Eighth name: “Sūrat al-Ḥamd” (the Chapter of Praise). This appellation is well-known, and many scholars understood the hadith, “He used to open the prayer with al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabb al-‘ālamīn,” as an explicit mention of the surah’s title.

If it is asked: “There are several chapters in the Quran that begin with al-ḥamdu lillāh, so why is al-Fātiḥah alone called ‘Sūrat al-Ḥamd’?”

The answer is that glorifying Allah, Exalted be He, is the surah’s chief objective among all its themes; it fills roughly half of the verses and therefore predominates. The surah was accordingly named after what dominates it, unlike the others.

Ninth name: “ash-Shifāʾ” (the Healing). More than one scholar has mentioned this title, citing the report transmitted by Ibn Sīrīn from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The Opening of the Book is a cure for every illness,” and in another wording: “for every poison except al-sām,” meaning death itself. It is said that al-Dārimī recorded the report (1). It has likewise been related as a mursal report from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr that the Prophet ﷺ said: “In the Opening of the Book there is a cure for every disease” (2).