http://tanzil.net//#1:1
has the text of Qur`aan 1:1, recitation, and many translations including Tamil.
Regarding the first and among the most well known chapters of the Qur'aan, Muhammad M. Pickthall, has said: "Al-Fatihah", "The Opening" or Faatihatu'l-Kitab, "The Opening of the Scripture" or Ummu'l-Quraan, "The Essence of the Koran," as it is variously named, has been called the Lord's Prayer of the Muslims." [In the introduction to his translation of Koran:I]
Some of the verses in the Biblical and Qur'aanic texts seem to have comparable meanings.
A Christian friend has offered the following information about what is called the Lord’s Prayer among them. The Prayer is:
1. Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
2. Thy kingdom come.
3. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
4. Give us this day our daily bread.
5. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
6. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
7. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen.
"The Christians home is not this world. He is only a traveller in it. And it may surprise you when I say that this also was the faith of Abraham."
I said to him: This may be also a Muslim belief, the basis of which is a supposed saying of the Prophet to the effect that he was a traveller on this earth and treated it as a tree under which he found shade and shelter for the time being.
The idea of being a traveller is very attractive to those who don’t want to tarry too long on pursuits that others may find of enduring and long lasting interest.
As long as we have a tree to rest under for a while we have responsibility to try to keep it safe, clean, and habitable. That endeavour may be something like an effort toward, or preparation for the coming Kingdom.
The fact that “Musaafir” - traveler in Arabic, Farsi, Hindi and Urdu - is also the name of several Indian movies may indicate that there is something romantic associated with the image of “the traveller”, at least in India.
Some other beliefs in my friend’s explanation from the Lord’s Prayer, while interesting, are quite different from Muslim beliefs about the same areas of life. AFAIK a Muslim does not seek to “conquer” death. He/she accepts it when it comes; but should not be under any compulsion to seek it.
I know Christians also who believe that death is part of the process - another stage one has to through.
On the whole, however, the seeming parallel between the opening chapter of the Qur'aan and the Lord's Prayer is possibly not because of the literal meanings of the words in the two prayers.
Is it because of the multiplicity of functions that they both have in the lives and activities of believers in them?
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