SUNDAY | AL_FATTAH”
– the ism recommended for Sunday, the first day of the week. It is recommended to recite it 489x after Salatul Fajr. Its benefits are that one will be victorious in all tasks. Also recite it 70x with your hand on your chest to remove the veils of the heart. In Arabic, fataha, the verb, means "opened," and miftaah means key, whereas fath means victory or conquest. It also means: to arbitrate between two opponents. "Istiftah" means: seeking help or achieving victory. "Al-Fattah" is a superlative of al-fath. It means a combination of several things. 1. To say that Allah is al-Fattah is to say that He is the One Who judges between His creation as He says in the Qur’an in Suratul A’raaf, aya 89 "Lord! Decide between us and our people with truth, and You are the best of those who decide". 2. It also means the One Who grants victory. 3. Al-Fattah is also the One Who opens deadlocked matters and issues, Who reveals the truth, Who simplifies whatever seems to be complicated, Who controls the affairs of the heavens and the earth just as He says in Suratul An’aam, aya 59: "And with Him are the keys of the unseen treasures: none knows them but He, and He knows what is in the land and in the sea". So He is the One Who opens what is closed and Who has the keys to everything. He is the one Who grants victory. He opens the closed hearts and fills them with His light, so they are at peace and are able to achieve success. When we apply Al-Fattah to our lives it inspires good manners where no-one loses out, where one is just in all affairs. One who tries his/her best in all matters and then is content with what Allah has decreed for him/her. For contentment is a treasure that never lessens. The Prophet (pbuh) was once passing through a street in Madina when he saw some youths engaged in a contest of lifting a heavy stone. The Prophet (pbuh) asked if they would like him to be the judge of who was the winner of them all, the one who was victorious. They eagerly agreed. Then the Prophet (pbuh) said: “To prove who is the strongest, there is no need to lift the stone. I can say that the strongest person is he who can control his desire to sin. Such a person is surely the winner." A story is related about Puryaye Vali who is considered a great world champion as well as a symbol of manliness and bravery. Once he visited another country for a wrestling contest with its champion. In the street he came across an old woman who was offering people sweets as charity and asking them to pray for her son. She approached Puryaye and offered him the sweets. He asked her what they were for. She said, "My son is a wrestler who is being challenged by a champion from another country. We live on the income he gets from wrestling matches and if he loses this contest we will have nothing to live on." Puryaye says he was at cross roads whether to show his strength or manliness at the contest the next day. Although he was far stronger than his opponent he wrestled in such a way as to let his opponent win. He says that at that moment he suddenly felt as though his heart had been opened and he was surrounded with peace and contentment. Imam Ali (pbuh) has said that the strongest person is he who has conquered his desires. It is therefore he/she who is the one who has won; who has adopted Al-Fattah into his/her life.
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