The word hidaayah, linguistically meaning direction and guidance is used in two senses in the Qur'aan. 1. Guidance of clarification and direction, not taking into account whether the person to whom it has been clarified traverses the path of guidance or not. With this respect is the saying of Allah, "And as for the Thamud then We guided them but they preferred blindness over guidance." [Fussilat (41):17] Meaning: We made clear to them the True Way upon the tongue of our Prophet Saalih, upon him and our Prophet be peace and blessings, despite the fact that they did not traverse this way as proven by His saying, "but they preferred blindness over guidance." With this respect also is His saying, "Indeed, We guided him, whether he be grateful or ungrateful." [Al- Insaan (76):3] Meaning: We have made clear to him the Way of Good and the Way of Evil as proven by His saying, "whether he be grateful or ungrateful." 2. The specific type of guidance which is Allaah bestowing His Grace upon the servant by making him conform to the Way of Truth. With this respect is His sayings, "They are the ones whom Allaah guided, so follow their guidance." [Al- An'aam (6):90] "And whosoever Allaah Wills to guide, He opens his breast to Islaam." [Al-An'aam (6):125] When you come to understand this then any difficulties in understanding the following sayings of Allaah will also be removed. "Indeed! You [O Muhammad] cannot guide those you love, but Allaah guides whom He Wills." [Al-Qasas (28):56] "And indeed you [O Muhammad] are guiding [mankind] to the Straight Path." [Ash-Shuraa (42):52] Because the aspect of guidance that has been negated is the specific guidance as this is in the Hands of Allaah Alone. As for the aspect of guidance that has been affirmed then it is the general guidance which is to make clear the Way of Truth. And the Messenger of Allaah (SAW) explained this to the extent that it became like a great white plain whose night is like its day. There is also a third sense to the word guidance that was mentioned by ibn al-Qayyim, and that is guidance on the Day of Judgement to the path to Paradise - this being the bridge leading to it. SO the one who is guided in this life to the Straight Path will be guided to the straight path in the Hereafter that leads to Paradise. His firmness on the path that Day will be dependent on how firmly he trod the Straight Path in this life. http://www.troid.org/articles/quraan/tafaaseer/explainingsoorahs/soora tulfatihah.pdf pp. 43-44
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/TXWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamcity/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
