Part Two: A brief summary o the meaning of Suratu’l-Fatiha

 

 

This is a short exemplary lesson for the students of the Risale-i Nur:

While reciting Suratu’l-Fatiha during a canonical Prayer, it occurred to me that one drop from its ocean and a single gleam from the seven colors in the light of its sun should be expounded briefly. Actually, we have written some very sweet and beautiful indications from this sacred treasure trove in a part of The Twenty-Ninth Letter, particularly in the imaginary journey taken in “the Nun (we) of Na‘budu (we worship),” and The Eight Symbols (Rumuzat-i Thamaniya), and Signs of (the Qur’an’s) Miraculousness (Isharatu’l-I‘jaz), which is a key to the interpretation of the Qur’an, and in certain other parts of the Risale-i Nur. However, I felt obliged to write down my reflections during the Prayer, but only about how al-Fatiha, that very sweet summary or extract of the Qur’an, indicates the pillars of belief and its proofs in the form of an extremely brief summary and in the manner of Part One above. So, referring the phrase In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate to two or three treatises of the Risale-i Nur, I begin with All praise and gratitude are for God:

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

All praise and gratitude are for God, the Lord of the worlds; the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate; the Master of the Day of Judgment. You alone do We worship, and from You alone do we seek help. Guide us to the Straight Path—the path of those whom You have favored, not of those who have incurred (Your) wrath nor of those who are astray.

 

THE FIRST PHRASE: ALL PRAISE AND GRATITUDE ARE FOR GOD

A very brief indication of the proof of the truths of belief in this phrase is as follows:

Purposeful bestowals and bounties, which are the cause of praise and thanks, including in particular the sending of pure, clean, nutritious milk to infants from a place between blood and excrement, along with purposeful gifts and presents, and merciful benefactions and feasts, fill up the earth, indeed, the universe. The price one must pay for these is to say “In (and with) the Name of God” when one begins (to consume them); “All praise and gratitude are for God” at the end, and in the middle to perceive the act of bestowing in the bounty, and through it to recognize one’s Lord. Consider your own self, your stomach, and your senses! See how many things, how many bounties they need! See how much food and pleasure they seek for the price of praise and thanks. See this and then compare all living creatures with yourself. Thus, the endless praise offered verbally and through tongues of innate disposition in response to these all-embracing bestowals shows as clearly as daylight the Existence and universal Lordship of One Who is Worshipped and Praised, an All-Compassionate Bestower of bounties.

 

THE SECOND PHRASE: THE LORD OF THE WORLDS

A very short indication of the proof contained in this phrase is as follows:

We see with our own eyes that in the universe there are not thousands but millions of worlds, small universes, mostly one within the other. Although the conditions for the administration and maintenance of these are all different, they are organized, maintained, and administered so perfectly that the universe, like a single page, and all of these worlds, each like a line, is constantly in His view, and is written, renewed, and changed with the Pen of His Power and Destiny. At every instant, attestations both particular and universal—unending testimonies to the number of minute particles and the beings formed out of them—come in view to the necessary Existence and Unity of the Lord of the worlds Who administers these millions of worlds, these traveling universes, with an infinite Knowledge, Wisdom, and a limitless all-embracing Mercy within an infinite Lordship. A person who does not perceive and confirm, who does not understand and see this Lordship, Which maintains and administers with the same law and the same wisdom all beings from the field of atoms to the solar system and the Milky Way, and from the cells of the body to the storehouse of the earth, and to the universe in its entirety—such a person certainly makes themselves deserving of endless torment and gives up any right to be pitied.

 

THE THIRD PHRASE: THE ALL-MERCIFUL, THE ALL-COMPASSIONATE

An extremely brief indication of the proof in this phrase is as follows:

The existence and reality of a boundless mercy is as clearly apparent in the universe as the light of the sun. As certainly as light testifies to the existence of the sun, this all-embracing mercy bears witness to an All-Merciful and All-Compassionate One behind the veil of the Unseen.

