Daily Reminders

Reminder#8 Allah guided you

"Did He not find you lost and guide you?"
(Surah Ad-Duha: Verse 7)

This verse is so deep in its meanings and Allah Almighty has beautifully explained our condition. This is a rheotorical question. A rheotorical question is the one the answer of which is obvious. So Allah is asking didn't He find you lost and then He guided you? The person who is lost is in search of refuge but he does not know where to take refuge. He is in such a confused state that he has no idea where to go. He just needs a place where he can be secure and at peace. A lost person is a confused person. If we look at the root of the word which Allah has used for the lost state, it has 3 root words which are:
1. Dad
2. Lam
3. Lam
The word is ضَآلًّا and the above mentioned letters are its roots. The root of any word in arabic is very important to dig deep into the meaning. So these 3 roots give the meaning of:
•deviated from the right path •when you lose something but does not know its place. •confusion
•when you can't see the right place
•the water which runs among trees or beneath a rock and sunlight does not reach it. So in other words, Allah is saying that you were in a complete darkness. You were in a state where there was not a single ray of light.

So look above all the meanings and sincerely answer this question: Wasn't this your condition before? And you know what? You also ask Allah in every prayer to not make one of these people who are lost. You ask this in your salah when you are reciting surah Fatihah and the word is ٱلضَّآلِّينَ. Just look at this word, amazingly this word also has same 3 root words!!
So Allah has first described your condition and then He asks that in this condition, wasn't He the one who guided you? Who showed you the right path? Otherwise it was not possible for you to find the right way. So for the guidance, Allah Almighty has used the word: فَهَدَىٰ. This word also has 3 roots:
1. Ha
2. Dal
3. Ya
These 3 roots are also used in surah Fatihah in the word ٱهْدِنَا.
These 3 roots give meanings:
1. To guide to the way
2. Rightly guided
3. Gift!! What an amazing meaning is this! Just close your eyes and just imagine isn't it really a gift of Allah Almighty? What would be your life right now without this gift of guidance? You would be lost. You would be in complete darkness. Just imagine the condition of a person who at the mid of night has lost his way and he is all alone. What would be his condition? He would be afraid and when suddenly he is shown his way, how happy would he be!!
So every day and night, give thanks to Allah for this gift of guidance. And ask Allah to keep you on the right path. We can never be guided to the straight path if Allah does not guide. May Allah make us His beloved servants.

Okay now this kind of lost condition in which a person is living a life full of sins can be defined for us that we were deviated from the right and straight path and then Allah Almighty showed us a way but when this surah was revealed, Allah Almighty described the condition of our beloved Prophet(Peace be upon Him). So obvioulsy we can never apply this meaning for Him as even before Prophethood, He(Peace be upon Him) never worshipped the idols and He was not even a polytheist or an atheist. He(Peace be upon Him) was a truthful person, He never cheated and He never indulged in the sins. If you read His life, you will get to know that He was in search of truth and that's why He used to stay in the cave of Hira. The word which is used in this verse is ضَآلًّا and it is derived from dalalat. This word, dalalat, has several meanings in the Arabic language. Some of which are:
1. Lost in error
2. Not knowing the true path and confused as to which path to take. If we talk about a person we can say that he does not know where to go.

So when we talk about our beloved Prophet ( Peace be upon Him) we can say that when He(Peace be upon Him) was in search of a right path(although he never indulged in bad deeds or polytheism or atheism before Prophethood), Allah Almighty showed Him the right path through revelation and then He got to know the path which was right and true.
How amazing is this verse and how amazing are the words of our Lord!! So ask Allah to teach you the Quran and become a student of Quran. I guarantee you YOUR LIFE WILL COMPLETELY CHANGE!!