A Clarification About the Basmalah

One point remains to be made plain. Where Sūrat al-Fātiḥah was first taken up, the subject under discussion was the relationship between the basmalah and the Fātiḥah — how some scholars count the basmalah a verse of Sūrat al-Fātiḥah while others do not. On that occasion the word "Fātiḥah" was repeatedly said in place of "basmalah", so that the statement came out as: the Fātiḥah is a verse of the sūrah of Fātiḥah. That confused a number of people, and the matter should be set straight. What was meant throughout is the relationship between the basmalah and Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, and whether the basmalah is a verse of it or not.

Such is Sūrat al-Fātiḥah.