Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena

Usually translated as: (pickthal)
Praise be to Allah, lord of the worlds…

This translation fails to capture fully what this ayah truly means. We will divide the ayah into its constituents so we can truly understand it…

i. Al hamd
ii. lillahi
ii. Alhamdulilah
iii. Rabb
iv. Alamin
v. Alhamdulilah rabbil Alamin

Al hamd

Al hamd means two things, praise and gratitude. It fuses the meanings together.

The Arabic word for praise is Al madh

The Arabic word for thanks/gratitude is shukran

AlHamd fuses the praise with gratitude,

But praise and gratitude are two very different things, aren’t they?

If i see a beautiful house, i praise it but i do not thank it

Gratitude is applied when someone helps you with something; there is an example in the Quran:

Ibrahim’s (Abraham) father was the CEO of shirk incorporated, He used to make idols for the pagans at the time of Ibrahim, Now Ibrahim cannot praise his father but he can thank him for raising him up.. Like the Quran says (roughly translated):

We have commanded people to be good to their parents: their mothers carried them, with strain upon strain, and it takes two years to wean them. Give thanks to Me and to your parents– all will return to Me. (Surah 31:14)

So clearly Praise and gratitude are two different things

I will share my (and that of Nouman) translation of alhamdulilah even though it is still poor and inadequate (we will see why)

Alhamdulilah

Praise and gratitude are for Allah

But there is more to it, Allah could have said

Almadh wa shukru lilah

Which can also be translated as

Praise and gratitude are for Allah

So why Alhamdulilah? We will start from the simpler reasons

1. Al hamd gets the message across quicker

2. When you put ‘wa’ between two words in the Arabic language, you mean ‘and’. ‘And’ indicates two separate things e.g milk and cookies, bola and simbi. It could indicate one or the other.

Al hamd is the only word that makes them (praise and gratitude) together and the same all the time.

There are deeper reasons though..

3. Al madh as praise can be used for both sincere purposes and insincere purposes

For Instance: Police stop you and your papers are not complete. You start praising police so that he doesn’t ask for papers… That praise is insincere and can be called al madh.

Another example, you praise your oga’s tie or shoes at work, that could be sincere or most likely insincere, This is al madh..

Also, Al madh can be used for both living and non-living things.

Al hamd on the other hand must be for a sincere reason and can only be applied to the living.


4. Shukran- This is gratitude for something that has been done for you.

Al hamd is independent of whether anything was done for you.

This is what makes Al hamd unique but there is more…..

So Alhamdulilah – (Sincere ) Praise and gratitude(independent of any favour) are for Allah

But that’s not all

So Why didn’t Allah say:

i. Praise Allah – a command
or
ii. We praise Allah – An action word.

i. Praise Allah is a command and as with every command it needs someone who responds to it.. It is either the person obeys it or disobeys it.

Allah says: Praise and gratitude are for Allah…

so whether you praise Him or not, the praise belongs to Him, whether you thank him or not, the gratitude belongs to him. It is independent of you, whether you do it or not, It changes nothing. The ball is not in your court.

ii. If Allah says ‘ We praise Allah”… It will mean in this case that 'praise' is a verb… What do we know about verbs?

Verbs are different from nouns:

a. Verbs have – Present tense
Past tense
Future tense

Nouns are independent of Time
Verbs are time dependent.

So if the Ayah said: We praise Allah
This action is only in the present tense…

If it was: We praised Allah
This action is only in the past tense…

Praise and Gratitude are for Allah is independent of time. It is permanent.

b. A verb needs a subject

We praise Allah depends on ‘We’
I praise Allah depends on ‘I’

The praise of Allah is permanent and does not need anyone.

Alhamdulilah means that everything Allah does, he deserves to be praised, not only praised but also thanked for it.

No matter what happens in our life, Praise and thanks are for Allah. I lose my keys, Alhamdulilah, I lose a loved one, alhamdulilah, I lose a job. Alhamdulialah… It does not depend on you, it is permanent.

The first thing, you have to feel as a believer is gratitude, If you do not have appreciation and gratitude, forget about guidance. Biggest problem with people who lose faith and faithless people is that they cannot get themselves to be grateful. If you complain a lot, it means you are not grateful enough.

If you can’t get past Al hamd forget about guidance.

Allah has not even told us his name before al hamd..

lillahi

So Allah does not use any of his other names; He used Allah

1. Fatiha is an introduction to the rest of the Quran and to Allah Himself, Allah introduces himself in the beginning the more appropriate thing is to introduce yourself is with your Name not your title.

EX: Imagine going for an interview and introducing yourself as Engineer;

Tbaba1234 : Hi interviewer, I am Engineer, It is ambiguous and needs further clarification.

An Example from the Quran: The sorcerers after seeing Moses staff swallow their ropes said, ‘We believe in the Lord of the Worlds ; (reference: Surah 7:120)

This statement is ambiguous, Pharoah regarded himself as lord and the sun as lord…. There was need for clarification. In the next ayah, they say: the Lord of Moses and Aaron!’

