On the Opening of the Book (Fātiḥat al-Kitāb)

Know that the Opening of the Book is the seven oft-repeated (al-sabʿ al-mathānī), and they are the seven self-attributes (al-ṣifāt al-nafsiyya), which are: Life, Knowledge, Will, Power, Hearing, Sight, and Speech.

And he (God bless him and grant him peace) said: "God has divided the Opening (al-Fātiḥa) between His servant and Himself" -- a hadith [in] al-Tirmidhī.

[as] a pointing to [the fact] that existence is divided between the creation and the Real.

So the human, who is the creation by the consideration of his outward, is the Real by the consideration of his inward.

So existence is divided between an inward and an outward.

Do you not see that the self-attributes are themselves and their very [selves] the attributes of Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace)? And just as it is said of the Real that He is living, knowing, so it is said of Muhammad that he is living, knowing -- [down] to all the attributes; so this is the division of the Opening between the Real (exalted is He) and His servants.

So the Opening, by what it indicated, is a pointing to this human frame by which God opened the locks of existence; and its division between the servant and his Lord is a pointing to [the fact] that the human, even if he be a creature, the Real is his reality.

So just as he is the container of the servitude-descriptions, likewise he is the container of the lordship-descriptions.

Because God is his reality, and he is the one intended [by] Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace), and there is then no other than him; so he is the one regarded in the two ranks, and he is the existent in the two kingdoms; so he is the Real and he is the creation.

Do you not see the Sūra of the Opening, how God (exalted is He) divided it between praise of God and supplication for the servant?

So the servant is divided between divine, ruling, unseen, existential perfections, and created, unseen, witnessed deficiencies; so he is the Opening of the Book, and he is the seven oft-repeated.

And in this sūra are, of secrets, what the pages do not hold -- nay, of what we cannot broadcast.

And we must speak upon the outward of the sūra by way of expression, [seeking] blessing by the speech of God (exalted is He).

God (exalted is He) said: "In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful" (1:1).

And we have composed for the Basmala a writing we named al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm fī sharḥ Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm; so whoever wishes the exposition of the Basmala, let him peruse it.

And we speak, in this book, upon a thing of it by way of allusion; and this is its place.

The scholars of Arabic said: the bāʾ in the Basmala is for seeking-aid; its meaning is "by the name of God I do such-and-such," and the mention of the verb was left [unstated] so that it might encompass everything. And the estimating of the verb, by the tongue of allusion: "by the name of God" -- God makes [it] known that there is no way to His knowing except after the self-disclosure of this Name upon you.

Because He set a mirror for the words, [in which] you witness your face; so there is no way to the witnessing of your face except in the mirror. So understand what we have pointed to.

Because your mirror is the vessel of the sea of the Reality: "in the name of God [is] its course and its mooring" (11:41) -- not in the name of other than Him.

So when the sailor of the heart embarks the ship of the Name upon the sea of [declaring God's] oneness, and the wind of All-Mercifulness blows in the air of "Truly I find the breath of the All-Merciful from the direction of Yemen" -- the hadith --

meaning: the breath [/self] arrived, by the guidance of the mercy of the Name "the All-Merciful," to the shore of the Essence.

So it became pure in His Names and Attributes, and unlocked the Opening of existence, and the worshipper realized that he is the very Worshipped.

So he said: "Praise be to God" (1:2) -- God praised Himself by what He merits.

And His praise of Himself is the very [act of] His appearing and His self-disclosure in what is His.

And the alif and the lām [the definite article in al-ḥamd], if they be for inclusiveness -- regarded by the meaning "all praises are God's" -- then it is what is intended by all the praised attributes, [both] the True and the created; so His praise of Himself is by His appearing in the divine ranks and the created ranks, as existence is [in fact]. And the school of the People of the Sunna concerning the lām of al-ḥamd is that it is for inclusiveness; and its exposition has [already] preceded.

And the Muʿtazila and some of the scholars of the Sunna said:

that the lām in al-ḥamd is for the [known] covenant [specific reference], and its meaning is that the praise befitting God is God's; so by this consideration, the allusion in al-ḥamd is His praise of Himself by what the divine place-rank merits.

So the station of praise (maqām al-ḥamd) is the highest of the stations; and for this the banner of Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace) was the Banner of Praise (liwāʾ al-ḥamd), because he praised His Essence (glory be His and exalted) [by] what the divine place-rank merits.

And he appeared in the True ranks and the created ranks, as existence is [in fact].

And the Name "Allāh" was singled out with the praise, because Divinity is what is inclusive of all the meanings of existence and its ranks, and the Name "Allāh" is the giver, to every possessor of a right of the realities of existence, his right; and this meaning is not for other than this Name.

And its exposition has [already] preceded in the chapter on Divinity. So this Name was singled out with the praise. Then He described the Name "Allāh" -- which we said is the reality of the human -- as "the Lord of the worlds" (1:2), that is, the Owner of the worlds, their Originator, the Subsisting-One in them, and their Manifester.

So there is not, in the divine worlds nor in the servile worlds, anyone other than Him; so He is the Outward and He is the Inward, and He is what is intended by the All-Merciful and the Ever-Merciful.

And the interpretation of the Name "the Lord" and the Name "the All-Merciful" has [already] preceded at the beginning of the book; so let it be perused there.

And know that the Ever-Merciful (al-Raḥīm) is more particular than His Name the All-Merciful (al-Raḥmān), and the All-Merciful is more general than it.

So the mercy that "encompasses everything" is of the effusion of His Name the All-Merciful, and the mercy "written for those who are godfearing and give the alms" is of the effusion of His Name the Ever-Merciful.

