Woah… Is this what Surah Fatiha is?

A reflection on overthinking and asking for guidance

A few months ago, I realized, I make very little dua.

Instead of stressing about things, I should really be making dua for them. I tell myself, I’m a visionaire person¹ and my relationship with dua is different than everyone else. It’s more hopeful. More happy. More connected.

I don’t just make duas, I make dream duas!

But what happened to me? I’m rarely raising my hands these days.

Dua should be a regular part of my routine. Its my landline to Allah, to call whenever I wish, narrate my day to him like I share it with my friend, share my worries and concerns, and ask him for my mirfaq (relief) and tawfeeq to do good.

So, I decided to make dua for the every day things and my dream duas after every Salah.

As I started to make this habit, I found myself getting through Salah just to sit at the end and make Dua. And it felt shallow, hypocritical and empty to not be present in Salah fully.

I’m expecting Allah to answer my duas yet at the same time, I was taking his meeting so lightly.

It made me try harder to focus in my salah. Having my certified overthinking brain (lol!), it was very hard to stop my internal world of thoughts and just focus on what I was reciting. I would focus for a while before suddenly losing myself in my thoughts again.

So I started reciting a little loudly, enough for me to hear what I was reciting. I think the more senses involved the better it is to focus on a task.

I started my Salah and recited the opening dua. And then… there came the mighty al-fatiha (which I had no idea how mighty it might be):

بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ١
In the Name of Allah—the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.

“Bismillah… let’s start.

ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ ٢
All praise is for Allah—Lord of all worlds,

Yes, I have so many challenges in my life right now… but I have so many more blessings that I should be grateful for.

ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ٣
the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,

I might be stressed out about one or two things right now… but Allah has been incredibly merciful to me. And He will get me out of this phase with His mercy too.

مَـٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ ٤
Master of the Day of Judgment.

I better be careful with what I do right now—how I respond, how I react, how I interact with people—because I will have to answer Allah about them on the Day of Judgment.

إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ٥
You (alone) we worship and You (alone) we ask for help.

Yes, ya Allah, you’re the only when I worship or at least I try my best (not to worship my desires, ego, people’s expectations etc.). And only you I ask for help. None can help me, even if I asked.

ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ ٦
Guide us along the Straight Path,

Wasn’t I just getting through my Salah to sit and ask Him for His guidance in the decisions I have to make? Was this already embedded in my everyday routine? How was I offering salah everyday and not notice this?

How foolish of me to not be making use of it everyday…

Man, I really need to work on being mindful and get out of my head!

Guide me, ya Allah, to do the right thing. Here are endless small things in my life that I don’t know what to do about. There are tasks related to work, boundaries I want to maintain with the people around me, values I want to hold myself accountable to, my worries, my anxiety about the future and everything else that is happening in life right now.

I don’t know what would be the right course of action. So guide me ya Allah.

صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ ٧
the Path of those You have blessed—not those You are displeased with, or those who are astray.

Ya Allah, I’m standing at crossroads in life, and it’s very hard to figure which one leads to where. The lanes on the road are barely there, I don’t know which one is leading to Jannah. The similarities and the vagueness confuses me.

The fencing isn’t clear. My reasoning fails me. I try to return to your guidance to use it as my compass amidst this chaos. But my compass seems to be shaky.

I am trying my best to follow the compass and trying my best to decipher which direction is pointing towards Jannah.

You guide me, ya Allah, to the path of those you have blessed and those who have succeeded before me. Save me, ya Allah, from being arrogant and turning away from the right path out of the love for this world, its pleasures and ego (like the jews who chose comfort, power and enjoyment over guidance).

And save me, ya Allah, from being among the people who think they’re treading the right path out of ignorance. when in reality, they are far away from the truth and have gone astray (like the Christians).

Ameen!

Ameen ya Rab. This is exactly what I wanted to ask you for!”

As I finished al-fatiha, I was awestruck…

Is this what al-fatiha is?!