An important part of mercy is provision, and for this reason the All-Merciful is also called the All-Providing. Provision points to an All-Compassionate Provider so clearly that anyone with an iota of consciousness is compelled to affirm Him. For example, He sends food to all living beings, particularly to the helpless and young, throughout the earth and the atmosphere, in an extremely wonderful fashion that is beyond their will and power, from seeds, droplets of fluid and grains of earth, all of which resemble each other. He drives birds to seek food for their frail, flightless chicks in the nests at the tops of trees and to bring it to them. He subjugates the hungry lioness to her cubs so she does not eat the meat she finds but gives it to them instead. He sends sweet, nutritious, pure white milk, like the water of Kawthar from the taps of breasts to the offspring of humans and the young animals, without it being polluted by other bodily secretions, and complements it with the tenderness of mothers to help them. In a similarly wonderful fashion, He causes appropriate sustenance to hasten to all the trees, which need a certain sort of food, and so He bestows an extensive table of “foods” on humans to satisfy their physical and non-physical senses, their minds, hearts, and spirits. It is as though the universe consists of hundreds of thousands of tables laden with every different kind and variety of food, all enfolded one within the other like the petals of the rose and the leaf sheaths of the maize. With multifarious tongues, particular and universal, and as numerous as the tables and the foods and bounties they bear, the universe indicates to anyone who is not completely blind an All-Merciful, All-Compassionate, and All-Munificent Provider.

If it is said: The calamities, ugliness, and evils in this world are contrary to that all-embracing Mercy and contaminate it.

The answer: Complete and satisfactory answers have been given to this highly complex question in various parts of the Risale-i Nur, such as The Treatise on Divine Destiny (and The Twenty-sixth Word). Referring you to them, here we make only a brief reference as follows:

Every element, every species of being, every creature has numerous duties, particular and universal, and each of those duties yields numerous results and fruit. These results and fruit are in most cases beneficial, beautiful, good, and merciful. Only a few of them, which are apparently ugly and harmful, visit or happen to those lacking the necessary capacity to receive the good in them and use them for good, and those who act wrongly or those who deserve punishment and disciplining, or those who have the potential to yield numerous fruits of good in order that they could develop them. There is in appearance a minor evil and ugliness in them; they appear to be lacking in mercy. But if in order that the minor evil should not exist an element or universal being would be prevented by Mercy from performing its duty, then all its other good and beautiful results would not come into existence. Since the non-existence of a good is evil and the destruction of beauty is ugly, evil, ugliness, and mercilessness would occur to the number of these results. Thus, hundreds of instances of evil and mercilessness would be committed just so that one evil should not occur, and this would be entirely contrary to the wisdom, benefit, and mercy of Lordship. For example, such universal elements as snow, cold, fire, and rain have hundreds of benefits and good purposes. If through their own selection or misuse, careless or imprudent people cause themselves harm because of these elements—for instance, if they put their hands in the fire and then say there is no mercy in the creation of fire, the innumerable good, beneficial, and merciful uses of fire will contradict and silence them.

Furthermore, selfish human desires and lowly emotions, which are blind to consequences, cannot be the criteria, measure, or balance with which to evaluate the laws of Mercy, Sovereignty, and Lordship that are in force in the universe. Everyone sees things according to the color of their own mirror. One who is cruel and dark of heart sees the universe as weeping, ugly, dark, and devoid of justice. But if they were to look at the universe through the eye of belief, they would see it as a macro-human,  smiling with mercy and clothed, like a houri (maiden) of Paradise, in seventy thousand beautiful garments, one covering the other, sewn from mercy, goodness and wisdom. They would see that humankind is a miniature universe, and each individual human being a miniature world. They would exclaim with all their heart and spirit: “All praise and gratitude are for God, the Lord of the worlds; the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate; the Master of the Day of Judgment!”

 

THE FOURTH PHRASE: THE MASTER OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

What follows is a very short indication of the proof in this phrase:

FIRSTLY: All the proofs set forth at the end of The First Station which testify to the truth of “And to Him is homecoming” and to the Resurrection and the Hereafter also testify to the extensive truth of belief which “the Master of the Day of Judgment’ indicates.

