Al-Fatiḥa (Arabic: ٱلۡفَاتِحَةِ, romanized: al-Fātiḥa, lit. 'the Opening') is the first chapter (sura) of the Quran. It consists of seven verses (ayat) which consist of a prayer for guidance and mercy.
Al-Fatiḥa is recited in Muslim obligatory and voluntary prayers, known as ṣalah. The primary literal meaning of the expression "Al-Fatiḥa" is "The Opener/The Key".
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number 2 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious population, after Christianity.
Muslims believe that there is a primordial faith that was revealed many times through earlier prophets and messengers, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, and they believe that Islam is the universal and complete version of this faith. Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of God and the unaltered, final revelation. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations, such as the Tawrat (the Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Injil (Gospel). They believe that Muhammad is the main and final of God's prophets, through whom the religion was completed. The teachings and normative examples of Muhammad, called the Sunnah, documented in accounts called the hadith, provide a constitutional model for Muslims. Islam is based on the belief in the oneness and uniqueness of God (tawhid), and belief in an afterlife (akhirah) with the Last Judgment—wherein the righteous will be rewarded in paradise (jannah) and the unrighteous will be punished in hell (jahannam). The Five Pillars, considered obligatory acts of worship, are the Islamic oath and creed (shahada), daily prayers (salah), almsgiving (zakat), fasting (sawm) in the month of Ramadan, and a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. Islamic law, sharia, touches on virtually every aspect of life, from banking and finance and welfare to men's and women's roles and the environment. The two main religious festivals are Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The three holiest sites in Islam are Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
The Quran is divided into 114 chapters, called surahs (Arabic: سُورَة, romanized: sūrah; pl. سُوَر, suwar) and around 6,200 verses (depending on school of counting) called ayahs (Arabic: آية, Arabic pronunciation: [ʔaː.ja]; plural: آيات ʾāyāt). Chapters are arranged broadly in descending order of length. For a preliminary discussion about the chronological order of chapters, see Surah.
Each surah except the ninth (al-Tawba) is preceded by a formula known as the basmala or tasmiah, which reads bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm ("In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."). In twenty-nine surahs, this is followed by a group of letters called "muqaṭṭa'āt" (lit. "abbreviated" or "shortened"), unique combinations of a few letters whose meaning are unknown.
Aljamiado (Spanish: [alxaˈmjaðo]; Portuguese: [alʒɐmiˈaðu]; Arabic: عَجَمِيَة trans. ʿajamiyah [ʕadʒaˈmij.ja]) or Aljamía texts are manuscripts that use the Arabic script for transcribing European languages, especially Romance languages such as Old Spanish or Aragonese. This alphabet is also called the Morisco alphabet.
According to Anwar G. Chejne, Aljamiado or Aljamía is "a corruption of the Arabic word ʿajamiyah (in this case it means foreign language) and, generally, the Arabic expression ʿajam and its derivative ʿajamiyah are applicable to peoples whose ancestry is not of Arabian origin". During the Arab conquest of Persia, the term became a pejorative.
The Basmala or Basmalah (Arabic: بَسْمَلَة, romanized: basmalah; also known as Tasmiya by its opening words Bi-'sm-illāh; بِسْمِ ٱللهِ, "In the name of God") is an Islamic phrase meaning “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” (Arabic: بِسْمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيْمِ, bi-smi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm). It is one of the most important phrases in Islam and is frequently recited by Muslims before performing daily activities and religious practices, including prayer, and at the start of verses (āyah) or chapters (surahs) of the Qur'an.
In the Quran, it is recited before each chapter (surah), except for the ninth chapter At-Tawbah. Scholarly debates regarding its inclusion in the Qur'anic text reached consensus with the 1924 Cairo Edition, where it was included as the first verse (āyah) of Al-Fatiha and remained an unnumbered line preceding each of the 112 other chapters.