The use of Allah is the appropriate introduction and it leaves no room for ambiguity.

2. If one of the attributes is selected, then you are only praising Allah for that attribute.

For Instance: Praise and Gratitude belongs to the all wise… In this case We are only thanking Allah for the attribute of wisdom..

Only ‘Allah’ encompasses all the attributes

Alhamdulillah

There’s more

Allah could have said

Lilahi al Hamd : To Allah, praise and gratitude belongs

Or

Inna Alhamdulilah : Surely, Praise and Gratitude belongs to Allah..

So why not?

Lilahi al Hamd : This is an unnatural way of expressing this in the Arabic language,
It is like saying : “You, i love” instead of ” I love you”…

It is only applied in special circumstances for exclusivity. Like to say ‘only’ …

It means to Allah(only), praise and gratitude belongs (and it does not belong to anybody else)…

Allah uses Lillah al hamd at the end of Surah 45, where he says (rough translation): (often lost in many translations)

So to Allah(only), praise and gratitude belongs (and it does not belong to anybody else), Lord of the heavens and earth, Lord of the worlds. (Surah 45: 36)

The whole surah 45 talks of people who associate partners with Allah, those who worship idols. They acknowledge and praise Allah but they also praise their idols… This term is appropriate for those who shirk, they already recognise ‘alhamdulilah’ because they praise Allah ….so tell them lilah al hamd is more appropriate to clarify things.

Surah 45 is a debate, Surah fatiha is not… In Introducing himself Allah does not want you to think about anyone else….

Alhamdulilah is the natural way and it is not a debate….

So why not Inna Alhamdulilah?

In Arabic, there are two kinds of statements,

i. Informational Statements ( passing only information)
ii. Emotional Statements (spoken with some emotional content)

Alhamdulilah can be applied as both an informational and Emotional statement

For instance: I am teaching an Islamic class about alhamdulilah, In that case, It is informational, If I go to the road and nearly get hit by a bus and i said Alhamdulilah… It is emotional…

Inna Alhamdulilah is applied only in informational statements.The fact that Inna was not applied means it can be applied both informational and Emotionallly.Inna Alhamdulilah is used to convince someone …

Alhamdulilah is applicable for both informational and Emotional statements and it is not up for debate. That Praise and gratitude belong s to Allah is not up for debate.

So Alhamdulilah (rough translation) – (Sincere & permanent ) Praise and gratitude(independent of any favour and anyone) are for Allah.. (by the way, it is not up for debate)

It still doesn't convey everything... The more you add, the more seems to go missing

Rabb

Rabb – Owner
The one in Charge
The Caretaker
The giver of gifts
The one that makes sure, something stays Alive , Let’s call it Maintainer

These are secondary meaning of Rabb…

The primary meaning is Master and it incorporates the other attributes.

If Allah Calls Himself

Master- It means We are Slaves
Owner – It means we are property
The one in charge- It means we are under authority
Caretaker- It means we are the one being taken care of
The giver of gifts – It means we are the receivers of gifts
The one keeping alive - The one being kept a

The word ‘Rabb’ is the definition of our relationship with Allah, After al hamd belongs to Allah, he tells us who He is to us.

The Summary of the whole Quran is : Accept Allah as master, Accept yourself as slave… That is the whole Quran.

If you haven’t understood that, you have not understood any of the Quran. Everything you own is a gift… A muslim is always grateful, he recognizes that everything is owned by Allah, he does not despair in loss because he recognizes it was a gift… He is thankful and grateful for all the gifts given to him always…

EX
The typical human behavior can be summed up in the behavior of child. Imagine a kid asking you for ice-cream… You tell him that he can only have a few scoops… When you come back to collect it, the child says : MINE

My house, my shoe, my car, my watch... We are so accustomed to Mine, mine, mine and forget that it is a gift and that Al hamd always belongs to Allah, the master.

This is the problem with many who adopt atheism and agnosticism, the fact that they cannot accept the fact that they have a master and he has authority over them.

Why does God do this?,
Why does God do that?

Does a slave ever question a master? Who has the right to question? The master is the one to ask the questions…
The rest of the Quran is based on this relationship.

Master/owner
A simple Illustration:

you and I own things too, Imagine your PC giving you the ‘blue screen of death’. It keeps doing that , until one day you decide to kick it. And a ‘ PC rights activist’ comes to you and says ‘ You shouldn’t do that’.

What is your response? It is mine; I will do whatever i want with it.

It is yours, you can do whatever you want with it especially if it doesn’t behave the way, you want it to.. You get mad at the things you own when they do not do what we want them to do …

Allah is our master, so by definition from our experience of what we do to things we own, Allah should do that to us, when we misbehave... But does He?

