Unlocking Surah al-Fatihah: The Great Beginning

Surah al-Fatihah is the most important Surah in the life of a practicing Muslim. These seven lofty verses appear in the beginning of the Noble Qur'an, weighty in meaning and magnificent in beauty, and are recited at least seventeen times in our daily prayers.

In Unlocking Surah al-Fatihah: The Great Beginning, Dr. Ahmad al-Tijani Thani Saꜥd al-Azhari expounds on the meanings of Surah al-Fatihah to help us gain a deeper understanding of this great surah. This is an original tafsir work comissioned by Imam Ghazali Publishing in partnership with Haykal Publishing. 

Shaykh Ahmad describes his approach:

"My methodology in this work is that I first introduce the surah by discussing its main themes, whereafter…I begin with the meanings of each word individually...before moving on to outlining the verse's grammatical structure. Thereafter, I explain the verse's overall meaning, also mentioning any points of rhetoric (balaghah)...I relied upon the major works of exegesis (tafsir).

"My objective in all of this is to present the commentaries of classical imams to people of our time in a manner that is as close as possible to contemporary language style."

Unlocking Surah al-Fatihah provides a window into the true depth of classical scholarship on the Qur'an, through the verses with which we are most familiar. This is a book meant to help renew your sense of wonder at this greatest Surah, to help you marvel at it once more, almost as though you are reading it for the first time.

This edition includes Arabic text and English translation on facing pages.