of rahma or they can oppose it.
This leads to man's
responsibility, which flows towards Allah and the consequences of
this responsibility. There is a judgement of a person's efforts
and implicitly rewards and punishments depending on how well that
person has done. If they have tried to be part of the divine
purpose, if they have tried to do what is right, then they are
rewarded. If they have opposed the divine purpose they are
punished before Allah then shows mercy on all who have had even
as little as a mustard seed of trust in Allah and puts them into
paradise. (Sahih Bukhari Hadith 8.565)[
From this recognition flows
gratitude and from this gratitude flows the desire to please the
object of your gratitude. The Muslim tries to please Allah
primarily out of gratitude for the grace he has bestowed on him /
her. Islam literally means willinglyseeking to do what Allah
wills by submitting to His will and thereby pleasing Him.

This is now very directly the
relationship between Allah and human beings. We are made by Allah
and we are subject to His laws. We owe all that we have to Allah
since He gave us all we have. Our lives are indebted to His grace
and we continually recognise this through worship and through
seeking Allah's pleasure through serving Him. In exchange to what
we do we receive help from Him in abundance. The emphasis here
implies ‘only’, so that it means that a Muslim only
worships and serves Allah and only seeks help from Allah. No
matter how Muslims receive help they attribute it to Allah as
being in control of all things. The emphasis also quashes the
thought that Allah might in any sense need our help by stressing
that the relation is the other way round.

This is the essential form of help
that Allah provides in answer to our asking for help. He provides
guidance.
the word ‘show’