And it is a guide' to knowing the Lord and His bounties...

And it is a guide' to knowing the Lord and His bounties, because the best and the most direct way towards the acknowledgment of the Origin is the study of the secrets of creation, especially, the existence of the bounties of life as related to human beings. Therefore, perhaps, it is for these two reasons that Sura Al-Fatihah, alongside /bism-il-lah/, begins thus: " (All) praise is (only) Allah's, the Lord of the Worlds ".

Or, in other words, the verse " (All) praise is (only) Allah's, the Lord of the Worlds " points to both the Unity of Divine Essence, and the Unity of Divine Attributes and Acts. Originally, qualifying Allah (s.w.t.), here, with the phrase /rabb-il-alamin/ (the Lord of the Worlds) is, in fact, mentioning the reason after stating the claim. It seems that someone has asked why all praise is (only) Allah's, and the response is that it is for the reason that He is the Lord of the Worlds'.

This is one of the characteristics of Allah. In another occurrence, the Holy Qur'an says: " He Who has made every thing which He has created most good ...," (Sura As-Sajdah, No. 32, verse 7). And again, in Sura Hud, No. 11, verse 6, it says: " There is no moving creature on the earth but its sustenance depends on Allah... ".

It is, also, clearly understood from the word /al-hamd/, praise ', used in this verse, that Allah has created all these bounties and benefits, basically, by His Choice and His Will. It is interesting to note that by stating the phrase, (All) praise is (only) Allah's ', it is not only helpful to use it for the commencement of affairs, but, as the Qur'an teaches us, it is also used as a conclusion, like in Sura Yunus, No.

10, verse 10, about the good-doers in Heaven, it says: "(This will be) their cry therein: Glory to Thee, O God! ' And peace' will be their greeting therein! And the close of their cry will be: Surely, the Praise is Allah's, the Lord of the Worlds! ' ".

Virtue of the Verse Concerning the virtue of this Holy verse, there is a narration from Imam Sadiq (a.s.) which says that in a tradition from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), he has said: " When a believing servant says The Praise is (only) Allah's, the Lord of the Worlds ', such a praise that befits Him and His Rank, the angels are unable to record it. They will be asked by Allah why they did not record the reward of the phrase which the believing servant stated.