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Thoughts on Sura Fatiha

Sunday, June 22, 2008

As I was contemplating on the beauty of Sura Fatiha, it struck me how powerful the essential dua'a in the sura is:

"Guide us to the straight path"

We're asking Allah (swt) to guide us to the path of righteousness. But which path is that? Thus Allah (swt) answers in the following verse:

"The path of those upon whom You (Allah) have bestowed Your blessings."

So it’s a path characterized not by ideals or principles, but by the people who embody those very ideals and principles.

It's not the path of the Quran. It's not the path of the Hadith. It's not the path of detailed Fiqh or correct Aqeedah. It's not the path of dry texts and lifeless manuscripts.

It’s the path of living, breathing individuals. It’s the path traversed by our noble elders, who are able to pass along the experiences and life-long lessons of this journey. It’s the path of beacons of light who we are blessed to sit with and learn from. It’s the path of following the good examples and shunning the bad ones.

It’s the path of interacting with society, not the path of isolating oneself.

It’s the path of sitting at the feet of a teacher, not the path of Do-It-Yourself.

It’s the path of discovering and emulating these vibrant gems of society, not the path of mechanically memorizing drab data from bloodless books.

It’s the path of debasing oneself before another (for the purpose of learning), not the path of anointing oneself over another (for the purpose of teaching).

It’s the path navigated by our spiritual forefathers.

Let us all embark on our journey down this path.

Sunday, June 22, 2008 | Labels: Divine Rememberance, Spirituality |  

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22, 2008 and is filed under Divine Rememberance , Spirituality . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You always have such interesting insights. I'll think about this next time I recite the Surah. Thank you.

June 25, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Suroor said...

This is an amazing thought. Brother, would you mind if I posted this on ALIF LAAM MEEM?

June 25, 2008 at 4:51 PM
Sadiq said...

Mashallah, Thanks so much for sharing.

Peace!

September 9, 2009 at 5:01 PM

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