Part 2

It is for this reason, some scholars advised, “Beware of mixing with those whose company will waste your time and corrupt your heart, lest otherwise all your affairs be ruined and you become

among those whom Allah said about in the —

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Obie “And do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his

desire and whose affair is ever [in] neglect.”

If you contemplate the state and conditions of this type of people, you will find the heart of all of them, except maybe a few,

sina state of heedlessness (ghafla) and being led by their whims and desires (a/-hawa), until their affair becomes ever negligent (o3 ); hence they observe not what benefits their hearts and increases their righteousness; and they engage in matters that not only bring

them no benefit, but may also cause them harm sooner or later.'

Allah, Exalted be He, ordered His Messenger ($8) not to obey this group. Thus, the obedience of the Prophet (8) necessitated not to obey this group of people because they call for the following of desires and for neglecting the remembrance of Allah.

[ii. Heedlessness (a/-ghafla) and Desire (a+-hawa)]

If a person ponders on the corrupt state of the world, in general and in particular, one will understand that heedlessness stands as a barrier between the servant [of Allah] and understanding and knowing Allah. Following of whims and desires keep one away from searching for the truth and following it. In the case of the former, such a person becomes from those who ate astray, and in the case of the latter, he becomes among those upon whom Allah

"See Madani al-Salikin (1/454-456]

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[iii. The Favoured Ones]

In contrast, those to whom Allah conferred His Favour upon are those that He has guided to acquire knowledge about Him, then submit to Him, and prefer Him over everything else. Truly, those are the ones who embarked the path of safety while the rest are walking on the road of door. It is for this reason, Allah ordered us to recite every day and jevery night for a number of

times [during the sa/ah], /

cS bee : eke! “Guide us to the straight “~ - The nai of those upon

whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray.”

To be among those whom ate guided by Allah to the right path - the servant of Allah is in great need to know all that which will benefit him in this life and the Hereafter; to be inclined to favour what will benefit him over anything else, and to avoid all that which harms him [in this life and the Hereafter]. If however, one overlooks knowledge, they will then be emLarking upon a path of those who are astray, and if one deviates, does not comply nor submits to Allah, one will then be treading on the path of those whom Allah is angry with. By this elucidation, it becomes clear [to us] the high-status and significance of this supplication and prayer, and the great need of people to have it fulfilled in their lives as the happiness of a person in this life and the Hereafter depends on it.

The servants need [of Allah] for guidance is always persisting in all affairs; with every breath one takes, every moment one lives, and [the need for having this supplication be answered] manifests in every affair, be that in all that one receives or all that one leaves - for one cannot but to be:

A person whose ignorance made him to believe in matters or to perform actions that contravene the guidance [of Islam]; hence he needs to seek Allah’s guidance about these matters.

A person who is aware of the guidance [of Islam about some matters] but, nevertheless, he intentionally contravenes it; hence, he needs to repent from it [i-e. the sin].

A person who lacks guidance [on particular matters] at both

levels, knowledge and action; therefore he fails to acquire the knowledgé.and to ac’ pon its purpose [accordingly].

A person whose guidance on some matters is incomplete i.e. he is guided only to some aspects of a matter; hence he

needs to perfect and complete his guidance.

A person whose guidance does not extend to cover the details of the matters he is guided to; hence he needs guidance on these details.

i. A person who is guided to find the [directions to the] right

path but that requires him to have guidance again after he embarks upon it, because to be guided to [find] the right path is one thing and to be guided after proceeding in the path is another thing, For example, a person may know the directions to a particular town but he cannot travel the journey because to do that, he needs to have guidance on how to make the journey, such as knowing the best time for travelling, knowing the quantity of water needed for

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the trip and knowing where to rest during the journey and

etc. If the latter guidance is not acquired, the traveler may suffer or die during the trip.

vii. A person who needs to have future guidance on some matters just as he had guidan¢e on such matters in the past.

vili. A person who holds no view On some matters so he neijther believes them to be false nor true; hence he needs to

be guided to the right belief about them.

