Surat Al Fatiha: verses 4 and 5

In the previous khutba, we spoke about verses two and three of Surah Fatiha.
ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ means, “All praise is for Allah, The Lord of all the worlds. ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ means, “The Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. Today we will be focusing on the fourth and fifth ayah of Surat Al Fatiha.

The fourth verse is مَٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ which can be translated as, ‘Owner or King of the Day of Judgment’. Allah is the Malik, the true owner and king of the Day of Judgement. Of course, we know that Allah is the owner of this earthly life and the hereafter, but Allah has mentioned the Day of Judgement here because on that Day no one except Allah will claim ownership of everything. In this world, some people might own few assets, they might own a car, a house, a shop, an online business. Or they might be a king with a lot of fame and have power over people. Well, on the Day of Judgement, only Allah will be the king and owner of everything; no one will be allowed to move or speak without His permission. And so if you did something right, Allah will reward you accordingly. But if you did something wrong, you will be punished accordingly.

يَوْمِ ٱلدِّين is translated as, the Day of Judgement. You might ask the question; will it be a normal 24-hour day period? And the answer is that the Day of Judgement will not be our normal 24-hour day period; that day will be of different lengths depending on your level of faith. The stronger your emaan (faith) is the quicker that day will go. For a true believer, the day can be as short as half a day to the length of completing one prayer. But the one with no faith, no emaan, a disbeliever, for him that day can be as long as 50,000 years. So knowing that, you want to make sure that you are doing as many good deeds as possible whilst staying away from as many sins as possible, as you want to make sure that the Day of Judgement is as short as possible for you.

An interesting point is that even though the previous ayah spoke about Allah’s mercy towards us, with this verse, مَٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ, Allah is reminding us straight away not to take advantage of this mercy. We shouldn’t do whatever we feel like, because Allah is the most merciful. We must always remember Allah is keeping an accurate account of all our actions. Every single thing we do. So next time you want to hurt someone, you have to remember that Allah will ask you about it on the Day of Judgement. Next time you want to miss prayer, or smoke, or steal, or disrespect someone, you must remember that Allah will ask you about them all on the Day of Judgement. Allah’s mercy will always be there for us, but don’t for a second think that we can take advantage of this mercy; we have to remember to fear the punishment of Allah also.

Second Part

The fifth verse of Surat Al Fatiha is إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ which is translated as, ‘only You we worship and only You we ask for help’.

What is amazing about this part of the verse is that, after praising Allah, affirming the mercy of Allah, and affirming the hereafter, we are telling Allah that we will worship Him alone. So when we say إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ we are saying that we won’t worship other thing. We won’t worship money, fame, power or pride. When we say إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ we are saying that we won’t do haram and indecent things to get followers on social media. When we say إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ we are saying that whenever the time for prayer comes, we will pause the game we are playing, pray and then continue with playing. When we get a job, we won’t make money whilst missing our prayers. When we say إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ we are saying that we will respect our parents, look after our young ones, live by Islam, even if it means that we have to struggle here and there.

Another amazing point about إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ is that it mirrors the meaning the first part of the shahadah, La ilaha ilallah which means ‘there is none worthy of worship except for Allah’. Isn’t it amazing that the very words people utter to become a Muslim, is being mirrored in our daily salah. إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ should help us renew our commitment to Allah.

وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ means ‘and to you alone we ask for help’. We already mention how Allah is our Rab (Lord), Allah is Ar-Rahman, Allah is Ar-Raheem, Allah is Malik, and Allah has 99+ names, He has names and attributes that can help us in every situation, and so it makes sense that we ask Allah for help in any and every situation. So when we are stuck with our homework, ask Allah. When we are in a difficult relationship with our parents, ask Allah to help you by softening everyone’s heart. If Fajr is difficult, ask Allah to make it easy for you. No one is perfect. We are all trying to worship Allah, and in doing so, we need to ask Allah to help us. We should make extra effort to learn, memorise and understand the names and attributes of Allah and embed it in our duas and our daily lives.

A scholar said something amazing to show the importance of إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ. He said, all the messages of all the previous prophets and messengers, the four major books, the Zaboor, the Torat, the Injeel and the Quran can be summarised by Surat Al Fatiha. And all the messages in Surat Al Fatiha can be summarised in إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ, ‘only You we worship and only You we ask for help’. So Subhanallah, this verse is very powerful, and it is the summary of our life.

Just to summarise verses four and five, مَٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ means, ‘Owner or king of the Day of Judgment’. إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ means, ‘only You we worship and only You we ask for help’.
In conclusion, we should worship Allah to the best of our ability and ask Him for His assistance as He is the owner and king of everything and nothing happens without Allah’s Will. Wherever we are and whichever situation we find out selves in, always worship Allah and ask for His assistance.
May Allah put baraka in our worship, allow us all to gain better understanding of Surat Al Fatiha and implement it in our everyday lives. Ameen.