HIDÂYAH - هداية ‎

 

Literally: A showing, leading, or explaining the way. Guidance, especially ma’nawî guidance, particularly in the religion of Islam. To be guided into true religion. To embrace the faith of Islam.

Righteousness. As-sirât al-mustaqîm. Guidance. Leaving the way of dhalâlah and bâtil and accepting and following the haqq. Being guided to haqq. Hidâyah is the opposite of dhalâlah.

 

“اِهْدِنَا 1 The positioning: it is the ‘abd’s reply to Allah's question as if He asks: "What aim is closest to your heart?" and the ‘abd replies: 2 اِهْدِنَا

Know that because of its several levels of meaning, it is as if اِهْدِنَا is derived from the four sources [or verbal nouns - masdar] of the act of hidâyah. For its recipients may be divided into those who are given hidâyah, those who seek hidâyah, and those who seek an increase in hidâyah. So اِهْدِنَا means: make us firm in hidâyah if we are a society; increase us in hidâyah if we are a community; make us successful in hidâyah if we are a tribe; give us hidâyah if we are a group.

Also, according to the âyah, وَ خَلَقَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ وَ هَدَى 3 Allah gave us hidâyah by giving us external and inner senses; then He gave us hidâyah by placing evidences in the outside world and in our nafs; then He gave hidâyah to us by sending prophets and revealing books. And then He gave hidâyah to us with the greatest hidâyah, which was by removing the veils from the haqq, it appeared as haqq and bâtil appeared as bâtil.

اَللّٰهُمَّ اَرِنَا الْحَقَّ حَقًّا وَ ارْزُقْنَا اِتِّبَاعَهُ وَ اَرِنَا الْبَاطِلَ بَاطِلاً وَ ارْزُقْنَا اِجْتِنَابَهُ آمِينَ4

Signs of Miraculousness (29)

 

 

اُو۬لٰٓئِكَ الَّذ۪ينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلاَلَةَ بِالْهُدٰۖى فَمَارَبِحَتْ تِجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَاكَانُوا مُهْتَد۪ينَ5

The âyah's pertinence is this: human beings were not sent to this world to make it their homeland but to trade using the capital of their innate faculties and powers; to cultivate them and then dispose freely of their produce.

The positioning of the âyah's phrases: This is a fluent, fıtrî arrangement, reflecting the ordering of the parable. It is like this: there was a cheated failed merchant. He had been given rich capital but he had used it only to buy poison and things harmful to himself. He worked his capital, but it brought him no profit and was of no avail to him; indeed, it plunged him into ever greater loss. Finally, he lost all of it, and then strayed from the path until there was no return….

… The verb  اشْتَرَو 6 ,   alludes to the rejection of the munâfiqs excuse [when they say] "it is in our fitrah to do this." It is as though the Qur'an is saying to them: "No! Allah has given you your lifespan as capital and deposited in your rûhs the potentiality to mature and be perfected, and planted in your consciences the seeds of haqq, which constitute fıtrî hidâyah so that you might buy happiness. But rather than buying it, indeed renouncing it, you procured immediate pleasures and worldly benefits, and misusing your wills you choose the way of dhalâlah rather than the path of hidâyah and you spoiled that fıtrî hidâyah and lost your capital.

The phrase 7 الضَّلاَلَةَ بِالْهُدٰۖىhints that the munâfiqs incur loss upon loss, for just as they lose by acquiring dhalâlah, so they lose through giving up the supreme ni’mah of hidâyah….

… وَمَاكَانُوا مُهْتَد۪ينَ8 : that is, just as they have lost their capital, so have they lost their way. This is linked and associated with the parabolic اشْتَرَو 9 , as was the preceding phrase. It also hints obliquely at هُدًى لِلْمُتَّق۪ينَۙ 10 at the start of the surah as though it is saying: "The Qur'an offered them hidâyah, but they did not accept it." Signs of Miraculousness ( 119 -121)