Master of the Day of Judgement that is the day of requite the Day of Resurrection. The reason for the specific mention of the Day of Judgement is that the mastery of none shall appear on that Day except that of God may He be exalted as is indicated by God’s words ‘Whose is the […]
You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help that is to say we reserve worship for You alone by way of acknowledging Your Oneness tawhīd and so on and we ask for Your assistance in worship and in other things.
Guide us to the straight path that is ‘show us the way to it’. This is substituted by
the path of those whom You have favoured with guidance from alladhīna together with its relative clause is substituted by ghayri l-maghdūbi ‘alayhim not the path of those against whom there is wrath namely the Jews and nor of those who are astray namely the Christians. The subtle meaning implied by this substitution is that […]
The owner of the Day of Doom. This alludes to the permanence of the kingship of unity and the subsistence of the all-compel- lingness of the divinity. In other words, the day of every king’s empire ends and disappears, his kingship finishes, and his state changes. But God’s kingship is permanent, today and tomorrow, for […]
Thee alone we worship, and Thee alone we ask for help. This alludes to two of the religion’s great pillars, around which revolves the traveling of the re- ligious. The first is to adorn the soul through worship and self-purification. It is to keep oneself adorned with a worship that has no eye-service and an […]
Guide us on the straight path. This is the wellspring of worship and the marrow of obedience. It is the supplication, asking, pleading, and imploring of the faithful. It is seeking straightness and firm fixity in the religion. It means: “Lead us to this path, make us travel upon it, and make us firm in […]
The path of those whom Thou hast blessed, not of those who incur wrath, nor of the misguided. It has been said that this is the road and traveling of the Companions of the Cave. The faithful want to say, “O Lord, complete for us our road without us, just as You were bountiful toward […]
Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the Worlds. This is praise of the lovingly kind God, the Creator who provides daily provisions, the One in name and mark, the Lord who is found without seeking, recognized without being found, loved without being seen. He is powerful without contrivance, self-standing without the changing of states, […]
The All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. He is the All-Merciful inasmuch as He vivifies, the Ever-Merciful inasmuch as He displays. The vivification is through acts of kindness, the display through lights. He is the All-Merciful who eases the road of wage-earning, the Ever-Merciful who lights up the candle of friendship in the road of the friends. The […]