Part 1 Surah Fatiha Amazing Deep Explanation : Nouman Ali Khan

In The Name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful.

As Allah SWT says in Quran... “and We have revealed the Book to you explaining clearly everything (16:89).And at other place in Quran.Allah says .. “And (as for) those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide them onto Our ways”. (29:69). 

This blog is my little effort towards better understanding of Quran. Brother Nouman Ali Khan has put amazing efforts for explaining the book of Allah.In this blog article I will try to explain surah fatiha in sha Allah, which I learned from the lecture of Nouman ali khan.The tafseer of surah fatiha is very long, So I have planned to divide the whole explanation in different parts. This article is first part of the Surah Fatiha series.

Also, Please like my Facebook page "Explain Me Quran" to get latest article on Quran explanation.You can find my Facebook page link at the end of this article.

Now, lets start understanding these beautiful aayaat of Quran Paak.

Surah Fatiha Explanation Part-1

Ayah(verse) 1 of Surah Fatiha:

"Bismil lahir Rahmaanir Raheem"

"In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful."

'Bi 'in this verse captures beautiful desperation and reliance of us on Allah's qualities and his names.

When we say, In the name of Allah, we are actually saying something very powerful.We are saying we need qualities of Allah to whatever we are going to accomplish. The word Allah on one hand is original name of Allah and by using it we are calling on all of his qualities all at once.

And on other hand, some suggest the origin of word Allah comes from 'ilaah' or 'walah' which actually means turn to somebody in desperation.It also means the object of ones's intense love.It also means someone that you rely on and lean on. All of these meanings actually at the essence of the word Allah is some one that we love and that we are desperately in need of.

This could have end with just 'In the name of Allah' But no. Quran says..'In the name of Allah, the entirely merciful, the especially merciful'. And in doing so, Allah has told us that In everything that  we do, we must never forget that this is actually the essence of who Allah is to us. This is at the core of who GOD is to us as a Muslim.This is why it is at the beginning of every surah. You are invoking Allah as the most loving and caring one and then studying the chapter of Quran or part of Quran. 

Therefore you can never look at it as an expression of Allah's anger or his wrath or things like that. All of it has to be interpreted and seen as a manifestation of his love, care and mercy. May Allah SWT make us people who enjoy the beauty and power of bismillahirrahmanirrahim in every thing that we do.

Also read : Beautiful explanation of Surah Baqarah Ayat 1 to 3 - Nouman Ali Khan

Ayah(verse) 2 of Surah Fatiha:

"Alhamdulillahi Rabbil aalameen"
"[All] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the world"

We will say different amazing aspects of this verse below point wise.

Aspect 1:

Hamd has 2 meaning - praise and thanks. For example: when you see nice car you praise it, you don't thank it. Means praising does not necessarily mean thanking and converse is also true. When someone does a favour you say thanks. E.g firon can never be praised but moosa a.s thanks him for he was raised in firon’s palace. So thank can be without praise and praise can be without thanks. 

Allah SWT saying here that Thanks and praise for Allah by combining the two meaning in one word.So no option of choosing anyone of them.Also, the best speech is that which is Less and easy to say. ( as word hamd is used here ) ALHAMDULILLAH forces Muslims to think positively as momin Muslim praise and thanks Allah in all situations.

Aspect 2:

Verb has Tense, BUT noun has no tense. For E.g. : If I say I praised Allah. (it is about past, I am not committing to present or future ).It is not permanent as VERB is not permanent. But Allah used noun form which is ALHAMDULILLAH. NOUN is permanent. I may not be there, but praise of Allah will always be there. It is not dependent on me. Because when we use Verb. There need to be subject(faayel in urdu). Someone needs to do verb. But noun does not need any subject to do it. It is independent. E.g. apple is apple.

Allah SWT neither limit it by time(by not using tense) nor by number of people who do it( by not using verb as verb need someone to do it). So, we learn that Allah SWT doesn't need us. We need Allah SWT. It teaches us to be Optimistic and Humble.

