The Fatiha

Bismillah ar Rahman ar Rahim!

Al Hamdu lil Laahe Rabbil Aalameen
Ar Rahmaan ar Rahim
Maaliki yaum id din
Ya quanah budo
Wahiya khanastaiin
Ih dinah as siraat al mustaquiim
Siraat al lazina
An amteh ilaihiim gaiiril madhdubi
Al aiihim waladdu aaleen

Aameen!


Hear / download the Surah Al-Fatiha here (WMA)

Hear / download the Fatiha here (MP3).

The Opening

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful!

All praise belongs to God alone
Lord of all worlds,
The Compassionate, the Merciful,
Ruler of the Day of Judgement.
It is You that we worship
And to You we appeal for help.
Show us the straight way,
The way of those You have graced,
Not of those on whom is Your wrath,
Nor of those who wander astray.

Amen

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Hazrat Inayat Khan’s elaboration

Hazrat Inayat Khan, founder of the Sufi Order in the west, was born in India in 1882. A master of classical Indian music by the age of twenty, he relinquished a brilliant career to devote himself to the spiritual path. In 1910, he left India to became one of the first teachers of the Sufi tradition in the west. For a decade and a half he travelled throughout Europe and the United States, giving lectures and guiding an ever-growing group of seekers. In 1926, he returned to India, where he died the following year.

I discovered Inayat Khan’s writings in 1998. I came across the following prayer, which seemed to me an elaboration of the Fatiha.


Praise be to Thee, Most Supreme God,
Omnipotent, Omnipresent, All-pervading, the Only Being.
Take us in Thy Parental Arms, raise us from the denseness of the earth,
Thy Beauty do we worship, to Thee do we give willing surrender.
Most Merciful and Compassionate God, the Idealized Lord of the whole humanity,
Thee only do we worship, and towards Thee Alone do we aspire.
Open our hearts towards Thy Beauty, illuminate our souls with Divine Light,
O Thou, the Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty,
All-powerful Creator, Sustainer, Judge and Forgiver of our shortcomings,
Lord God of the East and of the West,
of the worlds above and below,
and of the seen and unseen beings.
Pour upon us Thy Love and Thy Light,
give sustenance to our bodies, hearts and souls,
use us for the purpose that Thy Wisdom chooseth,
and guide us on the path of Thine Own Goodness.
Draw us closer to Thee every moment of our life,
until in us be reflected Thy Grace, Thy Glory, Thy Wisdom, Thy Joy and Thy Peace.

Amen

Singing the Fatiha

Among followers of the Islamic faith, any good task, any auspicious occasion, is marked by the recitation of the Fatiha. The Fatiha is considered the distilled essence of the whole Koran. When we inaugrated our office-community centre in PM Basti in early 1998, as we were amidst and working with a Muslim community, we organised a Fatiha recitation ceremony.

After the Talimi Haq School was started in 1998 in Priya Manna Basti, Howrah, the teachers began the classes every afternoon with the students standing and reciting the Surah Fatiha, or the first chapter of the Koran, whose title means “the opening”.

With the daily recitation of the Fatiha, the phonetic sounds were instilled in my mind. When I was in Jerusalem in late 1998, hearing Arabic spoken around me, I remembered the Fatiha and was eager to know what exactly this meant. When I visited my friend Prof Marwan Haddad in Nablus, he gave me a set of children’s Islamic education CDs for our Talimi Haq School.

Back in India, I began listening to one CD in particular, which taught the correct pronunciation and recitation style of several verses from the Koran. I listened to the Fatiha, again and again and again, until I knew it thoroughly and had mastered it. I also referred to the English translation and internalised the meaning of each word, so that it could be expressed in a manner that conveyed the meaning and tone of this verse.

Some years earlier, I had set to melody a traditional Hindu prayer (in Sanskrit) to Ganesa, the Lord of Obstacles. In Hindu custom, any good task, any auspicious occasion, is marked by the recitation of a prayer to Lord Ganesa. So after I had learnt the Fatiha, I sought to fit this to that same melody. I felt there was an underlying oneness in the conception, intent and meaning of the prayer to Ganesa and the Fatiha. I was soon able to render the Fatiha in this melody.

