The direct path in the Qur'anic culture
What is the reality of this path? What do you mean with us? Guide us to what to do or to what intention or to what action? "اهدناالصراط المستقیم", what is this straight path that we ask God to guide us towards? In the verses of the Qur'an that we are referring to, the name of the straight path has been mentioned, which can be understood from them. Of course, if you want to and you are in the mood for more thinking, refer to Al-Mujama Al-Mufahrs and find the cases of using the direct path, then go and refer to the Qur'an, think more about those verses in which this sentence is mentioned, so that there would be more light in your mind and your heart
The path of worshiping God
In verse 51 of Surah Ale-Imran, He says: ان الله ربی و ربکم فاعبدوه هذا صراط مستقیم indeed, Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him, serve Him هذا صراط مستقیمThis is the direct path. The
direct path is similar to the same verse in Surah Maryam, with the difference that it was here, "Allah is my Lord and your Lord" in the verse of Surah Maryam, it isو الله ربی "and God is with me" and has an extra "wow". It is similar to this verse in Surah Zokhrof, but the difference is that here it was "ان الله ربی و ربکم", in that verse of Surah zokhrof is ""ان الله هو ربی و ربکم Anyway, the meaning and theme in all of them are one. So what is the straight path in this verse? Slavery; Reaching the position of servitude - this servitude is a very high position - God's servitude. This is the essence of religion. The basis of religion is man's servitude to God. ان الدین عند الله الاسلام; Indeed, the religion in the opinion of God is Islam. What does Islam mean? It means submission; Surrender to God. All the problems of mankind throughout history – these errors, these hardships, these atrocities, this ugliness that you see in tape of human history and you still see outstanding examples of it today - is because someone or those refused to surrender to God. They have turned their heads against God, they have not accepted God's worship, they have not become God's servants, but what have they become? Servant of their own whims and fancies or being a slave to their whims and whims of others, which is worse. Sometimes a person is a slave to his own desires; Sometimes a person is a slave to another person's whims; Sometimes he is a slave to his own and other's desires. Because of his own desires that make them slaves, he is forced to become a slave to another's desires. You can see examples of this. Look at this huge scene of the world; This is the scene of politics, the scene of wars, the scene of conflicts, the poles of power, the superpowers, the personalities, the leaders, the sellers themselves, the sellers' pens, the sellers' tongues, the hands and hearts sellers. Another person and others are captives of themselves and another person. If these people, or any human being, gets rid of their captivity and submission to themselves and their slavery and accepts the slavery of God, the problem of humanity will be solved; the knot of humanity will be untied
The beloved justice of humanity - which throughout history, mankind has been looking for justice - appears. And when we say that the Imam of the Time will fill the world with justice, and this is the truth, it means that he will break the rule of the whims and the destiny of the world will be fair; That is, the rule of God's sovereignty, submission to God, there may still be people at that time who submit to their egos, it is not like that in the era of the right guardian of the age and the Imam of the time (may God hasten his coming), no human being is subject to his own ego; but this man no longer has the power to occupy others, he may be subject to his own ego and withdraw a little from this huge flow, pour some dirt on his head, but this man will no longer have power and strength, an active arm and a powerful claw to impose this rule of whim and caprice on people and impose it on others. Well, see, this is a straight path; What does direct path mean? The path of worship God; We want this in the noble verse
And another verse. Surah Yasin, verse 61., وان اعبدونی هذا صراط مستقیم Worship me, this is the
straight path. الم اعهد الیکم یا بنی ادم ان لا تعبدو الشیطان انه لکم عدو مبین I did not make a covenant with you, the children of Adam, that you should not worship Satan, for he is a clear enemy to you and that worshiping this is a straight path. So what is the straight path based on these verses? To worship God is to serve God, to submit to God. This is one verse or two verses or with the verse of Maryam and Zokhrof, four verses; Maybe there are 2 other verses, in these verses, the direct path is interpreted as worship, which you ask God for in Surah Hamd. You say "Ehdena al-Sirrat al-Mustaqim"; lead us to your worship; lead us to surrender before you; Make this the main and fundamental way of our life and the true direction of our life. This is a title in several verses
The path of struggle to lead people to the path of God