SECONDLY: As stated at the end of The Tenth Word, just as the perpetual Lordship, Mercy, Wisdom, Grace, Beauty, Majesty, and Perfection of the Maker of this universe, together with all of His other Attributes and Names, certainly demand the Hereafter, the Qur’an also testifies to the eternal life in the abode of the Hereafter with thousands of its verses and proofs. Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, and all of the other Prophets also indicate the same truth with their revealed Books or Scriptures, each of which is replete with innumerable proofs. The person, therefore, who does not believe in the everlasting life of the Hereafter casts themselves into a sort of Hell in this world—a Hell that arises from unbelief and causes them to suffer constant torment. As is described in A Guide for Youth, through their decay, death, and separation, all past and future events and beings continuously rain down endless pain on the unbeliever’s heart and spirit, causing them to undergo the torments of Hell before actually going there.

THIRDLY: “The Day of Judgment” (Yawmu’d-Din) alludes to a vast and powerful proof of the Resurrection. However, there is no need here to indicate the proofs contained in it, as various parts of the Risale-i Nur have proved, with hundreds of powerful arguments, that the morning and spring of the Resurrection and Supreme Gathering will come as certainly as day follows night and spring follows winter.

 

THE FIFTH PHRASE: YOU ALONE DO WE WORSHIP AND FROM YOU ALONE DO WE SEEK HELP

Before indicating the proof contained in this sentence, I should relate briefly a true journey of the imagination which is described in The Twenty-ninth Letter. It was as follows:

As explained in various parts of the Risale-i Nur, in particular in Isharatu’l-I‘jaz (Signs of Miraculousness), a key of the Light to the interpretation of the Qur’an, and Rumuzat-i Thamaniya (The Eight Symbols), when I discovered four or five miraculous predictions at the end of Suratu’l-Fath and an historical miracle in the verse, So this day We will save only your body (10:92), together with gleams of miraculousness in many of the Qur’an’s words and points of miraculousness in even some of the Qur’an’s letters, when reciting Suratu’l-Fatiha during the canonical Prayer, this question occurred to me: Why, instead of the first person singular has we been preferred in the verse, You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help?

Suddenly a broad highway opened up through the door of that “Nun” (we), taking me on a journey in the imagination. I understood at the degree of certainty based on vision or observation the great significance and vast benefits of performing the canonical Prayers in congregation, and that this single letter is a miracle. It was as follows:

While performing a canonical Prayer in congregation in Bayezid Mosque in Istanbul, I uttered: “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help.” I looked and saw that the congregation in the mosque was reciting the same verse and its members were all participating in the supplication of “Guide us!” which follows it, thus corroborating my supplication.

Then another vision appeared and I saw that all the mosques in Istanbul had become one huge Bayezid Mosque. All their congregations were exclaiming: “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help,” like me, setting their seals on my affirmations and entreaties and saying “Amin!” to them.

Then, as I felt that they were taking on the form of intercessors for me, another vision appeared in my imagination. I saw that the world of Islam assumed the form of a huge mosque, with Mecca and the Ka‘ba as the mihrab, the niche in the mosque where the imam stands. All the rows of Muslims performing the Prayer were in circles facing that sacred niche. Like me they too were saying “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help. Guide us to the Straight Path!” Each was praying in the name of all and affirming the same cause, and in so doing making all of the others intercessors for themselves.

Then, as I was thinking “The cause and path of such a vast community cannot be wrong and its prayers are surely not rejected—this rebuffs any Satanic doubt,” and while observably affirming the vast benefits of performing the Prayers in congregation, another vision presented itself to me. I saw that the universe was a huge mosque in which each of the numerous nations of creatures was performing the Prayer in a manner particular to its way of life and existence and through the tongue of innate disposition. Responding with extensive worship to the all-embracing Lordship of the All-Worshipped One of Majesty, each nation was confirming the testimonies and affirmations of Divine Unity presented by all the others.

While observing this, yet another vision came into view. I saw that just as the macro-human that is the universe was exclaiming: “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help,” with the tongue of its disposition, with its constituent parts proclaiming it through the tongue of capacity and innate need, and conscious beings uttering it verbally, all thus displaying their worshipful servanthood before the Creator’s compassionate Lordship, so too were all of the atoms, faculties, and senses of my body displaying the same, each expressing through the tongue of need and submission their dependence on the Creator’s Lordship. Thus, they too showed that they were acting in accordance with the Divine Will and Command and were at every instant in need of their Creator’s grace, mercy, and assistance. Having observed in amazement both the sacred mystery of performing the Prayers in congregation and the beautiful miracle of the Nun, I left my journey through the same door of the Nun by which I had entered. “All praise and gratitude are for God!” I exclaimed. Thereafter, I became accustomed to reciting the verse, You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help, on account of those three congregations and all these companions of mine, great and small.

