Supplication for Guidance: Quranic Supplications 1
This is the first in a series of articles based on Shaykh Faraz Rabbani’s series of video talks on Supplications in the Quran and its related eBook.
In this article, Shaykh Faraz Rabbani provides a profound explanation about this most often repeated verse from Surat al-Fatiha – “Guide us the Straight Way” [Quran, 1:6] – but the meaning of it is often overlooked. We recite this in every cycle of every prayer. When reciting this, we make the most comprehensive supplication possible: the supplication for guidance.
The reality of supplication is not words that we say in devotion. It is the meaning of need that we express. And this supplication at the heart of Surat Al-Fatiha:
اهدنا الصراطَ المستقيم
“Guide us to the straight path”
is the most critical and urgent of our needs.
We ask Him to guide us. To show us the way and for the way to be facilitated. Out of need we ask the One who fulfills all needs: Allah. That He guide us to the path that is straight – the path of the good of this life and the next. A path leading, like all paths, to an ultimate end: the eternal good of the next life. The eternal good pleasure, closeness, and love of Allah Most High.
Say It with Need
Say it with full meaning. Ask with neediness and with joy. Joy is one of the key components of supplication. Every supplication we engage in, we should engage in with utter need. Yet, with utter joy because the One we are asking is the One who taught us how to ask – Who told us: “Call upon Me, I will answer you.”
Every time you say: اهدنا الصراطَ المستقيم – “Guide us to the path that is straight,” say it with need. Intend that He guides you to His eternal good pleasure. To His closeness. To eternal reward. And intend facilitation in all the good that we seek of this life.
May Allah Most High make us of those who are guided to the straight path.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.
Read more articles from The Quranic Supplication Series.