No… Emm, this is a different kind of master,

All slaves from our experience with slavery, do they love their master? Mostly not genuinely.

But Allah already told us that he is deserving of genuine thanks and praise, then he told us that he is a master…

In other words, there is no other master like this master..

No other master get praised all the time, No other gets appreciation all the time, No other master lets you keep going all the time…

Masters by definition, At the worst case, they will punish… Best case, they will stop giving you gifts…

Allah keeps giving gifts all the time.

A master has a right to give you instructions all the time…. You are a slave all the time… You are a slave when you update your Facebook status, you are a slave when you go to the night-clubs, you are a slave when you go to the movies…

When does a slave start misbehaving? When the master is not around….

When do we start misbehaving? When we stop remembering that Allah is master….

The owner and the one in charge

We own cars but we are not completely in charge of our cars…. We need to get insurance and licenses to drive it around, speed limits etc… So the fact that we own something does not mean we are in charge of it.

Caretaker

We own things but we do not take care of… The fact that we own it does not guarantee, we take care of it.

The giver of gifts

We keep getting gifts even when we misbehave unlike any other master..

This is a different kind of master, he owns us and is in complete authority, he takes care of us and he keeps giving us gift..

alAAalameena

Usually, translated as worlds… This is incorrect, The Arabic word for worlds is alawalim

alaalameen is used for ‘people’, whether angels, man , Jinn or whatever…. When Allah says this, he is not talking of the skies, the ocean, the earth, the universe, the galaxy, the oceans… None of that…. He uses samawatin wal arida (heavens and earth) when talking of them.

alaalameen means worlds of people, nations of people, tribes of people, ethnicities of people,species of people (angels, jinns, Man …), generations of people.

This clarification is important because this surah is taking about a particular relationship between master and slave (Jinn/man)… No word in this surah goes outside that relationship. It is all focused on that relationship.

Everything is perfectly placed. The Surah is not about the skies and the moon... It is not about the rest of the universe.

It is about Us and Allah.

Allah call himself master of all nations, meaning we are all slaves… And if we are all slaves, we have the same job description. If we all have the same job description, no race is better than the other…. We are all slaves, and we can’t even talk of being better or worse. Only the master has the right to be praised.

So no nation can say, I am the best or better than the other. rabbi alAAalameena kills nationalism, tribalism, racism. It kills the conversation on colour of skin, background… Just with the use of the word alAAalameena

That is the consequences of Islam, the end of racism and nationalism.. No human is superior to another, no race is superior, no nation is superior. We are all slaves

A reminder

Alhamdulillah i stumbled on this thread. Sincerely I've always believed that the first verse of the Qur'an is ''Bismillah Ar-rahaman Ar-raheem'' since suratul fatiha begins with that verse...

Someone should enlighten me please... Jazakallahu khair!

ummsulaym: Alhamdulillah i stumbled on this thread. Sincerely I've always believed that the first verse of the Qur'an is ''Bismillah Ar-rahaman Ar-raheem'' since suratul fatiha begins with that verse...

Someone should enlighten me please... Jazakallahu khair!

Wa iyyakum

There is a difference of opinion amongst Scholars, some regard ''Bismillah Ar-rahaman Ar-raheem'' as the first ayah whilst others regard Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena as the first ayah.

You can read more here, in sha Allah:

https://www.nairaland.com/1007823/journey-through-quran-amazing-quran

tbaba1234:

Wa iyyakum

There is a difference of opinion amongst Scholars, some regard ''Bismillah Ar-rahaman Ar-raheem'' as the first ayah whilst others regard Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena as the first ayah.

You can read more here, in sha Allah:

https://www.nairaland.com/1007823/journey-through-quran-amazing-quran

shukran jazeelan

salaamualaykum wa rahmatUllah. good job. may Allah reward your effort.

Bismillahir rRahmanir rRahim has to be the first ayat of the Quran, if you consider surah Fatiha as the first surah, which it is. the surah is 7 verses. without the Bismalla, you will only have 6 verses and Allah's Statement in the Quran about the 7 often repeated verses supports this.


it is in other chapters that Bismilla is not consider as the first ayah. interestingly enough it does not appear even on top of surah Taubah/Bara'a, but appears in the body of surah Naml.

15 verse 87; And We have certainly given you, [O Muhammad], seven of the often repeated [verses] and the great Qur'an.

the seven of the often repeated verses are verses of surah fatiha and you will not get 7 verses unless bismilla is one of them. from the arrangement, bismilla is verse no. 1.


Allah Knows Best.

^ Wa aleikum Salam.

There are big scholars on both sides of the divide. I think you should read the argument for the other side, it is quite convincing as well.

And We have certainly given you, [O Muhammad], seven of the often repeated [verses] and the great Qur'an.

the scholarship on verse 15;87, if the tafsir is about surah fatiha, there is reward for sincere intention in scholarly effort. if the conclusion is correct, the reward is double. Allah does not make waste of good effort.