And the root in that is that the mercy of the Name the All-Merciful may be mingled with vengeance -- like the disciplining of the child, for example, by striking, [as] mercy to him; and like the drinking of the medicine of disagreeable taste, for it, even though it be mercy, [yet] vengeance has mingled with it.

And the All-Merciful encompasses every mercy, whatever it was and however it was -- whether vengeance mingled with it or did not -- unlike His Name the Ever-Merciful, for it is particular to every pure mercy unmixed with vengeance; and for this the appearing of His Name the Ever-Merciful in the Hereafter is more intense, because the bliss of the Garden is unmixed with the turbidity of vengeance, so it is of the pure [substance] of His Name the Ever-Merciful.

Do you not see him (God bless him and grant him peace), when he disliked that his community be in the Fire, in his saying: "The cure of my community is in three: in a verse of the Book of God, or a lick of honey, or a cauterization by fire -- and I do not love that my community be [touched] by fire"?

How the Real named him the Ever-Merciful (al-Raḥīm), so He said: "Grievous to him is what afflicts you, solicitous for you; toward the believers kind, ever-merciful" (9:128).

Because his mercy -- the turbidity of vengeance did not mingle with it, and he was a mercy to the worlds.

Then He described the Muhammadan Reality (al-ḥaqīqa al-muḥammadiyya), which is the very essence of every individual of the individuals of the human [previously] described,

so He said: "Owner of the Day of Judgment" (1:4) -- the King, the Ruler, the Intense of strength; and "the Day" here is the divine self-disclosure, one of the days of God; and "the Judgment" (al-dīn) is from requital (al-idāna).

So the Day of Judgment is an expression for a Lordly self-disclosure to which the existents submit, so [the King] disposes in them however He wishes -- so He is their King. And [the reading] "Owner (mālik) of the Day of Judgment" has [also] come [transmitted], meaning the Owner of the inward world, that world expressed by the Resurrection and the Hour; and that means the form of the sensibles and the place of the spirituality of the existents. So understand.

Then He addressed Himself by Himself, so He said: "You [alone] we worship" (1:5) -- that is, none other than You.

The poet said, addressing himself:

"A heart bore you off [ṭaḥā bika] ... rapturous among the beauties" --

And this meaning is called iltifāt (turning [of address]), because he moved from the place of the first-person speech -- its place being that it be said "a heart bore me off" -- to the station of address; so he said "bore you off": he set himself in the station of the addressed.

So He (exalted is He) said: "You we worship" -- addressing Himself.

Meaning: He is the Worshipper of Himself by the loci of manifestation of the creatures.

Since He is the Agent in them, their Mover, and their Stiller, so their worship of Him is His worship of Himself.

And because His bringing them into being is only for the giving of His Names and His descriptions their right.

So He worshipped only Himself by them.

Then He said, addressing His Real [side] by the tongue of the creation: "And You [alone] we ask for aid" (1:5).

Because He is the one intended by the creation and the Real; so He addresses Himself, if He wishes, by the speech of the Real, and makes it heard by the hearing of the creation; and addresses Himself, if He wishes, by the speech of the creation, and makes it heard by the hearing of the Real.

And since He made known that He is the Worshipper of Himself by them, He alerted us to the witnessing of that in us.

So He said: "You we ask for aid" -- that we may be acquitted of [our own] might, strength, and power, by the turning of all that to Him (glory be His and exalted).

And [that] we observe that [as coming] from us and in us, and not be heedless of it, that we may ascend from that to the knowing of His Oneness (wāḥidiyya); so we win His self-disclosures, and whoever of us [for whom] felicity preceded becomes felicitous.

And these two words [iyyāka naʿbudu wa-iyyāka nastaʿīn] have, of meanings, what these pages are too narrow to expound; so let us content ourselves with what we have spoken upon, since our aim was brevity, not lengthiness.

Then He said, by the tongue of the creation: "Guide us to the straight path" (1:6) -- because the first half of "In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful" [up] to "Owner of the Day of Judgment" is, all of it, informing by the tongue of the Real of Himself.

And the second half is an addressing, by the tongue of the creation, of the Real.

So the straight path (al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm) is the way of the One witnessing-place (al-mashhad al-aḥadī) by which God discloses Himself to Himself; and to it is the allusion in His saying: "the path of God" (42:53),

meaning His way to the appearing of His self-disclosure.

Then He described the people of this station -- meaning the people of this One witnessing-place, after their gathering in the path of God -- by the tongue of differentiation, so He said: "the path of those whom You have favored" (1:7), meaning the people of this witnessing-place by Your existence and Your witnessing.

So You disclosed Yourself to them by the bliss of the divine nearness; "not [of] those upon whom is wrath" (1:7) -- and they are the people of distance to whom He disclosed Himself by the Name "the Avenger."

"Nor [of] those who go astray" (1:7) -- and they are those who went astray in the guidance of the Real, so they did not find Him; but they are not [of] those upon whom is wrath -- rather the Real is pleased with them, so He lodged them in His neighborhood, not with Him [in His presence].

And they are those whom God (exalted is He) asks, so He says to them: "O My servants, wish [whatever you will] upon Me."

So they say: "Our Lord, we wish for Your good-pleasure."

So He says to them: "My good-pleasure with you [is that] I have lodged you in My neighborhood; so wish [more]."

So they wish only His good-pleasure, for they do not know Him; for had they known Him, they would have wished for Him.

So they are blissful by the bliss of the existents in the meadows of the Gardens -- [those] upon whom God does not disclose Himself by what is His; so they are "astray" from the All-Merciful -- rather [merely] blissful by the pleasures of the Gardens. So understand.

And God says the truth, and He guides to the way.