ix. A person who believes he is guided in some matters while, in fact, he is astray without realising it; hence he needs to change his position, which cannot be except by the guidance

x. A person who is guided to some matters and yet also needs guiding, advising and directing others to what he was guided to as this will maintain his guidance; otherwise he may be deprive. ‘om it. This is because as the known proverb states, “dike the fault, like the punishment” i.e. as a person guides and teaches others, Allah will guide him and teach him to

become a rightly guided person who guides others too. This

is a rank that was narrated in the supplication of the Prophet (38), who said:

me Allah, adorn us with the beauty of iman (faith), make us rightly guided who guide others; do not let us astray or lead others astray, let us be peaceful with your supporters and belligerent with your enemies, make us love those who love You for they love You;

and let us show enmity against those who disobey your Command.”

* Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah, #1119 It was declared da‘if by Albani, Daf al-Jami‘ #1194

Allah, Exalted be He, has praised His believing servants who beseech Him to be people who are rightly guided, and who stand out as role models for others to follow in their guidance; He said

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Gash ap SE lec “And those who say, ‘Our Lord, grant us from among

our wives and offspring comfort to our eyes and make

us an example for the righteous.”

Ibn ‘Abbas (radiyAllahu ‘anhumd) said commenting, “It means, [O Allah] make people guided to the good through us”,

Aba Salih commented, it means, let people be guided through our guidance.”

Makhil said, “[It means] let us be examples in righteousness so that the righteous follow our example.”

Mujahid commented, “[It means, O Allah] make us followers of the righteous ones and [let us] follow their example in righteousness.”

The explanation of Mujahid was found problematic by those who did not comprehend the knowledge of the righteous predecessors or realise the depth of knowledge they had. For this reason, they objected by arguing that, “According to his explanation, the meaning of the ayah will be reversed to mean, [O Allah] make the righteous be the

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I take refuge in Allah from such a statement because it is impossible to find any ayah with a reversed meaning in the Qur’an, because the statement of Mujahid, may Allah engulf him with His Mercy, indicates his perfect comprehension since it is obvious that a person cannot be an example that the righteous follow his eads unless he himself follows the example of the righteous ones.

This is the aspect that Mujahid intended to highlight, which explains how a person can attain this high rank - that is by following the example of the righteous people who preceded him so as Allah makes the righteous ones succeeding him in time to follow his example. Truly, this is from the best understanding of Qur’an and [as explained] it is irrelevant to the issue of “reversed meaning.”

That -ing the case, whoever follows the example of the predecessors who adhered to the Sunnah, his example will be followed by those who succeed him in time and also by those who live in the same era of his.

The word (UU) “Imam” - translated to “an example for” is used in its singular form; and as can:be noted, Allah, Most High, did not use the plural form of the work as the ayah did not read to say, “Make us examples for the righteous.”

This has been explained by many scholars, some of whom explained that the word “Jmdm” is the plural of the word_“Adm”, but this interpretation is farfetched and uncommon to be found in the famous usage of Arabic language; hence such understanding cannot be used to interpret or explain the words of Allah. Other scholars said, the word “Jmdm” is not an ism (i.e. a gerund) but

rather a masdar (i.e. a noun that is derived from a verb and usually preserves the verb’s syntactic features); hence it implies the meaning, “make us to have an Imam”, and this interpretation is an ever weaker opinion than the aforesaid one.

‘Al-Farra said, “the reason why the word “Jmam” was used in a singular format; and not plural, is because it falls under the category of the singular that is intended to refer to a plural just like the word ‘messenger’ used in the ayah, “We are the Messenger of the Lord of worlds” wherein the word used is singular though it refers to two persons. This interpretation is the best of all but still requires further elucidation - that is: All the righteous people walk in the same path, worship the same illah (God), adhere to the same Book, believe in the same Prophet, and they are all the servants of One Lord i.e. their religion is the same, their Prophet is the same, their div. . Book is the same and the illah they worship is the same; hence it is as if all of this makes out the Imam that they follow. This is the absolute opposite of the case of Imams whose views, paths, beliefs, creed and methodology are different. Thus in reality, following the example of the righteous means following what they are upon.