The Fatiha

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Praise belongs to God, the Lord of all Being,
the All-merciful, the All-compassionate,
the Master of the Day of Doom*.
Thee only we serve; to Thee alone we pray for succour.
Guide us in the straight path, the path of those whom Thou hast blessed,
not of those against whom Thou art wrathful, nor of those who are astray.

* Day of Doom: means the Last Judgment and the Day of Resurrection.

Quran I (The Fātiha). Trans. Arthur John Arbury (1955).

This short surah of seven verses, whose name has been mainly translated by "The Opening", is the first one in the Quranic corpus. Other names were given then by the Islamic tradition, for example “The Mother of the Quran” or “The Praise”. Unlike the other surahs, this is not God who speaks to believers, but believers ("We") who address a prayer to God (Allāh). The Fātiha is a very popular surah told in Arabic on many occasions (marriage, mourning, etc.), especially at the beginning of any section of the ritual prayer.
Assuming that the Quranic corpus was created by organising existing surahs, this very particular text evoking a liturgical setting was put at the beginning of the Quran as a prayer before the reading of the Holy text. Ancient exegetical works offered some variations of this surah. The Fātiha summarized the key points of the prophetic message - faith in God, goodness of God, Last Judgment - but held no reference to the mission of Muhammad. This surah urged mankind to follow the right path and indulge in good works. Who were those who go astray? According to scholars, it could be Jews or Christians.

The 'sacrifice' of the Son of Abraham

God ordered him [Abraham] to sacrifice his son. But traditions differ regarding whether it was Ishmael or Isaac. [...] On either son, traditions abound and people do not agree on it.
In the morning, Abraham went to Minā*.
“Show me the Holy House," said the child.
Abraham answered his son: "God told me to sacrifice you.”
“Oh, father,” the child answered, “Do what you have been ordered to do!”
Abraham took the knife, put the child on the stone of the hill, put the saddle of a donkey under him and put the edge of the knife on the child’s throat while looking away. But Gabriel turned the knife upside down. Abraham looked back, and saw that the knife had been turned upside down. He repeated the same gesture three times; then he heard someone call him: "O Abraham! You put faith in the vision." Gabriel took the child. A ram went down the hill of Thabīr, he placed it under him and cut its throat.
The People of the Scripture say that the child was Isaac and that it took place in the desert of Amorites* in the Shām*.

* Minā: the place near Mecca where Abraham was supposed to sacrifice his son, where Pilgrims now do one of the rituals of the pilgrimage (the fifth pillar of Islam). * Amorites: ancient Semitic people named in the Bible (Joshua, 24:15).
* Shām: geographical term designating Orient (especially Syria) in the classical Arab-Muslim literature.

Al-Ya’qūbī, L’Histoire des prophètes, d'Adam à Jésus, trad. A. Ferré, coll. Études arabes, n° 96, Roma, Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi i Islamistica, 2000, p. 29-30. Trans. Marie Lebert.

The Quran is rich in themes inspired by Biblical stories on Abraham. The figure of the Prophet is so important that the Muslim tradition has linked the genealogy of Muhammad to Abraham, who embodies the exemplary muslim. Abraham, the “Friend of God”, is not a Muslim who follows the rituals of Islam and the doctrine developed by theologians and jurists. He is a muslim ahead of the "historical Islam", because he entrusted his life to God and was ready to sacrifice his son. The Quran (37:102-105) didn’t specify the name of the son offered in sacrifice to God; yet the Muslim tradition designated Ismā'īl, the son of Hāgar, the concubine of Abraham. Faced with the "omission" of the child name in the Quran, some exegetes drew on the Isra'iliyāt (Biblical or apocryphal traditions and legends) and favoured Isaac, for example al-Tabarī and al-Razī. On this issue, al-Ya'qūbī, who lived in the 9th century and was close to Shī’ism, studied some Biblical and apocryphal stories and reported in his History of the World various traditions on the son’s identity. There was no unanimous interpretation yet at the time. A common interpretation began in the 12th century when the Tradition preferred Ismā'īl, the “Arab” son, the “excluded”.

[...] the way of the new era, the way of Muslims on earth, is traced by the verses of the principles - the Meccan verses - the very ones that in the ancient era were abrogated by the verses of applications - the Medinan verses -, an abrogation made only because of the times... The verses of the principles were addressed to the community of Muslims, which did not exist yet at that time... [...] they had only been postponed for later, with their role in the legislation merely suspended until their time came…

[...] Such is the meaning of the verdict of time. For the faithful in the 7th century, there were the verses of application; for the faithful in the 20th century, there were the verses of principles. Here was the whole wisdom behind the notion of abrogation: thus abrogation is not a true abolition, but a postponement biding its time…

Excerpt of the preface by Mahmūd Muhammad Tāhā to La Seconde mission de l’Islam (The Second Mission of Islam), 4th ed., 1971. Trans. Marie Lebert.

This text is an excerpt from The Second Message of Islam, a book by the Sudanese writer Mahmūd Muhammad Tahā (Syracuse University Press, New York, 1987), who differentiated two Quranic messages and two Qurans. The first message - the Medinan message – took place before the Hijra in Yathrib, and was adapted to the needs of the first Arab and Muslim community, a tribal community living in the 7th century. This message brought useful instructions on a sharī'a (especially about jihād), on polygamy, on the veil, on repudiation, etc. But the main message - the "source message" – was brought by the Meccan surahs, called the "verses of principles" by the author. Mahmūd Muhammad Tahā stated the need to go back in the past, from the Medinan Quran to the Meccan Quran, in order to find the temporarily abrogated "primary Quran" that defined the calling of Islam and its "second mission": to bring the "true" Islam to mankind.
Mahmūd Muhammad Tahā borrowed the principle of abrogation from Muslim exegetes while diverting it. For these theologians and jurists, when there were "contradictions" in the Quranic text on a given question, the oldest verses were modified or replaced by the latest verses in the 23-year chronology of the revelation. For the author, abrogation was a process linking the two parts of the Quran and the two times of the revelation. The verses of the Medinan Quran were abrogated by the message revealed in Mecca.

A hadīth about fasting on the month of Ramadan

About the one who does the fasting of Ramadān with faith, with hope of reward and with sincerity, 'Ā'isha said, from the Prophet’s words: "They will be resurrected with their intentions."
According to Abu Hurairah*, the Prophet said: "Whoever, during the Night of the Fate, keeps standing with faith and hope of reward, will be forgiven all his previous sins. Whoever who will fast on Ramadān with faith and hope of reward will gain the forgiveness of his past sins.

* Abu Hurairah: companion of the Prophet, who was known for transmitting many traditions, with 446 traditions selected by al-Bukhārī.

“Behold, We sent it down on the Night of Destiny;
And what shall teach thee what is the Night of Destiny?
The Night of Destiny is better than a thousand months;
In it the angels and the Spirit descend,
by the leave of their Lord, upon every command.”
Quran, 97, al-Qadr
(translated by Arthur John Arberry)


Ramadān is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. The term “Ramadān” has been commonly used to refer to fasting, one of the pillars of Islam. At the end of the month of Ramadān, Muslims celebrate the "Night of Destiny" (Laylat al-Qadr). The term "Night of Destiny” was created by Western Orientalists who mistook the Arabic word qadr (measure, value) with the Arabic word qadar (destiny). According to the Tradition, the first revelation was sent down on the heart of the Prophet on a night during the month of Ramadān, with the angel Gabriel as a mediator. This night is considered a blessed night.