Quran Blogger

After we pray for guidance regarding the Straight Path, the ayah continues with some further identifying descriptions: The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, Those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray.

I have seen two common ways in which this language is interpreted.  The first implies that the two identifying descriptions that appear at the end of the ayah (“those whose portion is not wrath” and “those who go not astray”) are counterpoints to and elucidate the meaning and identification of the path. The second (A.Y. Ali’s view) is that those two identifying descriptions are counterpoints to and elucidate the meaning and identification of God’s ni’mah (translated above as “Grace,” but which can also be translated as Blessing/Favor/Tenderness).

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For most of The Opening, God teaches us how to ask.  In the last part of The Opening, God teaches us a different, intensely profound lesson: what to ask for.

Before we get into the text of the final ayahs of The Opening, let’s pretend for a moment that we don’t know what the ayahs actually say.  Let’s ruminate then, in our state of feigned ignorance, about what we would assume the last few ayahs of The Opening ought to say.

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I do not, with this blog, intend to go through the Quran commenting on each word in every line of every ayah.  However, because The Opening is so ingrained in the daily lives of Muslims and is such a fundamental part of so many rituals in the Islamic faith, I feel that it warrants some extra blogging attention, even if that means parsing some of the ayahs so closely that this blog begins to teeter toward the over-technical and risks making readers yawn uncontrollably (assuming, perhaps presumptuously, that the prior blog posts were not in their own rights boring to you readers).  May God guide us to a proper understanding of His message. 

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Many commentators on the Quran have gone into detail about the meanings of the seven verses of The Opening, and I don’t want to repeat here what you can find in most commentaries or Quranic exegeses.  For example, I don’t want to expound upon the hadith describing how The Opening is an interactive prayer between the worshiper and God (you can read that hadith here (see Number 0775 of Book 4)), or to cite sources supporting the notion that The Opening is required to be recited in every physical prayer.  Rather, I would like first to comment briefly on the individual ayahs that make up the surah and then share some thoughts on The Opening’s crescendo and its ultimate message.  This should take two or three posts to get through, so we might as well just dive in.

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Updated on Saturday, May 2, 2009 at 9:23AM by The QB

While it is universally accepted that the phrase “In the name of God, The Most Gracious (or The Most Compassionate), The Most Merciful” is part of the Quran and rightfully belongs at the beginning of each surah, there is a difference of opinion among Quranic scholars over whether the phrase is actually a numbered ayah of the first surah (which is called Al-Fatihah, or “The Opening”).

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