الفاتح ، الفتّاح
al-Fātiḥ, al-Fattāḥ
Topic
Divine names meaning He Who grants fatḥ, and He Who always grants it: the Opener, the One Who opens the way to victory and relief.
What it means
Al-Fattāḥ is among the traditional ninety-nine names of God, and it occurs in the Quran: “He is the All-Knowing Fattāḥ” (34:26), a phrase usually rendered “the All-Knowing Judge”, because the word also means one who decides a matter. Al-Fātiḥ is the plain agent form, God as the one who opens. Both forms are drawn from fataha, which means to open.
The intensive fattāḥ says that God opens again and again. He opens the way to victory, as in 48:1, and the doors of mercy and provision (35:2). Believers invoke the name when they ask for relief from a hardship, and for the opening of understanding. Faruqi’s gloss ties both names to fatḥ, the breakthrough that God alone grants. The believer may therefore ask Him to open a door that seems closed.
Often misunderstood as
Rendered “the Judge” or “the Opener” as though one meaning exhausted it; the Quranic usage joins opening a way with deciding a matter.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 42, listed as AL FĀTIḤ, AL FATTĀḤ. The definition is restated here.