Now we have completed the introduction and come to our main topic. It is a brief indication of the proof contained in You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help:

FIRSTLY: We see with our own eyes that in the universe, and especially on the earth, there is an awesome, continuous and regular Divine activity, within which a compassionate, organizing, nurturing, and absolute Lordship responds with perfect wisdom and favor to the pleas for help and entreaties made actively or verbally or through the tongue of innate disposition. Also, within this active response of Lordship, sound intellects and the eye of belief see, and all the revealed Scriptures and Prophets show, that the manifestations of an absolute Divinity and the attribute of being universally worshipped respond to the thousands of forms of worship offered by all beings—animate creatures in particular—and most importantly to both the innate worship of human beings and the worship they perform through their will.

SECONDLY: All of the three congregations signified by the Nun of na‘budu and described above are engaged together in their different innate or voluntary acts of worship. This is without doubt a grateful response to God’s being the All-Worshipped One and an indubitable, boundless testimony to the existence of an All-Holy Object of Worship. Furthermore, the Nun of nasta’in (“we” in the “we seek help”) signifies that the three congregations mentioned above—that is, every group and every individual from among the whole of the universe and the congregation of the atoms of a living body—pray to Him and ask Him for help both by act and by disposition. This testifies beyond all doubt to the existence of an All-Compassionate Director and Organizer Who hastens to help them, and Who responds to their prayer with acceptance. For example, as explained in The Twenty-Third Word, the wonderful, unexpected acceptance of the three sorts of prayers of all the creatures on the earth clearly testifies to an All-Compassionate Lord and Answerer of prayer. Actually, we see before our eyes that grains and seeds ask their Creator through the tongue of innate need to become shoots and trees and that their prayer is accepted. Similarly, we also see that the prayer for sustenance and all of their other necessities which living creatures perform through the tongue of innate need is also accepted. At exactly the right time, unconscious creatures are made to hasten to their calls for help. This testifies clearly to the existence of an All-Munificent Creator.

Thus, together with the two kinds of prayer mentioned—the prayer performed through the tongue of innate capacity and the prayer performed through the tongue of innate need—the acceptance of the verbal prayers uttered by humans, and in particular the wonderful acceptance of the prayers of the Prophets and distinguished ones, attests to the proof of Divine Unity contained in From You alone do we seek help.

 

THE SIXTH PHRASE: GUIDE US TO THE STRAIGHT PATH

An extremely brief indication of the proof in this phrase is as follows:

Just as the shortest path between two places and the shortest of lines drawn between two points is the straightest and most direct, so too the straightest and most direct of spiritual paths is the shortest and easiest. For example, all the comparisons in the Risale-i Nur that are made between the ways of belief and unbelief decisively demonstrate that the way of belief and Divine Unity is extremely short, direct, straight, and easy, while the ways of unbelief and denial are not only exceedingly dangerous, but also extremely lengthy, circuitous, tangled, and difficult. That is to say, unbelief and the association of partners with God are not acceptable in this wise universe where everything is led along the straightest, easiest, and shortest path, while the truths of belief and Divine Unity are as necessary  and essential as the sun.

Also, the shortest, safest, easiest, and most beneficial way in human morality and conduct is the way established by the Straight Path and following the moderate, middle way between extremes.

For example, if the power of reason is divorced from wisdom, which is the middle way, and deviates from moderation, it falls into either of two extremes: harmful demagogy and wiliness, or calamitous stupidity and foolishness. It suffers all kinds of difficulties on these long and tortuous paths. Similarly, if the power of anger—the power of self-defense—does not follow the path of courage or gallantry, which is the middle way, it goes to either the extreme of the most injurious, oppressive fury and tyranny or to the opposite extreme of an abased, painful cowardice and timidity. As a consequence of deviating from the straight path, it has to suffer the continuous torments of the conscience.

And if the power of animal appetites or lusts loses the safe middle way of chastity, it goes to either the extreme of a calamitous, shameful debauchery and immorality or to the opposite extreme of frigidity or lack of physical desires. It deprives itself of the pleasure inherent in bounties and suffers the torments of that spiritual sickness.

