one scholar. The point is that the Sunnah is to recite the Quran as it appears in the written copies. However, when “Say, ‘He is Allah, One’” is recited on its own, it may be recited three times or more. Whoever recites it receives a reward equivalent to one-third of the reward for reciting the Quran. Yet a thing’s equivalent—ʿadl, pronounced with a short a—is of a different kind from it, as we shall explain, if Allah wills.
Rewards are of different kinds, just as wealth is of different kinds: food, drink, clothing, housing, money, and so forth. If a man possesses, for example, a thousand dinars’ worth of one kind of wealth, it does not follow that he can dispense with all the other kinds. If his wealth consists of food, he still needs clothing, housing, and other things. Likewise, if it consists of some kind other than money, he needs other kinds; and if he possesses nothing but money, he needs all the various goods themselves and the benefits they provide.
Al-Fātihah contains benefits in the form of praise and supplication that people need, for which “Say, ‘He is Allah, One’” cannot substitute, even though its reward is immense. A person benefits from that immense reward only alongside the reward of reciting the Opening of the Book. Thus, if he were to recite that surah alone in prayer, without al-Fātihah, his prayer would not be valid. Even if he were to recite the entire Quran except al-Fātihah, his prayer would not be valid, because the meanings of al-Fātihah encompass the fundamental needs that Allah’s servants cannot do without. This has been discussed at length elsewhere, and it has been explained that the praise contained in al-Fātihah