One of my favorite verses in the Quran is the last verse of Surah Muzammil (73). Allah says, “Indeed, your Lord knows, [O Muhammad], that you stand [in prayer] almost two thirds of the night or half of it or a third of it, and [so do] a group of those with you. And Allah determines [the extent of] the night and the day. He has known that you [Muslims] will not be able to do it and has turned to you in forgiveness, so recite what is easy [for you] of the Qur’an. He has known that there will be among you those who are ill and others traveling throughout the land seeking [something] of the bounty of Allah and others fighting for the cause of Allah . So recite what is easy from it and establish prayer and give zakah and loan Allah a goodly loan. And whatever good you put forward for yourselves – you will find it with Allah . It is better and greater in reward. And seek forgiveness of Allah . Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”

I think it relates well to Surah Fatiha because the verse is all about ibadah (worship) Allah’s Mercy and His Forgiveness.

Without us even asking Allah has extended His Mercy to us. We were created to worship Him, but He excuses the fact that we simply cannot pray even part of the night, let alone the whole night. And He allows us (or rather commands us) to follow a path of ease when praying in the night, and He forgives us our shortcomings. Without us even asking. Thus we must start each prayer with thanks and gratitude (hamd) to Allah because the prayer is not enough and He’s already promised to forgive that. Because He is ArRahman, ArRaheem.

Br. Nouman Ali Khan in one of his lectures mentioned that the verse “Maliki youm al deen” is extremely powerful because it illustrates that Allah is sovereign over a day, a unit of time. No being, no creature, can make the claim that they are the owners/rulers of everything that occurs in even the smallest unit of time. The same (I think) is illustrated here when Allah says He determines night and day. Allah is in charge of something no one else can ever control: time.

My favorite part of the verse are the examples that Allah gives of what keeps us occupied from qiyam al layl (praying during the night). Sickness, work, striving in His cause…these can all be considered acts of ibadah if done for the sake of Allah, and in all of them we need His Help. Allah continues to guide us as to acts of ibadah: prayer and zakah. Here Allah is offering us His help. This is the Guidance Allah gives us to stay on sirat al mustaqeem.

And in His Mercy He even describes zakah as a loan to Him, never mind that the money we earn is from Allah. How Merciful that He accepts it back from us as a loan and (insha Allah) rewards us with jannah for this loan. And He promises that any good we do will be acknowledged and mutliplied with Allah. This is additional Mercy and Help from Allah, because no human being could have earned Allah’s Forgiveness without His Mercy and His Help. Thus the only way to stay on siratul mistaqeem is to pray, do good deeds, strive in the way of Allah, and beg for Allah’s Mercy and Forgiveness. As the ayah concludes, “…and seek forgiveness of Allah . Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” Alhamdullilahi rabil alameen 🙂

*Seeking help from Allah from the evils of evil whispers (similar to iyaka Nasta’een)

*Seeking help (isti3atha) is something we start the Fatiha and any verse with, it is also a worship of the external (tongue) and internal (heart)

*The verse has some the greatest names of Allah Rab, Malik, and Ilah

*acknowledging and seeing help frm the shaytan show that a person feels humbleness and need to stick to the straight path

*The sura ends with showing that there are 2 sources of evil jinn and humans, and in surat Al Faitha we ask the path of those who Allah favoured and not path of those who didn’t stick on that same path and goal we aim to achieve

*Surat An Nas starts with asking Allah and end with (Nas) and Surat Al Fatiha starts with praise and ends with du’aa (first half is about the creator and second half is about the creation)

JAK sheikh Suhaib Webb you really inspire us to keep re-attaching and renewing our relationship with the Qur’an

May Allah reward you and increase your knowledge. I hope you don’t mind me leaving a short comment here regarding the pronoun ‘we’ in ‘You alone we worship’. I remember reading somewhere the significance or the benefits of Allah’s usage of the plural (we) in place of the singular (I) in verse five of the opening chapter of the Qur’an. Following are some of the benefits:
1. It highlights the virtue of congregational prayer in the Mosque
2. By using the plural everyone become intercessors for one another
3. It emphasises the unity (Tawhid) of Allah
4. It encourages Muslims to unite upon the Tawhid of Allah and discourages disunity
5. It emphasises brotherhood and love between Muslims

Wallahu ‘alam

Wassalam

O man! Verily, you are returning towards your Lord with your deeds and actions (good or bad), a sure returning, and you will meet (i.e. the results of your deeds which you did). (6) Then, as for him who will be given his Record in his right hand, (7) He surely will receive an easy reckoning, (8) And will return to his family in joy! (9) But whosoever is given his Record behind his back, (10) He will invoke (for his) destruction, (11) And he shall enter a blazing Fire, and be made to taste its burning. (12)