Part 5 : Deep explanation of Ayat 6 of Surah Al Fatiha

In this blog article, In sha Allah I will try to explain little tafseer and beautiful insights of ayat 6 of surah Al-Fatiha. This article is my understanding based on one of the lecture of brother Nouman Ali Khan.

You can find explanation of previous Part of Surah Al-Fatiha at below link :
Part 4 Surah Al-Fatiha Ayat 5 Amazing Deep Explanation : Nouman Ali Khan

Also, Please like my Facebook page "Explain Me Quran" to get latest article on Quran explanation. You can find my Facebook page link at the end of this article. Now, lets start understanding this beautiful ayat of surah Al-Fatiha.

Surah Al-Fatiha Ayat 6

Surah Al-Fatiha Ayat 6: (Verse 6)

اِهدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ المُستَقِيمَ‏ 

("Guide us to the straight path")

In previous ayat we are asking Allah for help. If we are asking Allah for what to do that means we are ready to do it. Allah is master and we are slave. We want command from master so we are asking Allah to guide us. Which means we accept ourselves as slave. ‘Arshidna’ in arabic also means guide us. And ‘Ihdina’ also means guide us, so what's the difference ? Lets understand this. 'Huda' in Arabic comes from 'hadiya' which means 'gift'. If Arab would lost in desert, to survive they would want guidance to get out of that desert. And this would be the biggest gift that they could had at that situation. So they associate guidance with survival together. We are asking Allah for ultimate gift which is ‘Guide us'. 

Also here we don't say 'guide me'. We say 'guide us'. So its a switch from individual to collective. As everything in a beginning of this surah was individual in some sense. i.e 'Hamd' is individual. Allah is master of me individually. Allah's mercy comes to me individually. The judgment day is about an individual. Each individual will be judged. But immediately here is a switch to 'Ihdina'(guide us). Because in this life if we are going to have healthy relationship with Allah as an individual then we have to come together as an community to ask. We need other people for guidance. We can't do it on our own. That's why its not 'Ihdini'(guide me). It is 'Ihdina'(guide us)

Lets now see little about guidance. If we are lost then we need directions. And somebody tells you that, like go left then right and so on. That is information, Isn't it ? So sometimes guidance is just information. Your counselor's guidance is information. Traffic officer's guidance is information. The GPS guidance is information. But ALLAH'S guidance is more than information. Allah's guidance is related to personal choices at each and every moment. We are asking Allah for the strength to make the right decision. Because sometimes we have all right information but still we take wrong decision. That's why we ask Allah for guidance.

If guidance that we ask from Allah would be just information then it would be one time enough. For example once we have information for doing something, then we can act accordingly and achieve the same. But we ask guidance from Allah constantly. Like I can't say that I had water yesterday so today I will not have it. So if it would be just about information, it would not be repeated this way.  Also water don't stays in us. We need it at regular interval. So as the guidance. You don't own it. You need it constantly. Nobody can say I already have it, so I don't want it anymore. That's why guidance can be compared with water. There is thirst for guidance just like there is thirst for water. So we have to keep asking Allah for guidance over and over again.

Also Read :- Part 2: Deep understanding of Ayat 70 of Surah Al-Ahzab

Often this ayah is translated as "Guide us to the straight path" . But if we translate it in an Arabic then ayat should contain ‘ilaa siraat’. But it is not the case. The meaning of this ayat is “Guide us all the way through to the end of the straight path.” ( and also stay with us while we are on this path ). Normally we don't ask people for the direction of path, we ask for direction of destination. But here we are not asking for direction of destination. We are asking for path. Because there is only one path which is right. And if we are on it then ultimately we will reach our destination. You are asking information from Allah. As information is a part of guidance.

There are other words also for ‘Path’ in an arabic. Like ‘sabeel’, ‘tareeq’ and also ‘siraat’. So why only ‘siraat’ is used in this ayah ? So lets understand this. ‘Siraat’ means wide path(So multiple people can travel) , Second it means straight path with no turns, and third it means path that is dangerous. So It has these 3 meanings. ‘Mustaqeem’ means straight. But this meaning has already come in ‘siraat’ so why again ? ‘Mustaqeem’ comes from 'istiqama' which means straight up. So this path is not going left or right but it is going up. Whoever walks on this path is rising to Allah.

And if we are rising up than danger increases. So one need to be more careful. That's why one who goes on this path, becomes more concerned as he goes. It also teaches that there is no guarantee until we get to very end. That's why meaning linguistically include all through to the end. Also When you go higher, what improves ? Views...right? You can see things what you could not see before. You understand thing you didn't understand before. The more up you go the more concern you are. Because more harm happens if we fall from more height. Therefore no guarantee in this path that you are safe until you get to the end as you may fall in between.

Allah says in Quran that you can rise through the aayaat of the Quran. So the more aayaat you begin to understand the better you begin to see and higher your view gets. Subhanallah.

In this blog article, I tried to explain very little about what I understand from ayat 6 of surah Al-Fatiha. This was based on my notes taken from one of the lectures of brother Nouman Ali Khan.

Also Read : Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 23 and 24 - Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan