Comments on Sura al-Fatiha
al-Fatiha
Praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all Being, |
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Muslim claim that the Qur’an is the revealed word of Allah speaking. But would Allah say: “You [alone] we worship; You [alone] We ask for help?” Would Allah need to ask for you guidance to the straight path? To whom is Allah lifting his prayers?
After reading this passage, one realizes that these and other words in the Qur’an are nothing but Muhammad’s own. It would have been more proper to say, “bika nastain” for this means “by you we are aided”; but as it written in Arabic, “wa-iyyaka nastaAAeenu” it means “with you are aided.”
Islamic Commentators claim that “those who earn your anger” are the Jews and “those who go astray” are the Christians. This, however, is not consistent with the Qur’an itself, since it describes the Jews as having the Torah which holds the Judgments (i.e., statues) of Allah (Sura al-Maida 5:43,44) and the Gospel (Injil) is described as containing “guidance and light” (Sura al-Maida 5:46 ). Would it not have been more proper to say that those who earn Allah’s anger and go astray are the atheists and hypocrites ?
June 21, 2001