The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 6
CH. 1 AL-FATIHAH forgave. The word a combines the God's attribute of provides man idea of i. e. 'tenderness' and i. e. 'goodness' (Mufradāt). the measure of measure of is in and in the According to the rules of the Arabic language, the larger the number of letters added to the root word, the more extensive or more intensive does the meaning become (Kashshāf). The measure of thus conveys the idea of fullness and extensiveness, while the measure of denotes the idea of repetition and giving liberal reward to those who deserve it (Muḥīt). Thus the word would denote "mercy comprehending the entire universe," whereas the word would denote "a mercy limited in its scope but shown repeatedly". In view of the above, is One Who shows mercy gratuitously and extensively to all creation without regard to effort or work, and is One Who shows mercy in response to, and as a result of, the actions of man but shows it liberally and repeatedly. The former is applicable only to God, while the latter is applied to man also. The former extends not only to the believers and unbelievers but to the whole creation; the latter applies mostly to the believers. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said:, الرحمن the attribute. . . الرحيم رحيم الآخرة generally pertains to this life, while the attribute generally pertains to the life to come (Muḥīt), meaning that as this world is mostly the world of actions and the next a world where actions will be particularly rewarded, 6 with material for his works in this life, whereas His attribute of brings about results in the life to come. The abundance of everything which we enjoy in this life, which is indeed all a favour of God, is provided for us before we do anything to deserve it or even before we are born, while the blessings in store for us in the life to come will be given to us as a reward of our actions. This shows that is the Bestower of gifts which precede our birth, while is the giver of blessings which follow our deeds as their reward. Commentary: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم i) The verse) is the first verse of every chapter of the Quran, except the chapter Barā'ah, which, however, is not an indepen- dent chapter but a continuation of the chapter Anfāl. There is a saying reported by Ibn 'Abbās to the effect that whenever any new chapter was revealed, Bismillāh was the first verse to be revealed, and without Bismillāh the Holy Prophet did not know that a new chapter had begun (Dāwūd). This ḥadīth goes to prove that (1) the verse Bismillah is part of the Quran and not something supernumerary and (2) that the chapter Bara'at is not an independent chapter. It also refutes the belief expressed by some that Bismillah is a part only of Al-Fatihah and not of all the Quranic chapters. Such views are further refuted by the ḥadīth in which the Holy Prophet is reported to have said, definitely, that the verse Bismillāh is a part of all the