Surah Al-Fatihah English Translation & Brief Tafsir

¹As I strive to read, understand, and live the Quran, I seek refuge in Allah, the Rahman and the Rahim, the Lord and God of the worlds, from Satan confusing my mind. In the name of Allah, who protects and forgives, who is Rahman through His infinite goodness to all people, and who is Rahim through the special favor He shows His believing servants. I read with the help of Allah, who through His mercy bestows endless blessings, whose compassion is boundless, and who is the one and only deity worthy of worship. I read in the name of my exalted Lord, who brought me from nothing into being, equipped me with outstanding abilities, and is the possessor of infinite kindness and compassion.

²Praise be to Allah, who creates, protects, and controls, and who is the Owner of all beings. All praise, from the beginningless past to the endless future, belongs to Allah alone. He has created all beings, living and nonliving, brought us out of nonexistence into existence, met our needs, and placed everything at our service. He is our Lord and the Lord of all the worlds. He runs the order He has established and enables all living things to sustain their lives. He alone is worthy of every kind of praise and thanks. For He is our true Owner and Ruler, who brought the universe into being from nothing and who nourishes, nurtures, governs, and directs all living things. So we must glorify our Lord, praising Him with all our hearts, and submit to His rulings alone.

³In this world Allah embraces everyone with His mercy; in the Hereafter, only the believers. His infinite mercy and kindness encompass all beings in this world, without distinguishing between believer and disbeliever. He is the Rahman, who in this world has pity on everything and everyone and watches over them. He is the One who in eternity past willed good and mercy for all created beings and who shows compassion to all beings. In the Hereafter He will forgive His believing and upright servants and bring them into His infinite mercy. He is the Rahim, who sent this Book to complete His mercy and who gives to the fortunate ones who walk in its light the good news of endless happiness and salvation in the life of the Hereafter. Allah, the Rahman, is the One who equips His creatures with blessings; and the Rahim is the One who encompasses them with His compassion.

⁴Allah is the sole Owner of the Day of Reckoning. On that day the believer and the disbeliever will not be treated alike, and people will also be asked how they used the blessings they were given. Do you know what the Day of Judgment is? The Day of Judgment is the day on which people’s accounts of their worldly life are settled. On that day no one is wronged. Everyone is held responsible for what he did in the world by his own free will. Allah’s reckoning takes place with unerring justice. The bribery, favoritism, or wrong verdicts that may be seen in the courts of this world have no place there. Everything is weighed as it should be, and a perfectly right judgment is given. On that day all people will be called to account for what they did, and so no good deed will go unrewarded and no evil deed unpunished. On that day voices will fall silent, heads will bow, and Allah will give the most just judgment.

⁵O believers! Pray to your Lord, who has given you these blessings, in this way: Our Lord! With all our sincerity, we give You our word. We worship You alone, carry out Your commands, and obey Your orders unconditionally. We accept no authority other than You to direct our lives and lay down rules. We will never yield to any power, whoever it may be, that issues rulings contrary to Your commands, and we are servants of You alone. And because we are servants of You alone, we follow Your call. We implore You alone and take refuge in Your power and compassion alone. In every matter we ask for help from You alone. We believe with all our hearts that none of our wishes can come true without Your permission and approval. That is why we follow Your laws alone and carry out Your commands. Whenever we are in difficulty in any matter, we ask for help from You alone.

⁶We beseech You: guide us to the perfectly straight path that will bring us to happiness both in this world and in the Hereafter. We are human; because we are weak, we can err, follow Satan, and stray from the path. By following our desires and whims, we can leave Your path. So always show us the right path. Protect us from our mistakes, and do not leave us alone! Protect us from falling into the state of those who have strayed from the faith of tawhid and so been deprived of divine mercy and become deserving of punishment.

⁷Make us walk in the footsteps of the leaders of Islam, the martyrs, and the righteous, on whom You have bestowed blessings and favor. Lead us onto the path of the prophets who, throughout human history, carried the banner of tawhid from hand to hand, and of those whom You brought to guidance as they followed in their footsteps. O Lord, You helped so many communities in the past who believed in You, and You showed them the right path. If we fall onto wrong paths, protect us, and do not let us fall onto the path of those who have incurred wrath. Though they know the truth, they rebel against the divine will because of their excessive attachment to worldly blessings. They make values such as wealth, power, position, and fame the sole measure of life, and so deify their desires and whims. O Lord, we seek refuge in You from following the path of those who turn away from Your call and deserve Your punishment. And do not let us fall onto the path of the wrongdoers who are hostile to the Quran, of the ignorant who choose destruction, or of those who have gone astray.