Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | Jan 28, 2018

It befits a person to commence any task in the name of God, the Creator. God is the source of all mercy and compassion. His blessings are -continually descending upon creation. To commence any undertaking in His name is to pray that God, in His infinite mercy, should come to one's assistance and bring one's work to a successful conclusion. This is a person's acknowledgement of God as Sustainer, and also brings divine assurance of success.

The Quran has a special way of expressing a believer's inner sentiments in the best possible words. The Invocation of God and the opening chapter of the Quran constitute a supplication of this nature. These feelings are naturally aroused in one after discovering God.

A human being's existence is a great gift of God. It is so precious to him that he would never exchange his eyes or hands, or any part of his body, for any kingdom of the world. Even this basic gift of God is more precious to an individual than a kingdom is to kings.

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Similarly, when a person observes the world around him, he cannot fail to notice God's power and mercy in evidence everywhere. With what care God watches over the world! Everything has been made to fit in with man. Someone has rightly said that the universe has been custom-made for human life.

This observation shows one that the great cosmic machine cannot be in vain. One realizes that there must come a day when the ungrateful will be taken to task and the grateful rewarded.

God requires people to live their lives with such feelings and emotions. The opening chapter of the Quran is a miniature picture of such a believer, and the rest of the Quran an enlargement of this picture.