In Surah Safat, verse 118, He says about Moses and Aaron: و هدیناهما الصراط المستقیم We guided Moses and Aaron to a straight path. Of course, it is not explained here what is this direct path that we guided Moses and Aaron to, but [if] you look at the lives of Moses and Aaron, it is clear that the lives of Moses and Aaron consist of turning away from obedience to the tyrant and the rule of others and enduring all kinds of hardships in this way and constant struggle to guide people and save people from the rule of tyranny and bring them to the rule of God; These are the lives of Moses and Aaron. How did Moses live? Moses ran away from Pharaoh and from that splendid royal life, where he was the flower of this system and the crown of Pharaoh's rule - a first-class prince like this - and with all the motives that a human being, a young man, lives like that. He had - a comfortable life, a life accompanied by lust, a life accompanied by power. He has turned his back on all this , because he sees that there is an accumulation of darkness; He goes to Shoaib and there he gets acquainted with the divine revelation and with the divine mission he comes to the same machine to fight. this is the life of Moses - then he saves the nation; In order to guide that nation and manage that nation, it will suffer all kinds of sufferings and problems. They were moving in a straight line. Perhaps it can be said that the calamities that Moses suffered after being rescued from Pharaoh were no less than the calamities that befell him during Pharaoh's tyrannical rule. All kinds of calamities were faced with all kinds of wrong thinking, misunderstandings, short-sightedness and sensuality? He was tested by a variety of internal and external enemies; This is the life of Moses with Aaron beside him. This is the straight path. Life with struggle in the way of God and for God and to save people and lead them to the divine path. This is also a reference to the direct path
The straight path means the set of knowledge and orders of religion
Again, in verse 161 of Surah An'am, He says
قل اننی هدینی ربی الی صراط مستقیم دینا قیما مله ابراهیم حنیفا
This is clearer. It means the same servitude here. In this verse, which is addressed to the Prophet, the divine revelation says, O Prophet, tell me that without doubt my God and my Lord guided me to the straight path, what is that straight path"Religion" ? "Rule", "Qiyama" is firm, "Mellata Ibrahim Haneifah" which is the same ritual and order of life of Ibrahim Hanif; It means the collection of religion. The collection of religious thoughts, knowledge and actions, which is the direct path; That is, this collection is called direct path. This confirms the second hypothesis that we presented. This collection of Sarat It is clear that every part of it is one of the means of Allah; One is jihad, one is prayer, one is charity, It is the parents, one of them is kindness to the brotherhood, the other is good manners, and like these, these are the Sobol of Allah; This is a collection of the direct path
The Sunnah of the Prophet is the straight path
In Surah Yasin, verse 4 addressed to the Prophet: یس والقران الحکیم انک لمن المرسلین علی صراط مستقیم* You are on the straight path. It can be found as an example of the straight path. What does direct line mean? It means that the life of the Prophet is on the straight path. The path is the prophet orientation; the path of the prophet is the straight path
The straight path means keeping oneself with faith in God
what the straight path means in verse 175 of Surah Al-Nisa as follows
فاما الذین امنو بالله واعتصمو به فسیدخلهم فی رحمه منه و فضل و یهدیه الیه صراطا مستقیما
But those who believe in God; And by the help of God himself - so they kept it infallible - that is called grasping, grasping means when a person is in a dangerous place and may fall, he finds a handle and grabs it. Grabbing, they put this grabbing or "Etesam" means to keep oneself, to put oneself in innocence, which, of course, has an objective example in this grasping, when a person wants to fall, he grasps something that to hold back, but Esmat is not a grab; Esmat means holding back; Infallibility means being safe; When we say that the Prophet is infallible, the Imam is infallible, which means that he is protected from error and there is no possibility of slipping in him; This is the meaning of infallibility of those who believed in God and
obtained infallibility and kept it by God, He will enter them in the scene of mercy and grace from His side, and He will lead them directly to the path. He guides them to himself, through the straight path, this is also a meaning of the straight path. It turns out that the means of the direct path is faith in God; Or the means of the direct path is grasping to God. This verse is more consistent with the first premise that it seems that faith in God is a path of God; It is a side road that leads a person to the straight path. "Etesam" is a way that leads a person to the straight path, to that main road. Of course, we said that these two meanings can be reconciled with each other
Two types of guidance; Showing the way and reaching the goal
