The meaning of divine guidance and its types
The translation of " اهدناالصراط المستقیم " is to guide us to the right path. Guidance means to guide and indicate. When you indicate and guide someone to something, to a goal, to something, you have guided him. Guidance when we attribute it to God - divine guidance, - has several stages or meanings. In fact, it can be said that we have several types of divine guidance; God has several types of guidance
General guidance of all beings
A guidance is a general divine guidance that is not specific to believers, nor is it specific to humans, but includes all beings; God has guided everything. This order that you observe in the growth of creatures, in the formation of creatures and this natural behavior of creatures in the universe is all God's guidance
God guides the tree that grows, God guides the seed that goes through the stages of life one after another; This is a meaning of guidance or a stage of divine guidance; This guidance is mentioned in the Qur'an; In Surah Mubarakah Taha verse 50, when Pharaoh asks Moses who and what is this Lord whom you are inviting to, Moses answers: قال ربنا الذی اعطی کل شی ء خلقه ثم هدی, Our Lord is the one who gave the creation of everything, then He led it. All beings are guided in this way
Animals are guided by their instincts. This instinct that compels an ant or a bee or a termite to build a house and live in a community - which now humans have become sensitive to these few things and has pursued and researched them - is a result of divine guidance. In all animals, but in all creatures, there is such a thing. You see any creature that you put under the microscope of research, in that movement that this movement shapes its natural structure; This movement is by divine guidance or the hand of God's power; This is a type of guidance. Perhaps in another honorable verse, والذی قدر فهدی"" is mentioned - the one who created things; That is, he created them by measuring them, so he guided them
In the same sense, this guidance is the general guidance for the development of beings. This is a meaning for guidance. It is natural that when we say to Almighty God, "Guide us to the straight path", we do not mean this guidance, because this guidance exists, whether we want it or not, and is associated with our existence, our soul and our creation
In the Islamic view, man is a moving creature, not a static one
What is this straight path that we ask God to guide us to? The explanation is that the Islamic vision sees man in motion. You are moving towards your God with difficulty. This is the truth, this life that is passing by us, this piece of time is filled with things
We create these things, this is the movement of these fifty years, forty years, ninety years, the distance between birth and death, which is our life, that is not an empty bar , that is a full bar, there is something in every moment of the moments, you may seem to be sitting still, but Human movement is not only physical movement with the body, if the body was still, we would say it is no longer a movement. No, you are thinking, you are feeling, you are deciding, maybe there are many consecutive movements, so you are always moving. This is how the Qur'an and the Islamic vision see man as a constantly moving being
Three types of human movement
This movement is imagined in two ways in one view and three ways in another view. The view that imagines three types of human beings is this movement you make is towards the goal of your creation, which is human perfection. so either this movement is in the direction of your perfection that you are moving towards evolution, or it is that you are going back down and you are falling down and towards pure error or pure fall
The interpretation of falling is better than going astray, which means exactly the opposite point of the direction of creation. God created man for a purpose. For example, when we are moving in the opposite direction, this is also a kind of movement. The third is that you are confused and do not know what you are doing
The first group that moves towards perfection has a specific goal and moves towards that perfection. In the second category, the one that moves towards the fall has a personal goal. He is going towards the fall, although he may not know that this is the fall. Like these oppressors of the world, the bullies of the world, the corrupt of the world, a bully like these political and economic bullies of the world have one goal in mind. For example, let's assume the exploitation of a certain nation, the occupation of a certain country, the acquisition of a certain wealth, the acquisition of a certain position unjustly
He has carefully considered this goal and goes straight towards it. This is also the way to fall, and it is clear and sometimes it is not. He does not go directly towards perfection and knows that he is going towards perfection, nor does he aim towards the bottom, but he does not know what to do, like many low-level people, they do not understand what to do. Sometimes they go from this side, sometimes they go from that side, sometimes they look for this, sometimes they look for that. So the first type is guided in terms of the Qur'an and the Qur'anic vision, the other two types are not guided
The first one wants to exploit, the second one does not intend to exploit, but the second is part of the first one staff, he has not chosen a goal in life, so each of these three ways that you consider has a specific direction. There is a right way towards the high and evolutionary goal of man, which is the direct way. The straight path means the path that leads you to it without distortion, without deviation. Of course, this straight path can be a collection of ways, there are many ways, all of which are included in the set of straight paths, but the straight path is only one that you ask from Almighty God. This is the summary of the meaning of this verse
Being worthy of asking God for guidance from all human beings
There are a couple of points here. The first point is that if we believe in God, then we have been guided. What is the purpose of this request for guidance that we are asking for? Isn't asking for a result that we reached to? We are praying, so we are guided, when we are guided, then what does it mean when we say again, O God, guide us to the right path
The answer is: This guidance is a superior guidance that you ask from God, therefore it is in the Holy Quran that " و زدنهم هدی" in the case of the Companions of the Cave were those who believed, they were believers during the time of false government, but they rose up for the sake of God and moved. Therefore, God says that we increased their guidance, which means that the movement of this uprising assigned them a greater share of guidance
Therefore, whatever we ask God for guidance, the scope of divine guidance is wide. The Prophet also said that"اهدنا الصراط المستقیم" : . The Prophet also wanted guidance from God, because the guidance that the Prophet also had can be increased, that is, the Almighty God can even fill the Prophet's cup more than it is full. Had the prophet lived for these hundred years, he would have worshiped for sure, but otherwise, these worships would have made the Prophet more perfect or not. It is possible that the prayer of the Prophet did not advance the Prophet and did not elevate him
If we assume that the Holy Prophet was at the highest imaginable level, then we have to say that he could not pray one more prayer, because that one prayer of the Prophet must be raised higher, because the scope of human excellence and human ascension is the scope that even the Prophet with all the heights, there is still room for him to become exalted, there is room for him to rise and perfect himself more and bring himself closer to God
The constant need for divine guidance is the reason for the repetition of the
"اهدنا الصراط المستقیم"
There is another subtle point besides this, and that is that man is always at the crossroads, man is always at the crossroads, it is never assumed that man is not at a crossroads, because human desires, motivations an unhealthy inner being in a person will never disappear and a person must make a decision. At any moment you have to make a decision. At any moment you have to strengthen your decision. At any moment, it is possible for every human being to slip and deviate; to any extent. Sincere people are also in great danger according to one narration. You see those who went astray, the ones mentioned in the Qur'an, such as Balaam Ba'ura, a man to whom the Almighty God had presented His signs, and then he went astray. Therefore, a person must always be careful and take care and must make a decision. You are always in a dilemma.Now look at your personal life and you will see the dilemmas. But we are often oblivious. We don't pay attention. Many times we are at crossroads. We do not pay attention to the right way. We go to the void. Sometimes not. Divine success is accompanied. We do not pay attention to the wrong way, we go to the right way. But a decision is necessary. This decision needs knowledge and God should guide us. There are some places where we cannot find the right way in these crossroads. so
" اهدنالصراط المستقیم"
which is constantly repeated and we recite it at least ten times in obligatory prayers, means that we need divine guidance at all times