Visiting Jerusalem again in early 2003, I met another friend, Omar Youssef, an architect-planner. Omar is also an accomplished player of the oud, a Middle Eastern string instrument. So Omar and I shared our music and songs. He also took me meet his friends at the Naqleh Esheber centre in Beit Hanina. This is a well-known organization involved in social communication with youth. Naqleh Eshaber is an animated character created by them for their programmes on social and environmental themes; he is thumb-sized, but with a heart as large as the heavens!

As someone born in a Hindu family and now adhering to no particular faith, I was a bit wary about singing the Fatiha in front of practicing Muslims in the Middle East. But their response was very positive! I was overjoyed!

Before I returned home, I visited the Naqleh Esheber centre again with Omar. This time there was also a group of teen boys and girls, and I shared my Fatiha composition with them; once again, with very positive response.

Listening to Omar’s accompaniment on the oud – I got a completely new turn to my melody, and this was resonating in my head.

When I returned to Calcutta – I learnt that a close friend, Dayan, had been killed in a car crash. I was devastated. Before I had left, Dayan had helped me to record some of my songs, including the Fatiha. We were supposed to do a final version. But that was not to be.

Dayan had shared my Fatiha song with his parents (his father is Shia, mother Sunni). So when I went to visit them they asked me to sing this. After the new turn given by Omar’s oud, and now this tragic setting: my melody took a further new turn. The grief-stricken heart plaintively submits to the dictates of the Almighty.

I sang the Fatiha at Dayan’s memorial gathering.

In 2005, I sang the Fatiha for Imam Muhammad Ashafa, from Nigeria. He told me he was an examiner of students in Islamic seminaries, and said he would give me 88 out of 100 for my recitation! And after hearing me sing the Fatiha at the Talimi Haq School in February 2007, blogger Sadiq wrote: "... when you were reciting the Fatiha, I was crying. ... that's the best i have ever heard in my entire life."

Hear / download the Surah Al-Fatiha here (WMA):

Hear / download the Fatiha here (MP3).

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Independence Day

Yesterday, 15 August, was India’s Independence Day, a national holiday. Our Talimi Haq School in Howrah celebrated this with a flag-hoisting and a programme put up by the children and teachers. I attended that.

I was glad I went there. I was very happy to hear all the songs sung by the children, and teachers too. All were moving, rousing patriotic songs, full of meaning and messages. A small boy had learnt the Sanskrit song / prayer Vande Mataram (Hail Motherland) which he rendered perfectly. The songs were all sung very tunefully and with feeling. I was really impressed.

I felt a lot of satisfaction seeing my own dreams come true, notwithstanding years of gruelling failure. I used to sing and teach my songs when the school had been started in 1998. I felt that the beautiful India the songs were adoring was present right here in the two rooms of Talimi Haq School. The future of India depended on these children, and the songs were also exhorting them to walk well and wisely for India.

I was asked to say something in conclusion. I said anything I might want to say has already been said in the songs. 15 August is important for us because it is about freedom which came after long struggles and sacrifices by valiant people. And through that struggle something beautiful was envisioned and the seeds of that were sown– an India which is plural, secular, democratic, wise, just and compassionate. This – here, inside this room – is the India they dreamt of. And as we walk well, wisely and virtuously, so shall India.

I complimented the singers. I referred to the azaan – the call to prayer of the muezzin, from the mosque (which had interrupted our programme briefly). It had been really melodious. I mentioned Bilal, Prophet Mohammed’s companion, whom he had asked to sing the call to prayer because of his beautiful voice. Singing is the greatest skill, its what touches and moves people. So your aspiration for singing, and the effort to sing well – makes me very happy.

Finally, I explained something about the Surah Fatiha, the opening chapter of the Holy Koran, and sang it, thrice, each time in a different style, to convey the depth and range of meaning and feeling contained in this.

Hear / download the Surah Al-Fatiha here (WMA).

Hear / download the Fatiha here (MP3).

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Thus concluded Talimi Haq School’s celebration of Independence Day 2006!