Islam for Muslims
- THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
- GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
- GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
God as the Guide
Introduction: God is the “Guide for the believers” among mankind (22:54). Religiously, you will be considered guided when you feel interest in mind and “enlightened” at heart to do any good deeds (57:28). He affirmed His “Guidance is the (only) Guidance” which is known as His preferred “Right path” (6:71; 2:213) and anyone else (e.g. your adopted saint) is likely to misguide you in the name of guidance. Man acts according to “his disposition” but only God knows who is “best guided on (His) path” (17:84). His guidance is for all those whose heart is “open” to Islam and who seeks “His pleasure to ways of peace and safety" (39:22; 5:16). For helping people toward His blessed path, God makes provisions for both external supports (pro-guidance messages) and internal supports (like good conscience, fair judgment power etc.).
(1) External Support (Pro-guidance Messages): God teaches how to ask for guidance in the opening chapter of the Quran named Sura Fatiha which is required to recite in every unit of prayer. He always inspires you to “do good deeds” and try for “guidance that benefits (your) own soul” (16:90; 39:41). He endowed you with “hearing, vision, heart and brain” so you can use them wisely to gain and fortify guidance (46:26). He gives a clarion call to set your "face to the right religion (Islam)" during your lifetime and "not to die without being a Muslim" (30:43; 3:102). If you positively respond to this call, you can derive guidance that might lead you to the path of salvation, with freedom from any “fear” and “grief” (2:38).
God made favorable condition for guidance by sending "messenger(s) to every people" so they cannot say “no warner” came to them (16:36; 5:19). He would not “destroy men’s habitations for wrongdoing” without sending such warners to them (6:131). These messengers preached in “language of (their) people” for making messages clear to them (14:4). They circulated divine messages that they received in various forms including spiritual inspiration, dream, letter, booklet or Books in the case of leading prophets. These scriptures “explained the signs by various (symbols)” (6:46), for promoting their guidance.
(2) Internal Supports (Spiritual Qualifications): God designs everyone to be born with a good conscience and innocent mind with "the balance of (justice)" and “enlightenment” as to right and wrong (57:25; 91:8). As a result, you will be able to tell the right from the wrong and your soul will be empowered to follow the right. For the righteous people, God “endears Faith” to you and “made hateful to you” all vicious acts (49:7). In fact, no person is ever born as a sinner but sinning instinct becomes your nature after you gain adulthood when Satan "defaces (your) fair nature created by God" (4:119). He, nevertheless, aids you in countering Satanic instigation; otherwise none of you would have “remained pure" (24:21).
Open Door for Guidance: In this manner, God framed conditions favorable for guidance. Keeping the door of guidance open to all, He invites everyone who wishes to “take the straight path to his Lord” after He advances “guidance for those who seek guidance” (25:57; 19:76). If you are interested, you can easily enter this door of guidance by accepting Islam and qualify for divine blessings as a true Muslim. If you feel grateful for your guidance and try to remain on “the straight path” by performing virtuous deeds, then God will reinforce your “piety and restraint” (19:36; 47:17).
Disqualifications from Guidance: Exceptionally, only two groups of people remain off-limits to divine guidance. (i) First, those who once gained guidance but do not make critical minimum efforts to preserve it (e.g. someone gets into the habit of prayer but later playfully or lazily goes back from it) or who deliberately “reject Faith after embracing it” (3:86). (ii) Second group are the misguided people who receive invitation of Islam but never choose to accept it as “their evil course seems pleasing to them” (9:37). Moreover, they hold on to irreligious practices in violation of God’s rulings. God does not give guidance to such “wrong-doers” or “unjust people" (62:5; 2:258).
Pro-Guidance Efforts: The above two groups are not likely to be blessed with divine guidance. As a result, God will punish such misguided people by degrees from “directions they cannot perceive” (68:44). Obviously, they “deserve misguidance (by their own choice)” and God is not blameworthy for this (7:30). He is above unfair bias to hand out guidance to someone while “causing (others) to stray” (2:26) without any reasonable ground. He has granted you a full freedom to “act according to own disposition" (17:84) and your prospect for guidance will depend on how you act. It is also important to note that your guidance, as a variable factor, may go up or down depending on your response. God will not “leave you (unchanged) in a state where you are now (with static guidance)” until He separates “evil from good” (3:179). You should therefore always try to enhance your guidance by “striving” hard in the cause of God through doing more of good deeds at both personal and social level (29:69). Also, you need to avoid not only clear-cut sins but also non-Islamic cultures like music, dance, drama, online addiction etc. Even if you may fall in love with such fun cultures, your guidance may dampen if you overdo them at the expense of Islamic cultures.
Conclusion: In fact, guidance is the best of all blessings that you can have and since it is a highly variable thing, you should try your best to gain, preserve and develop it.