Thus, of all of the paths of personal and social life, the straight path is the easiest, shortest, and most beneficial. Whereas the ways that are followed when the straight path is lost are lengthy, harmful, and full of calamities.

Consequently, while Guide us to the Straight Path is a comprehensive example of prayer and worship, it also indicates a proof of Divine Unity, instruction in wisdom, and moral training.

 

THE SEVENTH PHRASE: THE PATH OF THOSE WHOM YOU HAVE FAVORED

An extremely brief indication of the proof contained in this phrase is as follows:

FIRSTLY: The verse, … those whom God has favored—the Prophets, and the truthful ones (loyal to God’s cause and truthful in whatever they do and say), and the witnesses (those who see the hidden Divine truths and testify thereto with their lives), and the righteous ones (in all their sayings and deeds, and dedicated to setting everything right) (4:69), provides the answer to the question: “Who are those whom He has favored?” With this answer, which explains the four groups of people among humankind who represent the Straight Path, the verse also indicates the leaders of these groups. By “the Prophets” Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, is being referred to as the leader of the Prophets; by “the truthful” the one who is primarily meant is Abu Bakr the Truthful; by “the witnesses” ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali are being referred to; and by “the righteous ones” a mention of Hasan, the son of ‘Ali, is being made. Thus by predicting that Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, ‘Ali, and Hasan would be Caliphs after the Prophet, and that ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali would bear witness to the truthfulness of Islam by being martyred, the verse displays a gleam of miraculousness.110

SECONDLY: The truth of Divine Unity, which these most elevated, truthful, and upright groups of humankind have claimed and taught with all their strength since the time of Adam, employing innumerable proofs, miracles, wonders, evidence, and illuminations, and whose evidence has been affirmed by the majority of humankind, is most certainly as clear as the sun. With hundreds of thousands of miracles and proofs, these preeminent members of the human race have proved and unanimously agreed on absolute truths, such as Divine Unity and the necessary Existence of the Creator. This forms a most indubitable proof. For the human race is the most important fruit of the universe, appointed on this earth to rule and develop it; and the most elevated of living creatures and possesses the most comprehensive capacity. And these four groups are humankind’s most truthful and confirmed guides, and its leaders in perfection. Therefore, do those who do not recognize or who choose to deny a truth in which these perfected individuals believe, proving its existence with evidence taken from the universe and all of the beings within it, unanimously and at the degrees of certainty of knowledge, certainty of vision, and certainty of experience—do these wretched individuals in their obdurate unbelief not perpetrate an infinite crime? Are they not deserving of infinite punishment?

 

THE EIGHTH PHRASE: NOT OF THOSE WHO HAVE INCURRED (YOUR) WRATH NOR OF THOSE WHO ARE ASTRAY

A concise indication of the proof contained in this phrase is as follows: Based on unanimous reports and certain events, facts, and observations, human history and the sacred revealed Scriptures inform us in a clear, definite manner of the following:

As established by thousands of events, the Prophets, the people of the Straight Path, were given miraculous help from the Unseen; what they sought was given to them exactly, while their disbelieving enemies were visited with wrath and heavenly blows. This demonstrates beyond all doubt that the universe and humankind within it have such an All-Wise, All-Just, All-Favoring, All-Munificent, All-Glorious, All-Mighty, and All-Overwhelming Disposer and Lord—One Who, as history records, bestowed victory and salvation on many Prophets such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Hud and Salih, upon them be peace, while dealing terrible heavenly blows on numerous oppressive and disbelieving peoples such as the ‘Ad and the Thamud, and the people of the Pharaoh, as punishment in this world for their rebellion against the Prophets.

Since the time of Adam, upon him be peace, two mighty conflicting currents have come down to us. One is that of the Prophets and their righteous, believing followers, who have followed the Straight Path and have been favored with true happiness in this world and will be favored with it in the next. Since they act straightforwardly and uprightly along the way of the Straight Path in accordance with the true beauty, order, and perfection of the universe, they are favored with both the gifts of the universe’s Owner and happiness in this world and the next. Being the means of humankind’s rising to the level of the angels or even higher, through the truths of belief they attain a sort of Paradise in this world and bliss in the Hereafter, thus helping others to attain these too.

