Al-Fatiha · 1:1-6
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds. The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgment. You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path.
Al-Fatiha — the Opening — is called Umm al-Kitab: the Mother of the Book. The Prophet ﷺ said no prayer is valid without it, and we recite it seventeen times a day in salah alone. The structure is remarkable: the first half praises Allah on His terms. The second half is the human plea. The hinge — the exact center — is 'You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help.' At that pivot, the servant turns from describing Allah to addressing Him directly. The scholars said: this surah is a complete conversation between servant and Lord, encoded in seven verses.
Al-Fatiha is the first surah revealed in complete form. It is also called Al-Shifa — the Healing — because the Prophet ﷺ used it as ruqyah (healing recitation). Ibn al-Qayyim wrote an entire book on its meanings. It has been called the greatest surah in the Quran.
You recite Al-Fatiha at least seventeen times a day. When did you last recite it slowly enough to hear what you were saying?
Recite Al-Fatiha once today as if for the first time. Read the translation line by line before each line of Arabic.
“Al-Fatiha is a complete conversation between servant and Lord. We recite it seventeen times a day.”
— Taqwa Daily