—that verse being the basmala.

The second designation is Umm al-Kitāb (Mother of the Book). In the Musnad and the Sunan of Ibn Mājah it is related from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—that she said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declare, “Whoever performs a prayer in which he does not recite Umm al-Kitāb, his prayer is defective.” (1)

Sunan Abī Dāwūd likewise records from Abū Hurayrah the statement: “Al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabb al-ʿālamīn is the Mother of the Qurʾān, the Mother of the Book, and the Seven Oft-Repeated.” (2)

Ibn ʿAbbās and others also called it Umm al-Kitāb.

Al-Ḥasan, however, objected to that appellation, saying, “Umm al-Kitāb refers to the lawful and the unlawful,” alluding to the verse, “He is the One who has sent down to you the Book; in it are verses that are clear and decisive—they are the Mother of the Book—while others are allegorical” (Āl ʿImrān 3:7). Some have contended that Umm al-Kitāb is in fact the Preserved Tablet (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ), citing His words, “Allah effaces or confirms whatever He wills, and with Him is the Mother of the Book” (Raʿd 13:39) and, “Indeed, it is in the Mother of the Book with Us—lofty, full of wisdom” (Zukhruf 43:4). None of this, however, prevents al-Fātiḥah from bearing that name.