and to Him belongs all praise, as the Most High says:
“To Him belongs sovereignty, and to Him belongs all praise, and He has power over all things.”
This entails that He has the power to show mercy. His mercy and beneficence are attributes of His that come about by His will, and thus belong to the “attributes dependent on His will.” It is related in the Sahīh that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) used to teach his Companions to seek Allah’s guidance in all matters, just as he taught them a surah of the Quran. He would say:
“When one of you intends to undertake something, let him pray two units of prayer other than the obligatory prayer, then say: ‘O Allah, I seek Your guidance through Your knowledge, and I seek ability through Your power, and I ask You of Your immense bounty. For You have power, and I do not; You know, and I do not; and You are the Knower of all unseen things. O Allah, if You know that this matter—and he should name it—is good for me in my religion, my worldly life, my livelihood, and the outcome of my affairs, then decree it for me, make it easy for me, and then bless it for me. But if You know that this matter is bad for me in my religion, my livelihood, and the outcome of my affairs, then turn it away from me and turn me away from it, and decree good for me wherever it may be.’”
Thus, he asked Allah by His knowledge and His power, and asked of His bounty; His bounty comes about through His mercy. These attributes encompass all the attributes of perfection. Knowledge, however, is universal in its scope: it encompasses the Creator and the creation, the existent and the nonexistent. Power, by contrast, pertains only to what is created. Likewise, sovereignty is exercised only over created things.
Al-Fātihah thus encompasses perfection of will, expressed in mercy, and perfection of power, expressed in sovereignty over the Day of Judgment. This is fully realized only through the attributes dependent on His will, as explained above. And Allah, glorified and exalted is He, knows best.