Section on al-Fatiha

Allah the Exalted has said in Umm al-Qur’an, the Seven Oft-Repeated and the Magnificent Qur’an: “You alone we worship and You alone we seek for help” (al-Fatiha 5).

This surah is the Mother of the Qur’an; it is the Opening of the Book; it is the Seven Oft-Repeated and the Sublime Qur’an; it is the Healer; it is obligatory in the ritual prayers—no salah is valid without it—and it is all-sufficient: it suffices for everything else, while nothing else can suffice for it.

The prayer is the finest of deeds. It is composed of noble words and righteous actions: the most excellent and most binding of its words is the Qur’an, and the most excellent and most binding of its actions is prostration. Both elements are combined in the first surah ever revealed to His Messenger, for He opened it with the words, “Recite in the name of your Lord who created” (al-ʿAlaq 1) and concluded it with, “So prostrate and draw near” (al-ʿAlaq 19). Accordingly, the prayer was structured so that its beginning is recitation and its conclusion is prostration.

For this reason He, exalted is He, said concerning the prayer of fear: “Then, when they have prostrated, let them stand behind you” (al-Nisaʾ 102). By “prostrated” He intends the rakʿah they perform on their own after separating from the imam, and the components that come before the recitation—namely the opening takbir, the introductory supplication, and the seeking of refuge—are