The word · The Qur’an
الفاتِحَة
Al-Fatihah
The seven verse opening surah, recited in the prayer; most schools require it in every unit.
Also written · Fatiha · Fateha · Fatihah · Al-Fatiha · Surah Fatiha · Suratul Fatihah · Fatehah · Fatiah · Umm al-Kitab · Sab al-Mathani · the opening · Alhamdu
The meaning
What Al-Fatihah means in Islam
Its names include the Opening, the Mother of the Book, and the seven oft repeated verses. It is a prayer spoken in the second person: praise first, then a single request, for guidance on the straight path. The schools differ over whether the basmalah counts as its first verse, which is why the seven verses are numbered differently in different mushafs. They differ again over whether someone praying behind an imam recites it: the Hanafis hold that the imam's recitation stands for him.
Evidence · Qur’an · Stated directly in the Qur’an
Read beside it
Rooms that name it
Words that sit beside it
- SurahA chapter of the Qur'an; there are 114, arranged in the mushaf rather than by date of revelation.سورَة
- BasmalahThe opening line In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, found before nearly every surah.بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحيم
- SalahThe formal Muslim prayer, performed five times a day at set times, facing Makkah.الصَّلاة
- Rak'ahOne complete unit of prayer: a standing, a bowing, and two prostrations.رَكْعَة
More from The Qur’an
- Al-Ahruf as-Sab'ahThe seven modes in which the Qur'an was revealed, an ease for the community; what a mode is stays disputed.الأَحْرُفُ السَّبْعَة
- HizbHalf a juz; the Qur'an is divided into sixty hizbs for steady daily reading.حِزْب
- Jam' al-Qur'anThe gathering of the Qur'an into one written volume, carried out under Abu Bakr and then Uthman.جَمْعُ القُرْآن
- MufassirA scholar who writes or teaches tafsir, trained in Arabic, the readings, the Sunnah and the occasions.المُفَسِّر
- Qira'atThe canonical ways of reciting the Qur'an, each carried by chain from the Prophet through a named reader.القِراءات
- TadwirThe middle speed of recitation, sitting between the slow tartil and the quick hadr.التَّدْوير