The Miracle of the Straight Path

A renowned Qur'anic scholar in Pakistan, Allamah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai offers an esoteric interpretation of

Ummu'l-Kitab as "Keys of Miracles: One of the meanings of ayat, is "miracle". Thus to the people of insight every noble verse is a heavenly miracle full of the marvels and wonders of knowledge and wisdom, and Ummu'l Kitab, i.e. Suratu'l -Fatihah and the Revealed Light, is the treasure of the keys of miracles. In this treasure, the phrase "sirat-i mustaqim" is a principal fundamental and luminous key, because every kind of exoteric and esoteric guidance depends on it.

Bewilderment of the Particular Intellect: The Divine teaching in which : "Ihdina's-sirata'l-mustaqim" (1:5) is mentioned causes bewilderment to the particular intellect. Because when a mu'min succeeds in praising Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and believes in His being the Beneficent, the Merciful and the Master and true King of the Day of Judgement and worships Him alone and seeks help from Him alone, then is this not the sirat-i mustaqim, i.e. guidance of God's religion? What more is required?

Answer: One characteristic among many of Suratu'l-Fatihah is that all its words are from Allah to teach His servants and to favour them with knowledge and good deeds. The basic teaching of the Qur'an starts here and everybody knows that only the basic of a thing is not enough, and that more is necessary.

The Real meaning of "Ihdina (Guide us)": This is the prayer not of those outside the religion of Islam, but of those fortunate ones who have entered Islam. Thus the real meaning of "Ihdina's-sirata'l-mustaqim" is: "(O Lord) make us walk on the straight path!" Because in this verse the simile and parable of the true religion is given by a straight path on which every Muslim has to walk and the provision of every such travelling Muslim can be taqwa only, i.e. God fearing (2:197). The Prophets and Awliya' have attained the special closeness of God by traversing the stages of this path in their life time (4:69). The purpose of the above mentioned prayer is obvious in that, the people of faith have to follow the path of the Prophets and Awliya' to attain success.

Purpose of the Light of Guidance: Study the verse (57:28) carefully: Is it not the same light of guidance which is permanent and everlasting and the purpose of which is that both the community and individuals have to walk on the straight path and advance in its light? Indeed, Islam is that straight path in whose stages of sharia't, tariqat, haqiqat and ma'rifat, every travelling mu'min can progress to its ultimate limit."

~ Excerpt from "Rubies and Pearls" by Allamah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai" (1994) pp. 118-119,
translated from Urdu into English by Faquir Muhammad Hunzai and Rashida Noormohamed-Hunzai.