📘 In the Name of God the Compassionate the Merciful

📘 In the Name of God the name of a thing is that by which it can be known. The Names of God exalted be He are the archetypal forms ṣuwar nawʿiyya whose specificities and ipseities hūwiyya indicate the attributes of God and His essence and which indicate by their very existence His countenance and by their individuation His oneness. For these are the outward manifestations through which He can be known; Allāh is a name for the divine essence qua essence absolutely without taking into consideration that it may be qualified by the attributes or indeed taking into consideration that it may not be so qualified; the Compassionate is the one who causes existence and perfection to flow upon all things in the measure that divine wisdom requires and to the capacity of the receiving entities qawābil from the outset of their creation; the Merciful al-Raḥīm is the one who bestows the spiritual perfection kamāl maʿnawī that has been earmarked for the human species in the end sc. in the Hereafter. It is for this reason that they say O You Who are the Compassionate One of this world and of the Hereafter yā raḥmān al-dunyā wa'l-ākhira but say O Merciful One of the Hereafter raḥīm al-ākhira the meaning then is in the perfect human all-encompassing form general and specific mercy which is the locus of manifestation of the divine essence and the greatest truth with the totality of attributes I commence and I recite. It Allāh is the Greatest Name of God. It is to this meaning that the Prophet's ṣlʿm alluded when he said 'I have been given the sum of all excellent speech sc. The QurÌān and have been sent to complete the noble character traits makārim al-akhlāq. For words constitute the realities ḥaqāÌiq of existents mawjūdāt and their concrete substances aʿyān just as Jesus peace be upon him was called a Word from God cf. 33945. The noble character traits are the perfections of these existents and represent their specifities constituting the sources of their the existents' actions in their entirety contained as they are in the comprehensive human microcosm kawn insānī. Herein lies a subtlety la?īfa namely that the prophets peace be upon them have made the letters of the alphabet analogous to the ranks of existents marātib al-mawjūdāt.

📘 The Compassionate the Merciful that is to say the One who possesses ‘mercy’ which means to want what is good for those who deserve it.

📘 Master of the Day of Judgement that is the day of requite the Day of Resurrection. The reason for the specific mention of the Day of Judgement is that the mastery of none shall appear on that Day except that of God may He be exalted as is indicated by God’s words ‘Whose is the Kingdom today?’ ‘God’s’ Q. 4016 if one reads it mālik as opposed to malik then this signifies that He has possession of the entire affair on the Day of Resurrection or else that He is ever described by this expression in the same way as He is described as ‘Forgiver of sin’ ghāfir al-dhanb. Thus one can validly take it as an adjective of a definite noun.

📘 You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help that is to say we reserve worship for You alone by way of acknowledging Your Oneness tawhīd and so on and we ask for Your assistance in worship and in other things.

📘 Guide us to the straight path that is ‘show us the way to it’. This is substituted by

📘 the path of those whom You have favoured with guidance from alladhīna together with its relative clause is substituted by ghayri l-maghdūbi ‘alayhim not the path of those against whom there is wrath namely the Jews and nor of those who are astray namely the Christians. The subtle meaning implied by this substitution is that the guided ones are neither the Jews nor the Christians. But God knows best what is right and to Him is the Return and the final Resort. May God bless our master Muhammad (s) his Family and Companions and grant them everlasting peace. Sufficient is God for us; an excellent Guardian is He. There is no power and no strength save in God the High the Tremendous.