Choosing the Straight Path

There are two paths open ahead for us. It is up to us which of the two paths we make our choice. An artless practicing Muslim, who is regular in his 5 times daily prayers, repeats his invocation not less than 32 times while compulsorily reciting Surah Al-Fatihah, the opening chapter of the Quran in his prayers:

“Guide us to the straight path. The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favour, not of those who have evoked Your anger or of those who are astray.”

Who are actually those who have been bestowed upon Allah’s favours and blessings? In Surah An-Nisa:69 we find a pointer that they are the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs and the righteous upon whom Allah has bestowed His favours. On the contrary the groups a real Muslim takes flight and seeks protection of Allah from following them are those who earned Allah’s wrath and curse and those who have gone astray.

Such cursed people are not a matter of only the past. They exist around us and we often come across them. They are mostly from the ruling elites and upper class of the society and are indulged in affluence. Having no fear from Allah and no certainty of getting resurrected on the Day of Judgment, they persist on great violations of the Faith and moral values. Their wealthy and well-off position not only makes them arrogant but they are transgressors. A state of mischievousness develops in their nature. Bluffing, riddling and denial from their asserted statements are the satanic colours of their polity. Materialism becomes their faith and avarice leads them to fraudulently amass more and more of the money. A lavish, lustful and sinful life is their identity. Unfortunately in almost all of the Muslim countries we have this kind of people at the key posts and in influential positions. Slavish adherence of this class of the society to the cultural traits and capitalistic economic system of the former ‘Masters’ has been one of the main reasons of our not recovering from the ravage of mental and intellectual captivity of the Imperialists. This class is still loyal to their Western Masters and custodian of their interests. In reward it is guaranteed to remain in power through intrigues against the will of the people and assured of protection from getting called to account and penalized on crimes of corruption and frauds.

Now when a large number of those who go for regular prayer shun all this vicious behavior and they seek Allah’s protection from being followers of such evil elements in their society, if it is a truthful desire from the depth of heart then an invisibility of a big change and a great moral reform in the society is not understandable. Just disliking the vice and rejecting the evil element only in invocation is not sufficient to block them from demonstrating their power. Our disliking should give us a courage for openly condemn such elements who overwhelm our social and political spheres. We have prominent Ulama, renowned Sufis and distinguished intellectuals in our ranks. Our religious institutions have illustrious Muftis and scholars who while giving commentary of the Quranic verses go in the depth and string the pearls in their scholarly works and statements but in elections vote chits of most of them are produced from the ballot boxes of the same evil people who have notoriety in dishonesty and lowness of character.

Why? Because repeatedly invoking in prayers: ‘Guide us to the straight path. The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favour, not of those who have evoked Your anger or of those who are astray” is not more than paying lip-service to the Quranic Ideals without disdainfulness of the corrupt, foxy and characterless elements.

Our Azher like religious universities in almost every Muslim country are stuffed with knowledgeable Shiukh whose works of commentary even on Surah Fateha, which teaches us to reject all those who earn Allah’s wrath by their wrong doings, speak volumes. But in spite of their richness of knowledge and their loud proclamation of not going on the path of wicked and villainous elements they feel no prickling in having Firauns (Pharaohs) over their heads as rulers and Qaruns enjoying the trust and companionship of Firauns, collecting huge of money through plundering, bribery, kickbacks and other means of corruption, having them as their leaders.

Very queerly sometime tyrant and arbitrary rulers and their retinue, corrupt politicians and influential people of upper class avail themselves of the blessings of the Sufis and religious preceptors thought to be having some saintly powers. They use them to wane the influence of those who are on the right path and are the true followers of Deen. This type of practice is actually simulation of what we find in some commentaries of the Quran that the evil forces standing adverse to Mosa (AS) used Bala’am Bau’rah, a saint in the ranks of Bani Israel, whose invocations were thought certainly to be accepted, to supplicate evil upon Mosa (AS). Most of our leaders, educated in the prestigious western universities but still badly superstitious, are told frequently resorting to the fortunetellers and dervishes to know what good or bad the future keeps in pipe for them and how and when they should take some important decisions?

How they can be expected to be eager of seeking Guidance to the straight path, the path of those who gained the favours of their Lord and how much they are serious in abstaining from the path of those who evoked Allah’s anger and of those who go astray?