الْفَتَّاحُ

«فعّال» من الفتح، وهو في الأصل فتحُ المُغلق: فتحتُ البابَ أفتحه فتحًا؛ ثمّ كثُر واتّسع حتى سُمّي الحاكمُ فاتحًا وفتّاحًا، لأنه يفتح المستغلِق بين الخصمين، ومنه قولُ الشاعر: «ألا أبلغ بني عمرٍو رسولًا فإنّي عن فُتاحتكم غنيّ»، أي عن حكومتكم. ويأتي الفتحُ بمعنى النصر، وبه فسّر أهلُ التفسير الاستفتاحَ في سورة الأنفال: الاستنصار. فالفتّاحُ يجمع ثلاثة معانٍ: الحاكمَ الذي يفصل، والفاتحَ لأبواب الرزق والرحمة، والناصرَ الذي يفتح لأوليائه.

Fattāḥ is on the pattern faʿʿāl from fatḥ, whose first sense is opening what is shut: fataḥtu al-bāb, “I opened the door”. The word then widened until a judge came to be called fātiḥ and fattāḥ, because he opens what has been locked fast between two litigants — so the poet says, “Tell the sons of ʿAmr I have no need of your futāḥah”, meaning your judgment. Fatḥ also means victory: the exegetes explained the “seeking of fatḥ” in Sūrat al-Anfāl as seeking help to win. So al-Fattāḥ gathers three meanings: the Judge who decides, the Opener of the gates of provision and mercy, and the Helper who opens the way for His friends.

قال الغزالي: الفتّاحُ هو الذي ينفتح بعنايته كلُّ منغلق، وبهدايته ينكشف كلُّ مشكل؛ فتارةً يفتح الممالكَ لأنبيائه ويُخرجها من أيدي أعدائه، وتارةً يرفع الحجابَ عن قلوب أوليائه، ويفتح لهم الأبوابَ إلى ملكوت سمائه وجمال كبريائه؛ ومن عنده مفاتحُ الغيب ومفاتيحُ الرزق فبالحريّ أن يكون فتّاحًا. وقال الخطّابي: هو الذي يفتح أبوابَ الرزق والرحمة لعباده، ويفتح المنغلقَ عليهم من أمورهم وأسبابهم، ويفتح قلوبَهم وعيونَ بصائرهم ليبصروا الحقّ. وهو الحاكمُ بين عباده، يفتح بين الحقّ والباطل، فيوضح الحقَّ ويبيّنه، ويُدحض الباطلَ ويُبطله، في الدنيا والآخرة.

Al-Ghazālī says: al-Fattāḥ is the One by whose care every locked thing opens, and by whose guidance every difficulty is made clear. At times He opens kingdoms for His prophets and takes them out of the hands of His enemies; at times He lifts the veil from the hearts of His friends and opens for them the gates to the dominion of His heaven and the beauty of His grandeur. The One with whom are the keys of the unseen and the keys of provision is surely al-Fattāḥ. Al-Khaṭṭābī says: He opens the gates of provision and mercy for His servants, opens for them whatever is locked against them in their affairs and their means, and opens their hearts and the eyes of their inner sight so that they see the truth. He is the Judge among His servants, who opens between truth and falsehood — making the truth plain and clear, and bringing falsehood down to nothing — in this world and the next.

قال الغزالي: ينبغي أن يتعطّش العبدُ إلى أن يصير بحيث تنفتح بلسانه مغاليقُ المشكلات الإلهية، ويتيسّر بمعرفته ما يتعسّر على الخلق من الأمور الدينية والدنيوية، ليكون له حظٌّ من اسم الفتّاح. وقال القشيري: من علم أنه الفتّاحُ للأبواب والأسباب لم يُعلّق فكرَه بغيره، ولم يشغل قلبَه بسواه، فيعيش معه بحسن الانتظار: كلّما ازداد بلاءً ازداد بربّه ثقةً ورجاءً، كيعقوب عليه السلام، أرسل بنيه يتحسّسون من يوسف وأخيه بعد طول الغيبة، ونهاهم عن اليأس من رَوح الله. ومن آدابه أن يكون حسنَ الانتظار للطفه، دائمَ الترقّب لفضله، تاركًا للاستعجال، ساكنًا تحت جريان الحكم، عالمًا أنه لا يُقدَّم ما حكم بتأخيره، ولا يُؤخَّر ما حكم بتقديمه.

Al-Ghazālī says: the servant should thirst to become one through whose tongue the locked questions of divine things open, and through whose understanding what is hard for people in matters of religion and of the world is made easy — so that he has a share in the Name al-Fattāḥ. Al-Qushayrī says: whoever knows that He is the Opener of doors and of means does not hang his thoughts on anyone else or busy his heart with anyone else, and so lives with Him in beautiful waiting: the more his trial grows, the more his trust and hope in his Lord grow — like Yaʿqūb, peace be upon him, who after the long absence sent his sons to search for Yūsuf and his brother, and forbade them to despair of Allah’s relief. Part of its courtesy is to wait well for His kindness, to watch always for His grace, to leave off hurrying, and to be still beneath the running of His decree — knowing that what He has decreed to come later will not be brought forward, and what He has decreed to come first will not be held back.

من شهد الفتّاحَ علم أنّ الأبوابَ المغلقة ليست حجابًا بل موعدًا، وأنّ كلَّ بابٍ أُغلق دونك في الخلق فُتح لك به بابٌ إلى الحقّ. وحكى القشيري عن بعض الفقراء أنه كان يقف كلَّ يومٍ بحذاء الكعبة بعد طوافٍ طويل، فيُخرج من جيبه رقعةً ينظر فيها، فلمّا مات نظروا فيها فإذا هي آيةٌ تأمر بالصبر لحكم الربّ؛ وكانت قد أصابته فاقةٌ فصبر، ولم يُظهر حاله لمخلوقٍ حتى مات. وسنّ سيّدُنا رسولُ الله ﷺ لكلّ داخلٍ إلى المسجد أن يقول: «اللهمّ افتح لي أبوابَ رحمتك»؛ فكلُّ دخولٍ على الله يبدأ بسؤال الفتح، لأنّ القلب لا يدخل إلا إذا فُتح له، ولا يُفتح له إلا إذا طرق.

Whoever witnesses al-Fattāḥ knows that a locked door is not a wall but an appointment, and that every door shut against you among creatures opens for you a door to the Real. Al-Qushayrī tells of a poor man who used to stand each day facing the Kaʿbah after a long ṭawāf, take a slip of paper from his pocket and look at it. When he died they looked at it, and it was a verse commanding patience with the Lord’s decree: he had been struck by want, and had borne it, and shown his state to no creature until he died. The Prophet ﷺ taught everyone entering the mosque to say, “O Allah, open for me the gates of Your mercy” — for every coming in to Allah begins by asking Him to open, since the heart can only enter when it is opened to, and it is only opened to when it knocks.