Part 6 : Deep explanation of Ayat 7 of Surah Al Fatiha

In this blog article, In sha Allah I will try to explain little tafseer and beautiful insights of ayat 7 of surah Al-Fatiha. This article is my understanding based on one of the lecture of brother Nouman Ali Khan. You can find explanation of previous Part of Surah Al-Fatiha at below link.
Part 5 : Deep explanation of Ayat 6 of Surah Al Fatiha

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 this beautiful ayat of surah Al-Fatiha.

Verse 7 of Surah Al-Fatiha

Surah Al-Fatiha Ayat 7: (Verse 7)

صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ

("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray.")

When we want advice for career decisions, we know that graduate people give better advice than fellow students. Because they have gone through it. In this ayah Allah SWT says, look for role model in the past ( e.g Ibrahim a.s graduated, same for Yusuf a.s, ashabul kahf, noah a.s etc ) as they are done. Because If you will look for role model right now then there may occur a problem. Because they may be on right path now but tomorrow they may be on wrong path. Word 'An-amta' in this ayat comes from 'nuouma' which means softness, ease. Path of going up is hard as we discussed before but Allah said Allah made this path soft and easy for people before you. So you should find out how Allah SWT made that easy for them. 

One thing to understand here is, instead of praising those before us Allah is  teaching us to praise Allah for helping them by saying 'an-amta alaihim'(upon whom You(Allah) have bestowed favour ). We are asking Allah to also teach us who didn't graduate, the one who messed up. So that we don't walk on their path. That is why we need to know both the groups. Some among the Jews had the kind of behaviour that can be described as 'Maghdoobi alaihim'(who have evoked anger). And some among the Christians had the kind of behaviour that can be described as 'Ad-daaalleen'(who are astray). Here criticism is about behaviour. If it would not be the case then Allah would mention Yahood and Nasara in this ayat. If you have a christen friend, You can't say I was talking to my 'daaalleen' friend.

Lets try to understand why anger with Jews and astray with Christian. For example, Teacher gave questions to one of the student along with the answers which are going to come in exam. Despite this, that student failed in exam. And there is a another student who also failed but he was neither knowing questions nor answers which were going to come in exam. On whom teacher will be more angry at? Of Course on the first one. Because if you know what to do and what not do and still you do opposite of that than you deserve anger. Some of the Jews knew what to do and were very knowledgeable but they still did opposite and took wrong decisions so they deserve anger. But that doesn't mean that this ayat only refers to Jews. 'Maghdoobi alaihim refers to anyone who take wrong decisions after knowing what is right.

Also Read : Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 23 and 24 : Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan

'An-amta' means , "you(Allah) favoured". Thing to understand here is 'you(Allah)' is mentioned here. But in "GHAYRIL MAGHDOOBI ALAYHIM" , there is no mention of Allah. Allah is so angry on these people that he didn't even mention himself with them. But Allah mentioned himself with the people he was happy with.( 'an-amta' ). Another point to understand is, Allah didn't mention whose anger. Because they get anger from Allah, Angles that cannot be counted, Believers etc. It can be understand well through below example. If some one says 'child was beaten in school'. From this sentence we don't get to know who beat him. And also we don't get to know whether one or more people beat him.

Nouns are permanent. 'An-amta alaihim' is in past tense so its not noun. They were in the past. For people who receives Allah's anger, Allah used a noun. 'Al-maghdoobi alaihim' is a noun. It means this phenomena was in past, is in present and will be in future. Allah made it noun which means It's gonna happen even now. This means we are not safe, so we need to be very careful.

'Ad-daaalleen' means the one who is lost. If someone is lost, they miss information and direction. For example, If I lost in the way and I did not reach classroom then I don't know what to study. Whereas 'Maghdoob' are those who do the wrong thing even after they know. (Allah talks about anger with them). Because they find guidance and still don't act upon it. And 'Ad-daaalleen' are people who do wrong because they don't even know what is wrong and what is right. ( Allah didn't mention anger with them ). From Ayat 7 of surah Ad-Duha we learn that you could be lost and then can find guidance.

Muslims can be 'Maghdoobi alaihim' when they know something is wrong but still do it. And what kind of Muslims can be 'Ad-daaalleen'? It is when they do something wrong and they don't even know that it's wrong. But this is not there excuse. Because we are suppose to ask Allah for guidance. And we should seek knowledge. So if some muslim is saying that I don't want to know because after knowing if I don't do then I will be responsible, then It's like saying I don't want to be 'Maghdoobi alaihim', I would rather be 'Ad-daaalleen'. 

May Allah SWT guide all of us.

In this blog article, I tried to explain very little about what I understand from ayat 7 of surah Al-Fatiha. This was based on my notes taken from one of the lectures of brother Nouman Ali Khan.

Also Read : Part 1-Ayat 17 of Surah Al-A'raf : How Shaitan(Devil) attacks from the Front