6اهدِنَا الصِّراطَ المُستَقيمَMir Ahmed AliGuide1,I us (O’ Lord) on the RightII pathIII,Ehdinas Siratal-Mustaqeem. The word literally means ‘Guide us to the right path’ or ‘show us the right way’. The word ‘Ihdina’ i.e. guide or show is of the widest application. Even a true believer in the truth, however learned and wise he may be, has to necessarily pray for this blessings from the All-Merciful, the All-Knowing and the All-Wise Lord. Guidance which man needs, is not restricted to the knowledge or the practice of any doctrine. Man has to be ever seeking the knowledge of the higher truths leading to the higher spiritual elevations open to his personal progress. The straight or the Right Path, used in this verse does not confine itself to mean only doctrines of the religion. The path mentioned in this Verse does not mean any particular path for there are the several aspects of the life of human souls in the world, viz. the physical, mental, moral and spiritual. The guidance to the right path mentioned in the Qur’an comprehends all aspects of all the paths open to the human soul in this life. Guidance on the right path, in the higher sense of the prayer is the spiritual assistance to enable the human being to reach the destination in accordance with the object of his creation into this world. It is also a known phenomenon that the essential prerequisite for following the right path, is the intense love of the right-minded and the correctly guided ones. It is to serve this necessity of man that the Holy Prophet enjoined love of his Ahlul-Bait who being divinely guided, have undoubtedly been always on the right path. This necessity of a continuous guidance to the right path leading to the various heights of the divine grace, gives rise to the essential need of every one desirous of being always guided aright, to be attached to the divinely guided ones whose right-mindedness alone can be relied upon and whose models have to be copied by the other ordinary members of the human race. This phenomenon of the essential attachment to the declared righteous ones, is called in the religious doctrines of the Original Islam which is identified by the title ‘Shiaism’ as ‘Tawalla’, or the Love (of the Righteous ones). While one who sincerely wants to be guided aright, should not only, necessarily keep himself attached to the divinely guided righteous ones but he must also be aloof from the misled, misguided and the wicked ones, shunning their society, hating their straying away from the right path, and their personal wickedness. This necessity of always shunning the wrong ways and the evil ones, is called ‘Tabarra’ or the act of being aloof from wickedness and the wicked ones.Taking ‘Iyyaka Na’budu wa lyyaka Nasta’ yeen’ as the norm of human activity, man’s action should always be in obedience to God’s Will, and being poor by nature, man in his activity is always in quest for help. Therefore seeking help from God, is also obedience to Him. Thus human life is an effort and strive, in approaching God, as the Absolute Perfection. However perfect man’s attainment may be in this direction, it will still be finite, and the absolute perfection is infinite. The distance between the infinite and the finite is infinite which follows that man’s life should be continuous and endless and his effort and strive for perfection, by perpetual obedience and quest for help, as it is the case with the universe as a whole. Thus man has to be unceasingly in quest for help and guidance towards the Straight Path which leads to God. Even the great souls who are said to have been purified by God and whose path has been described in the succeeding verse, as the Straight for the Ideal one to be followed by mankind, have been ever busy in ‘Istighfar’ for the distance between their finite perfection and the Infinite Being was visible to them and they had been ever aspiring to rise higher and higher and they felt their short-coming or themselves helpless in obedience as He deserves, and the wider and the deeper becomes one’s consciousness of God’s Greatness, the greater will be, the realization of one’s, shortcoming and helplessness and the more earnest will be one’s supplication and humility towards none but Him. Taking in view God’s Omnipresence, any path adopted by man towards any direction will lead undoubtedly only to Him, ‘Ainama tuwallu fathamma wajhullah’ i.e. whichever direction ye turn, ye shall find only His Manifestation (2:109). Therefore, it may be said that all patios lead only to Him and it is immaterial whether one follows this or that path, when the aim or the goal is one and the same, whether the path is straight or bent or the crooked one. The answer is that it is true that every part and particle can in some way or other, be termed as His aspect or phase but the aspects which are closer to His essence in comprehensiveness and give a better representation of His Unity, Absoluteness and Omnipresence are more effective in widening and uplifting man’s notion of Him. Moving towards such a phase and aspect is the straight path and what that path is, cannot be decided but by His guidance or order. Hence the supplication ‘Ehdinas-Siratal Mustaqeem’. (A.P.)Arabic ‘Ehdinas’ (means also confirm).Arabic ‘Mustaqeem’ (Straight).Arabic ‘Siraat’.