Surat Al Fatiha: verses 6 and 7

In the previous khutbas, we discussed the meaning of the first few verses of Surat Al Fatiha. ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ means, “All praise is for Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ means, “The Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.” مَٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ means, ‘Owner or King of the Day of Judgment’. إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ means, ‘only You we Worship and only You we ask for help’. In this khutba, we will go over the sixth and seventh verses of Surat Al Fatiha. 

The sixth verse of Surat Al Fatiha is اِهۡدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الۡمُسۡتَقِيۡمَۙ‏, which is translated as, ‘guide us to the straight path’. Why do we ask Allah for guidance, even though we are already Muslims? It is because throughout the course of a day and generally throughout our lives, we will sometimes do bad things here and there, knowingly or unknowingly. And so we need Allah to guide us back to doing good and leave the bad deeds. We always need to ask for this type of guidance. An analogy is like drinking water. Just because you drank water yesterday, doesn’t mean you don’t need to drink water today. Just as we need to drink water throughout the day, similarly, our hearts are always in need of Allah’s guidance hence we ask for it multiple times a day. We need guidance for our school life, work life, friendship, and relationship with family and other parts of life. Something that we have echoed throughout our discussion about Surah Fatiha is that no one is perfect, and so we need to constantly ask Allah for help, guidance, rahma, forgiveness, stability, and strength to do good.

Another question you may ask is, why do we say guide us to the straight path and not just guide me to the straight path? The collective word “us” is used rather than “me” because we want all of us to be guided and on the straight path. So we are asking for a collective success and not just individual success. Collective success makes good deeds easier. For example, when everyone is praying, it is easy for others to join. But if no one is praying, it can be challenging for the few to pray on their own. Another example is fasting. Fasting is generally difficult. But it becomes slightly easier in Ramadan because everyone is fasting. Even tarawih and giving charity becomes easier because everyone is praying together and everyone is giving charity. So we ask Allah to guide us all when we say اِهۡدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الۡمُسۡتَقِيۡمَۙ‏. 

What does الصِّرَاطَ الۡمُسۡتَقِيۡمَۙ mean. It is commonly translated as the straight path. But it also means an established, upright, correct path that stands in the way of falsehood. So we are asking Allah to guide us to the truth. The path is straight - it doesn’t bend or change when there are obstacles in the way. So sometimes there will be hardship, obstructions and barriers along the path and we have to overcome them. Friends, music, social media, drugs, playing games at the expense of prayer and not obeying your parents are all obstacles that come on the path of الصِّرَاطَ الۡمُسۡتَقِيۡمَۙ and so we need to overcome them. Sometimes it might feel like a mountain is on this path and is blocking us. Well, with the help of Allah, we must have the determination and energy to go through even the mountains of life. Meaning, sometimes the trials will be very big and so you must put in the extra effort needed to surpass the challenges. Why? Because at the end of that path is Jannah, Paradise. And in Jannah we will relax, chill and there will be no hardship there. 
We also ask Allah to guide us all the way to the end of the path, so we can make sure we can reach the ultimate destination, Jannah. 

The last verse of Surat Al Fatiha, verse number seven is,
 صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ
Which means ‘the Path of those You have favoured, not those You are displeased with, and not those who went astray’. In the previous ayah we asked Allah to guide us to the straight path. This verse is an extension of the request for guidance on the straight path. We are asking Allah to surround us with good people that can help us on this path and keep the bad people away from us. Sometimes the good people might be our friends, our family members, our relatives, your teachers, the people in the mosque, the ones who tell you to come to prayer. These are some of the good people we are asking Allah to be with. Moreover, Alhamdulillah, our Islamic history is full of amazing role models. Starting with our beloved Prophet Muhammed, his companions, all the way to the recent activists like Malcolm X. We need to spend some time learning the life of the Prophet Muhammed and his companions, as this will help with us staying on the straight path.  

On the other hand, we need to stay away from bad people as much as possible. All the way from people who will corrupts our beliefs to those who will just take us away from the straight path. 
Since verses 6 and 7 of Surat Al Fatiha are duas,  

 ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ ,صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ
To end Surat Al Fatiha, we say ‘Ameen’. So just like with any other dua, we say Ameen to conclude the supplication, which means ‘so be it’ as want Allah to accept it our dua and fulfil it. 

In conclusion, we should constantly ask Allah to guide us to the straight path and surround us with good people and help us stay away from the bad ones. On top of making dua, we need to constantly take the actions required to be on the straight path. Sometimes good deeds like praying Fajr, fasting in Ramadan, or obeying your parents might be difficult, but at the end of this straight path is Paradise. Now that we have completed Surat Al Fatiha, I encourage all of us to re-visit the meaning of the verses of the surah and listen to lectures on it. Make it a habit to learn about your religion, whether it is the Quran, the life of the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) and other topics. Be a proactive Muslim who wants good for others by helping them remain on the straight path. 

We ask Allah to give us the ability to study more, put barakah in our lives, keep us firm on the straight path, to make us successful Muslims in this dunya and in the akhira and enter all of us into Jannah. Ameen.