the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said, “Whoever recites the Opening of the Book, it is as though he has recited the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, and the Criterion.” (1)

This is confirmed by its very title, “Mother of the Book,” for the mother of a thing is its root and the place where its parts come together.

A brief explanation of how this surah contains all the objectives of the scriptures that were sent down is as follows:

Allah, exalted is He, sent the messengers and revealed the books only so that they might call His creation to know Him, affirm His oneness, worship Him, love Him, draw near to Him, and turn back to Him. This is the purpose, the essence, and the central axis of the message around which everything revolves; whatever lies beyond that merely completes and perfects it. Every human being is in desperate need of learning this in knowledge and realizing it in action; without these two aims there is no happiness, no success, and no salvation for the servant.

Sūrat al-Fātiḥah embraces those very aims, for it introduces the Lord—glorified be He—through three names to which all the rest return: Allah, ar-Rabb (the Lord), and ar-Raḥmān (the All-Merciful). The surah is built upon