Here I was, wanting to make dua for guidance for my everyday things, and the occasional big decisions I have to make, AFTER my Salah, when Allah already integrated this into my day a long time ago.

He knew how much I needed this dua and added it not once in my day, not twice, but a total of at least SEVENTEEN times a day!

And my Salah wasn’t going to be complete until I made this dua.!

And here I was, had no idea about this amazing blessing Allah gave me.

He knew, I needed it so badly that he gave me no option but to make this dua everyday. Leave everything I’m doing, to come and ask for guidance… like Subhanallah!

Ya Rabb, I’m so grateful you made this a non-negotiable. Even if it sometimes feels hard to stick to my Salah—five times a day—that’s exactly what I need.

If it were up to me, I don’t think I would’ve been disciplined enough to be consistent with it and then I’d end up not benefiting from it at all.

And this reminds me of the Hadith Qudsi where Allah said:

I have divided the prayer into two halves between Me and My servant, and My servant will receive what he asks. When the servant says: Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the universe, Allah the Most High says: My servant has praised Me. And when he (the servant) says: The Most Compassionate, the Merciful, Allah the Most High says: My servant has lauded Me. And when he (the servant) says: Master of the Day of judgment, He remarks: My servant has glorified Me. and sometimes He would say: My servant entrusted (his affairs) to Me. And when he (the worshipper) says: Thee do we worship and of Thee do we ask help, He (Allah) says: This is between Me and My servant, and My servant will receive what he asks for. Then, when he (the worshipper) says: Guide us to the straight path, the path of those to whom Thou hast been Gracious not of those who have incurred Thy displeasure, nor of those who have gone astray, He (Allah) says: This is for My servant, and My servant will receive what he asks for.

(Sahih Muslim 395a)

You know, I studied the tafseer of Surah Fatiha more times than I can count. And every time I would study it, it was like I already know what it says—which is very arrogant of me to think, I know. But I always went over the things that I had already learned. There was nothing new or thought-provoking.

Whenever I had the motivation to study tafseer, I would think, let me quickly go over al-fatiha once again as it would be nice to study tafseer from the beginning of the Quran.

I would go over the grammar, the meaning, the structure of it, the narrations about al-fatiha, the importance of it and every other thing you can think of.

But never once did I fully internalize what it meant.

It was like yeah… its al-fatiha, what more can I learn about it. But hey, al-fatiha was mightier than I thought. More endearing than I thought it could be.

Now, the fact that al-fatiha is everything I want to ask for, doesn’t mean that I stop making dua after Salah. Its a time where I expand on my ask for guidance. Its when I can be more specific in my duas, share my thoughts and worries in detail with Allah.

All conversations I was replaying and rehearsing in my head, all the the worries and anxiety, that keeps me distracted in my Salah, this is the time I share it with Allah!

This is when I make my dream duas—the ones people think I’m crazy for asking that big, the ones that people think are unrealistic. But how is it unrealistic?

I’m not the one tasked with accepting my duas and making it happen. Its Allah who will do it and who am I to doubt Allah’s qudrah (power/capabilities)? All I have to do is make dua and take baby steps towards it, preparing for Allah to answer my dua. That’s all.

That being said, I still struggle with focusing in my Salah, still struggle with meaning what I ask in al-fatiha and still struggle with being present in the moment, being mindful.

I still struggle with making dua but I’m working on it.

I wanted to share this reflection on al-fatiha because I never thought al-fatiha was so powerful. And I hope it might show you how much of a blessing it is than we sometimes realize.

Question for you: Is there any surah or ayah that hit you in the moment? Please share them in the comments, I’d love to read your reflections.

With love and duas,
Hiba

1. If you’re confused about what visionaire even is, then its okay. You won’t know it unless you are a visionaire person yourself hehe. Visionaire is a program taught by Sh. Muhammad Alshareef (RA) at Discoverulife every Ramadan, which teaches Muslims the power of making dua and how to level up in their duas. Not just make duas for everyday things and our akhirah but make DREAM duas. I’m very grateful I joined it alhamdulillah. Check it out!