This is continuing from my previous two posts, The Structure of Sūrat al-Fātiḥa, part I and part II.
Finally, it is also worth noting that the Fātiḥa, as the first sūra of the Qur’an, also relates to the last sūrah of the Qur’an, sūra 114, called an-Nās (“People, Mankind”). This time I will print the Arabic text in English characters:
Qul aʿūdhu bi rabbi ’n-nās
Maliki ’n-nās,
Ilāhi ’n-Nās,
Min sharri' l-waswāsi ’l-khannās,
Alladhi yuwaswisu fī ṣudūri ’n-nās,
Mina ’l-jinnati wa ’n-nās.
Say: I take refuge in the Lord of mankind,
The King of mankind,
The God of mankind,
From the evil of the slinking whisperer,
Who whispers into the hearts of mankind,
From the jinn and mankind.
Like the Fātiḥa, sūra 114 is a prayer to God. It consists of two contrasting halves, the first listing attributes of God, and the second listing attributes of certain kinds of people.
The first name of God mentioned, Rabbi’n-Nās (“The Lord of Mankind”) corresponds to the first āyah of the Fātiḥa. The next two names mentioned, “King of Mankind (Maliki ’n-Nās)” and “God of Mankind (Ilāhi ’n-Nās)” correspond to “Master (Mālik) of the Day of Recompense” and “You alone we worship.”
Both sūras also mention two kinds of people in negative terms: in the Fātiḥa, “those who have earned anger” and “the astray”; in sūrah 114 whisperers from jinn and from mankind.
There are also some interesting points of contrast. For example, the Fātiḥa was a collective prayer, while sūra 114 is an individual prayer; and the context of the Fātiḥa was positive, a prayer for guidance, while the context of sūra 114 is negative, a prayer of refuge from harm.
To cap this all off, the very last āya of the Qur’an, “From the jinn and mankind” goes back to the first, “All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all peoples,” since “all peoples” here alludes to two kind of personal beings: jinn and mankind!
Here is a video of my teacher, Nouman Ali Khan, talking about the comparison between the Fātiḥa and Surat an-Nās:
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