بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ
The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray.
Sirata allatheena an’amta alayhim ghayri almaghdoobi alayhim wala addalleen
In the final ayah of the surah, Allah lays out who we should be aspiring to be like and the path of those which we need to avoid.
We previously asked Allah to guide us to his straight path and now we mention those whom we want to be with: those that have already reached the end of His path – the companions of the prophet (ﷺ) and those who have passed away as noble Muslims.
Notice the word “an’amta” is in the past tense meaning those Allah had bestowed favour upon. The word is derived from “lo’ooma” which essentially means softness. We as humans see the path of Allah as difficult but what Allah is telling is here is that if His favour comes, the path will be made soft and easy.
Another point to mention here is that the ayah says that Allah is the one who has showered the favour upon His people, thus to remind us that even the most noble of people in the past were still only guided because of Allah’s mercy towards them.
Think of the poople who are alive today as the students and those who have passed away as the graduates. We as the students must learn from those who have completed the course of Islam. All the stories in the Qur’an about the good people Allah has guided. All the prophets and the companions mentioned in the hadiths. These are who we should be looking to follow. Allah has essentially showed us their portfolios and all we have to do is copy.
The paths we should avoid are mentioned as the path of those who have earned Allah’s anger and those who are astray. What’s interesting is that in the Arabic phrasing there is no mention of “Allah’s anger”. “Al maghdoob alayhim” basically translates to “those who are receiving anger” meaning that the anger is coming from more than one source – from Allah, from the angels, from the believers, from the disbelievers on the day of judgement etc.
Those who are “astray” is better translated as those who are “lost”. Allah uses the word “dalleen” which is a noun; in Arabic grammar, a noun is usually permanent while a verb is usually temporary. Thus what Allah is telling us here is that the lost ones will always be around, we will always have to look out for them.
So what separates the two?
Think of it this way: if you had 2 sons or daughters and you gave instructions to one of them that they are both not allowed to eat any sweets (candy) while you are out. You come back and you find them both eating, who will you be more angry at? The one you instructed directly of course. Those who are receiving anger are those who know what the right path is and still disobey, while those who are lost simply do not know any better.
However, is ignorance a justifiable plea of innocence? Let’s say someone was caught speeding and got pulled over. Would it be justified to simply let the speeder off simply because they claim they didn’t know? The ignorant one must study, ask, dig, search for answers. We are all born with the fitrah: a pre-disposition to yearn for the path of Allah thus being ignorant simply cannot be an excuse to be astray.
The prophet (ﷺ) said: “Those who have earned the anger are the Jews and those who are led astray are the Christians.” [Tirmidhi]
The example of the Jews is linked to those who have earned anger since they were given direct knowledge and they simply abandoned their beliefs. While the example of the Christians is used to portray those who are lost since they lost the true knowledge and thus were lead astray.
Interestingly though, this ayah is made as a general statement, meaning this can apply to any of us. The Jews and Christians were given as an example for us to avoid following their actions that are explained by Allah in the Qur’an. Therefore, it does not give anyone the right to look down upon other religions. At the end of the day someone who claims to be Muslim by name can very well be of those who have earned anger.
May Allah guide us all, Muslims and non-Muslims, to His straight path.
Allah knows best.