As for the second current, since it strays from the Straight Path and goes to either extreme, making reason into an instrument of torment, it casts humanity down to a degree lower than that of the animals. Moreover, in addition to being visited with the blows of Divine wrath in this world as a result of their wrongdoing, because reason makes humankind related with all beings, they see the universe as a place of general mourning and as the slaughterhouse of living creatures, which are constantly falling into nothingness; they see it as the most ugly and confused, and this causes their spirits and consciences to suffer a perpetual Hell in this world, ensuring that they are condemned to everlasting torment in the next.

Thus, the last verse of Suratu’l-Fatiha, The path of those whom You have favored, not of those who have incurred (Your) wrath nor of those who are astray, informs us of these two mighty currents. It is also the source, basis, and teacher of all the comparisons between belief and unbelief in the Risale-i Nur. Since the treatises of the Risale-i Nur expound this verse with hundreds of comparisons, we refer you to them for further explanation, and make do here with this brief indication.

 

THE NINTH PHRASE: AMIN

An extremely brief indication of this is the following:

The nun (we) in na’budu (we worship) and nasta’in (we seek help) indicates to us the three great congregations (mentioned in The Fifth Phrase), particularly the congregations of those who believe in Divine Unity in the mosque of the world of Islam and of the millions performing Prayers all at the same time: it includes us among them and, since both we and they recite the same words, it opens the way for all of us to receive a share of each other’s prayer, affirmation, and intercession. In return, through the word “Amin,” we join in and support the prayers of that congregation of believing worshippers, confirming what they say, and offering up a plea that their intercession and requests for help may be accepted. Thus, it transforms our individual worship, prayers, and entreaties into universal, extensive worship, enabling us to respond to universal Lordship. That is to say, through the mystery of the brotherhood and sisterhood of belief and Islamic unity, through the bonds of the unity of the congregation of millions in the mosque of the Muslim world at the time of the canonical Prayers, and by means of spiritual communication, the “Amin” at the end of Suratu’l-Fatiha acquires universality and may become millions of “Amins.”111

 

All praise and gratitude are for God, the Lord of the worlds.

All-Glorified are You! We have no knowledge save what You have taught us; surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

Said Nursi

110 Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali, may God be pleased with them, were the four leading Companions of Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings. Abu Bakr was his closest, loyal Companion and was elected as Caliph after him. ‘Umar, who was universally famous for his justice, uprightness, and insightfulness; ‘Uthman, to whom the Prophet gave two of his daughters in wedlock, one after the death of the other, was known for his chastity, compassionateness, and generosity; ‘Ali married the Prophet’s beloved daughter Fatima and was the father of the Prophet’s descendants, and was famous for his bravery, profound knowledge, and sagacity. All these were elected Caliphs after Abu Bakr. Hasan was the eldest son of ‘Ali and together with his younger brother Hussein, were the two most beloved grandsons of the Prophet and the Prophet’s descendants came from them. Hasan was elected Caliph after ‘Ali, but resigned six months later in favor of Mu‘awiya. Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, and ‘Ali, and according to many, Hasan, are known and loved as the Rightly Guided Caliphs. (Tr.)

111 Thus, if, according to the degree of each, an ordinary person receives a tiny share like a seed from this sacred truth, a perfected person who has advanced spiritually may receive a share like the palm-tree. But a person who has not advanced should not intentionally recall these meanings while reciting the Fatiha,* lest it impair their sense of the Divine presence. When they advance to such a station, these meanings will, in any case, make themselves clear.

* We asked our Master what was meant by “intentionally” in the footnote above, and we are writing here exactly the answer we received:

“I consider that to dwell on the comprehensive, elevated meanings of the Fatiha and tashahhud, not intentionally but indirectly, and not in detail – which causes a sort of heedlessness of the Divine presence – but concisely and briefly, dispels heedlessness and imparts a brilliance to the worship and invocations. This demonstrates completely the high value of the Prayer, the Fatiha, and the tashahhud. What is meant by “not recalling intentionally” in the footnote is that sometimes to be busy with the detailed meanings themselves causes one to forget the Prayer, lessening the sense of the Divine presence. But I feel that to dwell on them indirectly and concisely yields great benefits.”

Signed in the name of the Risale-i Nur students,

Ceylan