Surah Al Fatiha Ayah 5
Guide us to the straight path upwards
- The most desperate need you and I have is Guidance
- Guidance is compared with water
- We need guidance just ask much as we need Water
- We do not need Guidance once but over and over again
- Allah gives us everything without asking Him
- Allah gives us food, water, security, and sustenance without asking
- Guidance we receive after asking Allah
- We go back to Allah, stand in salah and Ask Him for guidance again and again
- Guidance is so precious and so easily removed
- Even the Messenger of Allah as to ask for it again and again
- Guidance is not something you can keep
- Guidance cannot be passed down to your children
- We cannot Guide anyone
- Allah guides who He wants
- Guidance only comes from Allah
- Guidance only comes from the one who asks again and again desperately
Example
- If you are thirsty you will ask for water
- If the thirst is not too bad you will forget about it and just ask once
- But if you are dying of thirst then you will be desperate for water
- You will ask again and again
- The attitude on how you will ask will be different
- Desperate is not just in words but also shown in your attitude
- What is your attitude when you recite Fatihah?
- It shows how desperate you are for guidance
The Way you ask for Guidance
- Attitudes comes from the heart
- Words you memorize come out easily
- But your attitude is shown differently
- Allah is not just concerned with words
- But words that come from the heart
- You can recite Fatihah and not ask for Guidance
- You can even recite the words with proper tajweed and not ask for Guidance
- You can recite Fatihah beautifully and not ask for Guidance
- You could stand in front of the Kaaba and not ask for Guidance
- Or You can recite Fatihah and desperately ask for Guidance
- Everything is happening inside
Master and Slave Relationship
- There are signs a person is a slave
- The biggest thing is slave never does what they want
- The slave does what the master tells them
- One cannot be a slave if they do not know what the master wants
- If you do not know what the Master wants you will do as you wish
- But If you know what master wants you will do that
- Master has to give you instructions to be a slave
- As soon as you accept Allah as Master
- You accept yourself as slave
- The first logical step is to ask for instructions from the Master
- Which is the request for Guidance
Allah mentions Rabb and Guidance together in the Quran because a slave must get guidance from the Master
Huda
- It is related to hadiya or gift
- There is some one who was lost and now is guided
- You get lost in the desert
- The most important gift you can get is guidance
- Because if you have water in the desert and no guidance you will eventually run out of water and die
- But if you receive guidance you will be saved
The Difference Between Having Knowledge and Having Guidance
- You can have a lot of knowledge of Quran and not have guidance
- You can be a Muslim and not have guidance
- We could look religious but not have guidance
- Guidance is not one act
- When someone took the shahadah they took their first guided act
- Every moment we need to make a series of decisions
- We could make the right decision or the wrong decisions
- With every decision we need somebody’s advice
- Allah says I am willing to give you constant advice and help
- This is asking for Allah’s Guidance
- Guidance is only in the hand’s of Allah
- Knowledge you can keep but Guidance is not yours to keep
- Knowledge you can increase
- Guidance is only increased by Allah
- The moment you don’t appreciate it its taken away
When you ask Allah for guidance you are asking to be guided along a Journey
So we ask for the straight path
Sirat Al Mustiqim
- A straight path that is long and wide and upwards
- Other people are on the road too
- Some people are with you
- Some people are in front of you
- Some people are behind
- We ask directions to a destination
- But in Fatihah we ask to be guided to the road
- The road is a means to an end
- Instead of asking for the destination we ask to be guided to the road
- Because in this life your destination is the road
- In this life I have to continue to make progress
- On the straight path we keep going and improving
- We will never be perfect
- It is a gift from Allah because being on the path is easy
- Seeing the destination seems too far and may seem difficult
- We must compare ourselves to no one but ourselves
- Did we make progress on the road from yesterday?
- Each person is different
- We could be inspired by each other but we have our own path
- Seek knowledge but never forget why you are seeking knowledge
- Seek knowledge to get guided by Allah
- Knowledge should make you more humble not arrogant
- Because a slave has nothing to be proud of and they must be humble
- When you are traveling on the road you are going upwards
- When you are going upwards takes effort
- If you stop making effort you keep going down
- The world pulls you down and guidance pulls you up
- No matter how far up you go in this life temptations will try to pull you down
- You will never be safe from falling
- The higher you go the more dangerous it is
- If you fall from such a high level than you will be so immersed in the duniya