All about Surah Fathia

Why does Allah praise himself first while revealing it?

Surah Fathia 

In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. [All] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds - The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful, Sovereign of the Day of Recompense. (Quran 1:1–4)

It is You we worship and You we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path - The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray. (Quran 1:5–7)

All praise is for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds

O Allaah, send blessings upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as You sent blessings upon Ibraaheem and upon the family of Ibraaheem; You are indeed Worthy of Praise, Full of Glory.

In it Allah is not praising Himself because if this was the case the sentences would begin with ‘I’. But the sentences of praise don’t reveal who the speaker is. In the first four sentences Allah is mentioned as ‘third person’ which means that He is not the ‘first person’ or the speaker. As per Arabic rule of sentence structure, the nouns used in subsequent sentences will go back to the noun used in the first one, unless a distinction is made clear, so all attributes mentioned in verse 2–4 refer back to verse 1.

Muslim scholars undertand this chapter as a complete invocation to Allah, Arabic for God, for guidance. Since one of the manners of invocation are that you praise God before you make invocation, so we have some words of praise for God which have been taught to man. In Islamic terms the word ‘hamd’ which is translated as praise also means ‘thanks’. Islamic way of thanking God is to say ‘all praise is for Him’ as by doing so we imply that I don’t have any power of my own but it was blessing of Allah that I have some comfort or blessing. If you see the following translation of the Chapter Fatiha, you will understand that it begins with praise and thankfulness of Allah by a slave and reaches to peak in the middle with affirmation to monotheism and ends with direct invocation for guidance.

Surah Fathia

This is part of Holy Quran and the first surah in Holy Quran. It is the summary of Holy Quran in short and ALLAH SWT is introducing himself. ALLAH SWT revealed this surah to let us know that all praises is for ALLAH SWT who created the universe, heaven and hell. He created the time and scale. He created animals/humans and Jins. He also tells us that he is the most gracious and the most merciful. He tells us about the day of judgement. He tells us to only worship him and seek his refuge and help etc.

You are asking why ALLAH SWT is praising himself. I ask you a question, who should ALLAH praise then? Humans. What can we do without him? The moment our heart stops beating we are done. Should he praise animals who do not know what is right and wrong. All praises is for ALLAH SWT because he is the only one who is worthy of it. We disobey him, he still gives us food. We disobey him he still gives us time to repent, we disobey him but he says I love you more than 70 mothers. He created the universe, galaxies, angels, humans, animals mountains, plants etc. Can a human do all these? We depend on him because he is our creator, he is our sustainer.

There is no one to stand with ALLAH SWT. Prophets need him, Muslims need him, Non-Muslims need him, animals needs him this universe needs him. Look at the sun, look at the process of day and night. Who is controlling it. Is it happening by itself. Auto Mode? How come it is not breaking, no glitch since billions of years. Someone has to control it. Look at your own self. Look at your circulatory system or nervous system. Are we the byproduct of big bang? NO. We have a creator and our creator is introducing himself that he created us and everything else. You worship idols, fire, sun wind or humans. They are not worthy to be worshipped. It is not an ego, it is guidance, it is the introduction of the true creator who is the most gracious and the most merciful.

Why and when was Surah Fatiha revealed?