is the Greatest; there is no power and no strength except through Allah.” (1) These are five phrases. If someone asks: How can these five suffice in place of the seven, when the verses of al-Fatihah are seven?

The answer is that the substitute need not be equal to that which it replaces. Do you not see that clothing ten people as expiation for a broken oath is generally not equivalent to feeding them, nor is it equivalent to freeing a slave? Thus, a substitute need not be equal to that which it replaces. However, our jurists, may Allah have mercy on them, stated that if he knows something of the Quran other than al-Fatihah, he must recite from it an amount equivalent to al-Fatihah. They distinguished this from remembrance of Allah on the grounds that what one is able to do belongs to the same category as that which one is unable to do; it must therefore be equivalent to it. This differs from a pure substitute, for which equivalence is not required.

The order, then, is as follows: reciting al-Fatihah; if one is unable, then whatever is easy of the Quran besides it; and if one is unable, then glorifying Allah, praising Him, declaring His greatness, affirming that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and saying, “There is no power and no strength except through Allah.”

If someone asks: If I cannot find anyone to teach it to me except for payment, am I required to pay him?

The answer is: Yes—just as one who can find water only by purchasing it is required to buy it for ablution. But the question remains: is it permissible for the other person to charge a fee for teaching the Quran?