In this blog article, In sha Allah I will try to explain little tafseer and beautiful insights of ayat 3 and 4 of surah Al-Fatiha. This article is my understanding based on one of the lectures of brother Nouman Ali Khan. This post is part 3 of this series of understanding surah Al-Fatiha.
You can find part 2 of this series of explanation of Surah Al-Fatiha at below link :
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Now, lets start understanding these beautiful aayaat of Quran Paak.
Surah Al-Fatiha Ayat 3 (verse 3) :
ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
"The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful,"
The words 'Rahman' and 'Raheem' comes from root word 'Raham'. And this word has a meaning of intense love , care ,concern and mercy. But remember that love is first and last is mercy. It says how much Allah SWT loves us and cares for us. Allah is Rab which means he is a master of all and little detail meaning I explained in previous part. The 'Rab' is connected with authority which means Allah is in full authority of everything. When you talk about authority you don't imagine love there. Right ? But here Allah is saying no doubt that he has a full authority over all but he also loves all of us a lot.
Now, Lets understand the difference between 'Ar-rahman' and 'Ar-raheem'.
There are 3 Qualities of 'Ar-Rahman' :
1: Extreme Love beyond expectations.
2: Something happening immediately.( i.e Allah is loving, caring, protecting right now )
3 : It is temporary.
2: Something happening immediately.( i.e Allah is loving, caring, protecting right now )
3 : It is temporary.
Let see some other words which has a same grammatical form that word 'Rahman' has.
'Gadhbaan' : Extreme anger. i.e you can't get more angry than this and after this you calm down.
'Gatshaan' : Extreme thirst i.e You can't get more thirsty than this but eventually you drink water and thirst extinguish. As water takes away thirst. I.e So summary is word 'Ar-Rahman' has a Quality which is extreme and right now but not permanent.
And there are 2 Qualities of Ar-Raheem :
1 : It is permanent
2 : Not necessarily right now
2 : Not necessarily right now
For example If I say my teacher is merciful or my mother is loving. It does not means that my teacher is showing mercy on someone right now. It is long term quality but not necessarily right now. Therefore Allah used both Ar-rahman and Ar-raheem. Let me explain how both quality is crucial with the help of example and why 'Ar-Rahman' is before 'Ar-Raheem' in this ayat.
Let say there is an employee who wants his salary of the current month. And he is in urgent need of the salary. One of his colleague comes to him and says our boss is reliable. The man in need of money says I need money right now. Eventually he gets the salary. Now he thinks that his boss is reliable so he will get his next month salary also. But he thought of reliability later. First he thinks about his present needs. Therefore Allah used 'Ar-Rahman' first and then 'Ar-Raheem'.
When Ibn Abbas r.a was asked about this he said, "Ar -Rahman is for this world and Ar-Raheem is for Muslims in the next world." This world is temporary ( as word Rahman meaning ). And next world is permanent ( like word Raheem meaning )
Surah Al-Fatiha Ayat 4 (verse 4) :
مَٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ
"The Owner of the Day of Recompense."
If it would be just Ar-Rahman and Ar- Raheem people would take advantage of Allah's love and mercy. So immediately Allah said that he is a Master of day of judgment. Deen in Arabic means Accurate/precise dealing. This is an ayah about dealing with you with justice. What we are learning in this ayah is very powerful philosophy of Islam. You have only 2 ways that you will be dealt with on the day of judgment. Either you will get Allah’s love and mercy or you will get Allah’s justice. Allah didn't say that you will either get mercy or punishment.
Because no one will enter Paradise because of his good deeds, but only because of Allah’s mercy. As every son of Adam A.S is a Sinner, and best of sinners are those who repent ( constantly ). So the one who will enter Jannah is only because Allah chose to have mercy upon him and forgive his sins. And as for those whom Allah will look with the eyes of justice than he will be dealt based on what he would have done in this life. May Allah SWT show his mercy on us on that day when there will be no shade except his.
Allah is extremely loving but the moment you start taking advantage of Allah's love by doing wrong thing purposely and then saying Allah is loving and forgiving. So Allah does not take this lightly. Its Allah’s way of saying that people take advantage of my mercy but they forget that I have a right to judge them. I will show them mercy as long as they don't try to take advantage of my mercy. It's a perfect balance between these 2 things. So Allah SWT puts us in check by saying ‘Maaliki yomiddeen’ ( Master of day of judgment )
In this blog article, I tried to explain very little about what I understand from ayat 3 and 4 of surah Al Fatiha. This was based on my notes taken from one of the lectures of brother Nouman Ali Khan.
Also Read : Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 15 to 17 : Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan
Also Read : Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 15 to 17 : Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan
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