[a] The Preface, &c.] In Arabic al Fâtihat. This chapter is a prayer, and held in great veneration by the Mohammedans, who give it several other honourable titles; as the chapter of prayer, of praise, of thanksgiving, of treasure, &c. They esteem it as the quintessence of the whole Korân, and often repeat it in their devotions both public and private, as the Christians do the Lord’s Prayer ^[1] .

[1] V. Bobovium de Precib. Mohammed. p. 3, & seq.

[b] Lord of all creatures;] The original words are, Rabbi ’lâlamîna, which literally signify Lord of the worlds; but âlamîna in this and other places of the Korân properly mean the three species of rational creatures, men, Genii, and Angels. Father Marracci has endeavoured to prove from this passage that Mohammed believed a plurality of worlds, which he calls the error of the Manichees, &c. ^[2] : but this imputation the learned Reland has shown to be entirely groundless ^[3] .

[2] In Prodromo ad refut. Alcorani Part IV. p. 76, & in Notis ad Alc. cap. I.

[3] De Religion. Mohammed. p. 262.

[c] Direct us in the right way, &c.] This last sentence contains a petition, that God would lead the supplicants into the true religion, by which is meant the Mohammedan, in the Korân often called the right way; in this place more particularly defined to be, the way of those to whom God hath been gracious, that is, of the prophets and faithful who preceded Mohammed; under which appellations are also comprehended the Jews and Christians, such as they were in the times of their primitive purity, before they had deviated from their respective institutions; not the way of the modern Jews, whose signal calamities are marks of the just anger of God against them for their obstinacy and disobedience: nor of the Christians of this age, who have departed from the true doctrine of Jesus, and are bewildered in a labyrinth of error ^[4] .
This is the common exposition of the passage; tho’ al Zamakhshari, and some others, by a different application of the negatives, refer the whole to the true believers; and then the sense will run thus: The way of those to whom thou hast been gracious, against whom thou art not incensed, and who have not erred. Which translation the original will very well bear.

[4] Jallalo’ddin. Al Beidawi, &c.