The compassionate, the merciful!

King on the day of reckoning!

Thee only do we worship, and to Thee do we cry for help.

Guide Thou us on the straight path,2

The path of those to whom Thou hast been gracious;-with whom thou art not
angry, and who go not astray.3


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1 This Sura, which Nöldeke places last, and Muir sixth, in the earliest class
of Meccan Suras, must at least have been composed prior to Sura xxxvii.
182,where it is quoted, and to Sura xv. 87, which refers to it. And it can
scarcely be an accidental circumstance that the words of the first, second,
and fifth verses do not occur in any other Suras of the first Meccan period
as given by N”ldeke, but frequently in those of the second, which it
therefore, in N”ldeke, opinion, immediately precedes. But this may be
accounted for by its having been recast for the purposes of private and
public devotion by Muhammad himself, which is the meaning probably of the
Muhammadan tradition that it was revealed twice. It should also be observed
that, including the auspicatory formula, there are the same number of
petitions in this Sura as in the Lord's Prayer. It is recited several times
in each of the five daily prayers, and on many other occassions, as in
concluding a bargain, etc. It is termed "the Opening of the Book," "the
Completion," "the Sufficing Sura," the Sura of Praise, Thanks, and Prayer,"