paternal care and affection contained in the word Father dwindles into insignificance before the all-embracing beneficence and love of the Rabb of all existence Who provides and regulates the means of existence, nourishment, and perfection of the creatures long before they come into existence, there is, on the other, the high aspiration of the soul for an unbounded spiritual rise unhampered by all considerations of cares of the body which craves for the "daily bread," and even of solicitude for forgiveness of wrongs done and injuries inflicted, for the soul seeks to rise to a place where wrongs and injuries are not known. It makes the soul aspire to the great spiritual eminence to which arose those to whom Allah was gracious, the prophets, the truthful, the faithful, and the righteous (4:71). It sets before the eye that high goal, the goal of Divine grace wherein is no displeasure and which is beyond the reach of error. With all its beauty, even the Lord's prayer sinks into insignificance before the all-comprehensiveness and majestic glory of the Fátiḥah, and one would in vain turn over the pages of sacred books to find anything approaching the grand and sublime ideas contained in this chapter of the Holy Qur—án.
The four attributes of the Divine Being mentioned here are, moreover, a refutation of the wrong conceptions of the fundamental principles of faith met with in some of the prominent religions of the world. The name Rabb, for instance, which signifies Divine providence, indicates that all things in creation are so made as to attain gradually to a state of perfection within their spheres of capacity, and thus points out the erroneousness of the doctrine of the "Fall of man," which upholds that an original state of perfection has given place to degeneration. The designation of the Divine Being as Lord of the worlds gives a death-blow to all narrow views of the spiritual blessings and their limitation to certain territorial bounds, racial distinctions, or particular times, and thus makes clear that the highest of these blessings, the gift of Divine revelation, could neither be limited to a particular country nor to a particular nation, nor yet to a particular age. The attribute of loving beneficence in Ar-Raḥmán is a refutation of the doctrines of atonement and sonship, as it directs attention to the fact that benefits are conferred on man by the Divine Being without exacting any compensation from him, Ar-Raḥmán being the Beneficent Lord whose manifold blessings are conferred on man without his ever having done anything to deserve them. The attribute of mercy in Ar-Raḥím points out the error of the Vedic doctrine which teaches that the Divine Being is unable to give manifold and unlimited reward for limited acts of man and that therefore his salvation, even when it has been earned after going through innumerable states of life, must be shortlived, for Ar-Raḥím signifies the Merciful Being Who multiplies rewards to an unlimited extent. And the last attribute, mastership of the day of requital, is directed against those doctrines which deny the quality of forgiveness in the Divine Being, the most prominent of these being the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, for Málik is not the king or the judge whose duty is to hold the balance equally between two parties, but He is the Master, and those that are guilty are only His creatures, Whom He can wholly forgive without any idea of injustice or favouritism being attributed to Him.
I have also said that the seven verses of the Fátiḥah contain the whole of the Qur-án in them. It is for this reason that in 15:87, already quoted, it is spoken of as the Great Qur-án (Bkh). And so in fact it is, as the name Umm-ul-Qur-án, a name given to it by the Holy Prophet himself, shows (Bkh). For the Qur-án is a Book which declares the glory of Allah and teaches the right way to man, and both these themes find expression in the Fátihah. The fundamental principles of faith, the prime attributes of the Divine Being, which are the basis of all other attributes, the relations which ought to hold between man and his Creator, are all contained in their essence in the seven short sentences of which this wonderful chapter is made up. And to crown all, this chapter opens with the broadest possible conception of the Lordship (this word is intentionally adopted in the place of Fatherhood) of the Divine Being and the brotherhood of man, nay of the oneness of all creation, for the unity of the creation necessarily follows the unity of the Creator.
