The Fatihah is the prayer that begins the Qur’an. It emphasizes God’s compassion for the believer, who needs to be guided “along the road straight”—God’s highway. To convey the fluid nature of the phrases, which relate to one another in many ways and have no one meaning, the translation here uses no punctuation.

In the name of God

the Compassionate the Caring

Praise be to God

lord sustainer of the worlds

the Compassionate the Caring

master of the day of reckoning

To you we turn to worship

and to you we turn in time of need

Guide us along the road straight

the road of those to whom you are giving

not those with anger upon them

not those who have lost the way

Source: Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations, intro. and trans. Michael Sells (Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 1999), 42.

Question to Consider

According to this passage from the Fatihah, what are the attributes of God—and the corresponding attributes of those who believe in him?