Aspect 3:

Command Sentence( jumla amr ): Allah SWT didn't talk in a way which depend upon us. 

Means if someone order you to do something then you have a choice to either do it or not. But Allah SWT did not order to give us a choice. I.e. he did not say that praise Allah which would be command sentence. Allah’s praise was always and will always be there. It does not need us. We need it.

Also Read : Some Beautiful Insights from Surah Ar-Rahman : Nouman Ali Khan

Aspect 4:

There are two kind of communication in Arabic. 

Informative ( jumla khabariya, speech communicating information ) 

Emotional ( jumla inshaaiyaa, speech expressing your feelings ) 

When I am teaching Alhamdulillah, it is informative. And I also need someone else to convey the information. And when I am saying it to myself even when no one around me, it is emotional. maybe I was late then also I got my train or bus, so I said Alhamdulillah out of emotion. Also khateeb starts with innal hamda lillah. Someone might say it is more powerful than just alhamdulillah because of inna(indeed) in the beginning.  

But we know Quran is perfect. Not even single word can be added. 

Actually in Arabic if Inna is added in beginning it can only be jumla khabriya. So, by not adding Inna in beginning Allah did not limit it to be just jumla khabariya.Khateeb says it because he is addressing people and conveying information to them. 

Thus we can say Alhamdulillah to others as well as to self. 

Aspect 5:

There can be 2 ways to say same sentence. 
Usual way : For E.g. I ate lunch, They went to school and so on. 

Unusual way : For E.g. Lunch I ate, To school they went and so on. 

Alhamdulillah(used here )and lillahil hamd (Used at Eid takbir times and also used at other place in Quran) both has same meaning But actually they are not same thing.In Arabic when you change normal sequence then it means 'only'. 
E.g. biryani I ate = biryani only I ate.

But in Arabic in unusual way we don't need to use “only”. It by defaults means “only” 

So lillahil hamd means hamd is only belongs to Allah.In surah 45( surah jathiya) at the end lillahil hamd is used and incredibly the whole surah is a debate. And at the end of this debate Allah says to mushriq hey hamd only belongs to Allah. (it doesn't belongs to anyone else) 

When Muslims talks to each other they don't have this confusion. Like we don't say to other Muslims hey listen hamd only belongs to Allah. Surah fatiha is introduction and in that Allah SWT does not want to yell at. It is not a debate it is something already in our heart. So no need to say lillahil hamd( to emphasize ‘Only’ ) 

Aspect 6:

Allah SWT has at least 99 names. But Allah SWT didn't say Alhamdu li khaliq or alhamdu li rahman or others here instead used ALLAH.When you introduce yourself to some new one e.g. you mention your name. You won't say I am engineer. Surah fatiha is Allah’s introduction, so Allah used his name not description.Thanks, and praise is specific. 

For E.g : You thank teacher for the way he teach. You thank someone for the help they did for you. Similarly you praise mountain for its beauty. Air for its freshness as you are enjoying it. So If for e.g Allah would said Alhamdu li khaliq (thanks and praise for the creator), it would means praise and thanks rab only for he created us and everything. Then what about other favors?? 

So how do I appreciate Allah and I don't miss anything? Only option left Is “Allah” it include everything what we think of and what we can't think of. So, Alhamdulillah is perfect. 

This was the little bit of a taste of 'Alhamdulillah'. This exercise was of exploring little bit of what Alhamdulillah is and what are the alternatives and how come the alternatives are not good enough. Can you imagine this exercise exists for the entire Quran word by word. And it gives you appreciation of Quran like nothing else. 'Fatiha' literally means 'the opener'. When you reflect on it, it opens the rest of the doors. And when you don't reflect on it, doors remain closed.

In this Part I have only explained few insights from 'Alhamdulillah' of ayah 2 of Surah Fatiha. I will cover other explanations of this ayah in next Part In sha Allah. May Allah SWT guide all of us.

Read : Part 2 Surah Fatiha Amazing Deep Explanation : Nouman Ali Khan