MEANING
Guidance means direction, leadership, supervision. In Islam, it calls Hidayah which mean to show the way, to guide, to lead on the right thing and right faith. Hidayah is a noun, means guidance, direction, showing a way to someone else. Normally, it refers to the good life and well being. In technical it means the quality which leads man to perceptions (of good or bad) and the implementation of Allah’s rules and regulations. “Lost are those who clay their children, from folly, without knowledge, and forbid food which Allah has provided for them, inventing (lies) against Allah. They have indeed gone astray and heeded no guidance”(Q 6:140). Al-Hidayah also means the right direction of a believer towards the course of Paradise. It is the opposite of dholalah صلالة (going astray, straying, and lost, erroneous, misleading) and khursan خسران (loss, damage, destruction).
GOD AND HIS CREATION
We know that creation is amazingly vast and intricate. From the tiniest and invisible protons and neutrons to the vast galaxies, it inspires wonder and awe. It is not only vast, it is well-ordered.
However, Reality according to the Qur’an is not only made up of matter, of the things we can see and hear and smell and feel and taste. It is not only made up of the vast observable universe. There are parts of God’s creation which is beyond the knowledge and experience of any human being. The Qur’an mentions the seven heavens, periods in the time when man was not even a thing mentioned. It speaks of angles created from light and jinns made from fire. It specks of another world – the Aakhirat – which is better and more lasting that this world. To disbelieve or reject the existence of all these simply because we cannot now perceive them is to doubt the creative power of the Creator. It is like looking down a single street and denying that anything exists around the street corners simply because that is outside our field of vision. (The Qur'an, 67:23)
Creation is also not a one-off thing. God did not just create the world and go to rest or to sleep. He would not be God if He did so. God continues to sustain His creation and he has the power to bring to an end or to cause new life or creation as He wills.
The Qur’an speaks of everything in the universe as being created according to a measure which is set by the Creator. The sun moves in a path of its own and “may not overtake the moon”. All heavenly bodies float through space according to the laws set by God. Plants need sunlight to grow and flourish. Birds and bees have been inspired by the Creator with amazing sense of direction to enable they obtain food. People need oxygen to survive. Each creation follows or obeys the special laws or norms built into it. A bee cannot live in the sea. A fish cannot live on land. Each lives according to the laws set by the Creator. Each lives in a state of submission. This is precisely the meaning of the Arabic word “islam”. Anything which follows the laws measured out for t by the Creator lives in a state of submission or islam and is thus a “muslim” which literally means “one who submits”. [1]
UNDERSTANDING ISLAM
Here there is a point to be touched on, the question of Moslem morality. If we want to understand certain seeming contradictions in that morality we must take into account the fact that Islam distinguishes between man as such and collective ma, the latter appearing as a new creature subject in a certain degree, but no further, to the law of natural selection. This is to say that Islam puts everything in its proper place and treats in according to its own nature; collective man it envisages, not through the distorting perspective of a mystical idealism which is it fact inapplicable, but taking account of the natural laws which regulate each order and are, within the limits of each order, willed by God. Islam is the perspective of certainly and of the nature of things rather that of miracles and idealist improvisation. This is said, not with any underlying intention of indirectly criticizing Christianity, which is what it should be, but in order better to bring out the intention and justification of the Islamic perspective.
If we start with the idea that esotericism by definition considers first of all the being of things and not becoming to our situation in relation to our will, then for the Christian Gnostic it is Christ who is the being of things, this ‘Word from which all things were made and without which nothing was made’. The Peace of Christ is from this point of view the repose of the intellect in ‘that which is’.
If there is a clear separation in Islam between man as such and collective man, these two realities are none the less profoundly linked together, given that the collectivity is an aspect of man-no man can be born without a family-and that conversely society is a multiplication of individuals. It follows from this interdependence or reciprocity that anything that it done with a view to the collectivity, such as the tithe for the poor or the holy war, has a spiritual value for the individual and conversely; this converse relationship is the more true because the individual comes before the collectivity, all men being descended from Adam and not Adam from men. [2]
ISLAM IS THE NATURAL RELIGION
Islam is known not only as a rational and moral way of life prescribed for all of mankind, it is known by the term 'Din ul-Fitra' or 'the natural religion'. Islam is the religion designed by the Creator of mankind for the benefit of mankind and therefore fits human nature perfectly. Being Muslim is living in harmony with your human nature.
Natural desires are considered as coming from Allah and put into people for good reason. They don't need to be repressed but rather simply channelled into the right ways of being fulfilled. So, for example, in Islam getting married is considered 'half of the religion' and each act of making love between a husband and his wife is an act of worship.
When a person is born he/she is purely natural, free of sin and Muslim. Humans, we are told in the Qur'an, are made in the best of forms and start life with a huge plus. It is only in later life that their environments may lead them to take beliefs or adopt practices that contradict Islam. Because of our nature, deep down we all need to find our purpose in life; we all know we have moral responsibilities and we all know that, if anything ought to be, then Allah must exist. This being part of human nature, no one can claim that their disbelief was the result of ignorance alone. Disbelief is always, at some level, a conscious and sinful act. On the day of judgement the conscience of the disbeliever will be his or her own damning evidence. [3]
CONCLUSION
Al-Quran comes from Allah, the sources of Guidance, the Guider to the right path (al-Hidayah). It touches all the matters of life, spiritually, socially, economically, politically. Allah gives hidayah to all His creation but we must work hard to get it.
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