We say "Ehdna", God guide us; What does this guide mean? They mention two meanings for guidance; Guide us. This guidance is assumed to be of two types, one is to provide a way, and the other is to deliver to the desired. In the books, there are two titles: presentation of the path is the first method; And second method is to deliver to the desired. They say that guidance means showing the way. They ask you, sir, where is such mosque? You say you go from here, then turn right, then turn left, you will get there, this is the presentation of the way that shows you the way. Some say that guidance means this or a type of guidance means this. Some people say that guidance means, this or some kind of guidance means that you take the other's hand and take them there. What does it mean to lead the gentleman to a certain house or a certain room? It means take the man's hand and take him to the place where he wants to go. This is also the delivery to the required; It means reaching that goal, as far as it is desired by him; They mean this way; they say that guidance is either in the form of presenting the way or in the form of delivering to the desired. It is possible that guidance in Arab usages and in the words that are in the Qur'an, Hadith, and Arab words can have one of these two meanings, but what I infer from Ehdedna al-Sirrat al-Mustaqim, Other than these two
The third type of guidance; Introducing the way and helping those who strive in the path of guidance
“Ehdena" when we say, God, guide us, apparently it does not mean that God! Take our hand and take us to that goal, even if we don't want to. And bring us to that desired point; This is not the meaning. As it is not meant to show us the way, sit aside so that we can reach there by our own intention, by our own will, with our own strength; This is not the case. God's guidance towards mankind does not have two forms, nor does Almighty God take man by force, despite his own incorrect view, his own laziness, and his own heaviness. We have seen some of us say o God, take us to such places, take us to high authorities, but we do not make any move on the way to reach those high authorities; It's as if we are saying, take this rope of ours, pull it by your hand, take it there, even though we want to lust, we want to be lazy, we want to do no movement and effort, you take us by force; This cannot be done; Divine guidance is not such that they take someone by force, even if he does not want it; May Almighty God take someone despite all his evils, his dark hearts, his heaviness, and the darkness inside him, and bring him to his destination; Of course, when we say, it is not, it means that it is not normally and naturally; We do not deny that something like this happens in an exceptional case, that is, it may happen; But this is not meant in the divine guidance towards mankind in general; God does not lead people to their goals without their own struggle, without their own will, without their own effort and work – just as it is not the first meaning to say that God has guided people; what does it mean? It means saying that the way is this, the well is this; You know and go, we have nothing to do with you; This is not the case either. There is something between these two; Divine guidance is a combination of guidance and help. What does help mean? It means to give success and open the way for man. And in addition to these two, that is, when God guided and sometimes it also helps man in the slips - at every stage where man puts effort and will and takes a step, God makes it easy for man to take a step for the next stage; It means that it helps more in the next step; It is up to you. If you take the first step, God will make the second step easy for you; That means it will help you more. If you take the second step, the third step will be easier; If you take the third step, the next step will be easy for you; And likewise, every
step you take makes the next step easier for you, but this does not mean that you are insured for the next hundredth step, it is not possible for you to get lost or be thrown or slip; No, the same calamity as the first step also exists for you in the hundredth step; It means laziness
if in the hundredth step even though God has made it easier, you were lazy, you gave your heart to the earth It means surrendering yourself to the earth, giving up on ascension - at any stage when you give up on ascension and throw yourself down and weigh yourself down and feel the desire to fall, at that stage you fall and You don't take the next step anymore; it's like Divine guidance means this; It is to show the way, it is to help, and it is to gradually increase this help; This is divine guidance. That is why, even though we have been guided, we say again, Ehdena al-Sirrat al-Mustaqim; That is, give us this help. that is, the continuity of guidance. In the successional crossroads that happens to humans; Always holding the light of guidance in hand. Having this help is divine and it is based on us taking our step. So give us the straight path, that is, God,guide us, remove our ignorance, give us courage, help us, open the way and increase this help every step we take; this . It means "Ehdena". Ehdena al-Sirrat al-Mustaqim
