A Treasure to Be Unpacked

It may be said, then, that anyone wishing to understand Allah (swt) will find Sūrat al-Fātiḥah among the most important sūrahs from which to gain that understanding. It holds a treasure of knowledge which has to be unpacked — a treasure of the knowledge of Allah (swt), which has to be unpacked.

That it is a summary of all the sūrahs of the Qur'an means this: the Qur'an has a hundred and fourteen sūrahs, of which Sūrat al-Fātiḥah is one, leaving a hundred and thirteen. If the Fātiḥah is the khulāṣah, the summary, then it is a summary of those hundred and thirteen. But that has to be unpacked. It has to be thought about, reflected upon and pondered.

Perhaps it is because it holds so much — so much knowledge and guidance within it — that we have been commanded to recite it in every rakʿah of our prayer. There are rakʿahs in which the Fātiḥah alone is recited, without a sūrah after it; but even in those, the Fātiḥah must still be read. Perhaps it is to give us a glimpse of what it holds. That, at any rate, is why we are told to read it.

Any Muslim who prays regularly will find that what he recites most frequently, in any substantial measure, is Sūrat al-Fātiḥah — leaving aside Allāhu akbar and samiʿa Allāhu liman ḥamidah. Sūrat al-Fātiḥah is, on reflection, probably the most repeated speech in the world: repeated in that same form, word for word.