Day 11
Know our heroes
The Straight Path is the path of the Prophets, the Truthfuls, the Martyrs and the Pious. Get to know our heroes. Start by reading the Seerah.
Our quest today: Find a seerah book and start reading it.
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Welcome to day 11 of Be Quranic, where we take short passages from the Quran, extract practical lessons from it and apply it into our daily lives so that we can be more Quranic.
InshaAllah today we continue our study of Surat al -Fatiha and we will do the first half of the last ayah, the seventh ayah of this great Surah. Yesterday we explored the most important du 'a that we can make, which is in this Surah, Ihdina al -Sirat al -Mustaqeem, guide us through the straight path.
Today, we are going to start by looking into what is Sirat al -Mustaqeem, what is the definition of this Sirat al -Mustaqeem. The word Sirat which is spelled with a sod (ص) comes from the word Sirat which is spelled with a sin (س).
So you have some of the Qiraat, we will read it Ehdina al -Sirat al -Mustaqeem with a sin (س) instead of a sod (ص). And Sirat with a (س) comes from the word Sarat which is to swallow whole. There is an Arabic saying, La Takun Hullwan Fatu Sarat, do not be too sweet that people might swallow you whole, that people might take advantage over you. Wa La Murran Fatu'qee, and not too bitter that people would vomit you out. So be somewhere in the middle, not to be taken advantage and not to be rejected by people. From this word swallowing whole because when you do Sarat means you take something, it goes into your mouth straight into your throat without chewing.
You gulp whatever that you are consuming straight. From that word you get a wide path that engulfs people, that everyone can be on this path. It is wide, it is not a narrow path. That is the meaning of the word Sirat because there are so many words for path in the Arabic language.
Allah chose exactly the word Sirat which is to swallow whole. a wide path. Why is it wide? Because there are multiple ways for us to get to Allah. It is within this sirat but this sirat is wide enough to contain people of different types, different backgrounds, different interests yet we are all on the same path heading towards Allah.
So now we know Sirat al -Mustaqim, wide straight path to Allah. The question is how do we know this is the path? Allah says in the next ayah, Sirat al -Ladina an -Nawm ta 'alayhim. We are asking Allah guide us to the straight path, the path of the people that you are pleased with.
The beauty of Islam, Allah tells us where to go and how to get there. So where are we heading? The straight path. How to get there? Sirat al -Ladina an -Nawm ta 'alayhim. Follow the people that Allah is pleased with.
So this ayah is talking about role models. The nature of human beings is that we like to follow others. We like to copy, mimic others. And this is why we see this today, that influences are being paid so much money because they influence others.
So now Allah is telling us, because He knows that we like to copy and mimic others, copy and emulate the best of people. Who are these people? In Surah An -Nisaa Allah explains, Al -Ladheena An -Namta Alayhim, Mina Al -Nabiyeen, Wa Siddiqeen, Wa Shuhadaa, Wa Saliheen, Allah said, The Prophets, The Siddiqeen, Those Who Are Truthful, The Martyrs, And the Saliheen, The Pious.
So Allah has given us exactly who to follow. These are our heroes. Start with the Prophets, get to know them. Start with our Prophet, Prophet Muhammad, Learn about him, Study his life. And after that, Who else?
Look into the Quran. Who are the Prophets that are mentioned most in the Quran? You have Prophet Musa, You have Prophet Ibrahim, You have Prophet Isa, Study about those people. And remember, when I said that the path, this Surat is wide, it is not just for one type of person.
And you see the differences of character, even among the Prophets. You see the characteristic of Prophet Musa, is different from Prophet Isa. Prophet Musa is a strong person, very strong character. Prophet Isa is a very gentle person.
If you are someone that is strong in your character, then you may want to follow Prophet Musa. If you are a bit of a gentle nature, then follow Prophet Isa. And we look into the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
His Akhlaq, His character is exemplified through his companions. And the beauty of this is that his companions, and all of them are not of one character. You have Abu Bakr, who is very different from Umar.
And you have Umar, who is different from Khalid ibn Walid who is different from the Uthman ibn Auf. So you have different companions who act differently but they all represent the Akhlaq the character of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
This reminds me of one hadith. There is discussion about the chain of this hadith but some scholars say that the chain is good enough for us to actually use and extract lessons from it. It has been narrated that the Prophet said, that my companions are like the stars.
You follow any one of them you will be guided. Not every one of us need to be like Abu Bakr. We may not share the same interests, we may not have the same character and not all the Sahaba were like Abu Bakr.
And we see the differences. You have warrior type Sahaba like Khalid ibn al-Waleed, Saiduna Hamza. And you have more gentle, artistic Sahaba like Hassan ibn Thabit. Yet they all live together, they all love each other, they all complimented each other through their skill sets.
And if you are someone who is artistic in nature, be like Hassan ibn Thabit. You are entrepreneurial, you are more business minded, be like Abdu Rahman ibn Auf, like Uthman ibn Affan. You are more sportsman like, you enjoy the outdoors, you enjoy hunting, you enjoy the rough life.
Be like Khalid ibn Walid. There is always a role model for us. This is the beauty of Sirat. It is not just one template. There are multiple people that we can follow from among the prophets, from among the companions.
And this is why Allah said in Surat An -Nisaa, Meena nabiyeen wa siddiqeen wa shuhada wa salliheen, it wasn't just the nabiyeen, it was the siddiqeen. People like Abu Bakr, the shuhada, people like Umar, people like Uthman, people like Hamza and other Sahaba who are martyrs.
People like the Saliheen, the rest of the Sahaba get to know our heroes and emulate them. So what is our quest today? Our quest today is to find one Seerah book. We are going to start reading a Seerah book, getting to know the prophets, what are my recommendations?
Since Be Quranic is an English program, I would recommend a Seerah books by Sheikh Yasir Qadi or Dr. Adil Salahi. Or if you enjoy Shakespeare, if you enjoy beautiful literature, then Martin Ling, Abu Bakr, Sirajiddin, these are all great Sirat books.
Start reading a Seerah book, that's our quest today. Find a Sirat book, start reading it. Try and finish one Seerah book every year. Know the prophets, get to know the family of the prophets, the Sahaba, these are the heroes, these are our role models.