Al Hadi - Part 1

Introduction : The word Al - Hadi which is one of the Name and Attributes of Allah (swt) and is explained as ''The One with Whose Guidance His believers were guided, and with Whose Guidance the living beings have been guided to what is beneficial for them and protected from what is harmful to them.''

Al Hadi is derived from the root word 'Hidayah' which means Guidance and the verb for it is 'Yahdi' which means 'To guide' and Al-Hadi in literal translation is the One who guides. But unlike the guidance of human beings Allah's guidance is perfect.

You can ask how? Now, imagine a situation whereby you are lost in an area and you have to reach to a destination (and lets just presume you don't have a GPS in your car :P) you are dependant on your other fellow human beings on the way. So you stop your car and you check with a person or 2 if they can give you the directions for your location. Now, the chances are 50-50 that he can give you the correct directions or he might just confuse you or give you totally wrong directions. Human Beings are limited in Guidance. So his guidance, is not and cannot be perfect because he is just a human being and perfection is not really his attribute (no matter how much people scream that they're perfectionists there's always somewhere that they'd err).

Whereas, Allah's guidance is perfect for many many reasons but they are only very few that we as humans, can comprehend on. Imagine this, you have created a device, or a software or lets say even a recipe :P would you not know the precise details of it? (unless your an absent-minded professor like me)

You would, right? So we have put our 100% trust in Allah's guidance as He is Our creator and he is very well aware of which specific areas are we weak in, where we could use an extra push, what makes us to do wrong actions, what tempts us, where we could use some extra guidance and hey, he knows this for all the people on this earh.

So He Allah swt, just wants you and I to reach out to him with a sincere heart for his guidance and he will guide us in ways that we could have never imagined of. Any heart that truthfully/sincerely looks for the Truth Allah Al-Hadi will never ever disappoint it. I will give you a personal example for Guidance, just last saturday I did a sin and c'mon we all do the stuff we know is BAD when we are alone or we would go to a place where nobody can see us right?

Okay, so i pretty much did that and then i left from that place to go to the metro station, I hailed a cab and sat in it, the cab guy was playing Quran Radio, and I thought to myself 'O great, the guilt-coaster is gonna start now' .... It was no less than a minute that I sat in the cab where one of the lines being played from the Quran was 'InnAllaha Sami'un Baseer' (Indeed, Allah is All-Hearing and All-Seeing) and I was like ''Woaaaahhh! Scary stuff, I need to stop this sin immediately'' and I felt regret in my heart then no longer than 2-3 minutes another verse ends with something like 'InnAllaha Ghafoor ur-Raheem'' (Indeed it is Allah the Most-forgiving, The Most-Merciful Because I was being guided in a way I could hardly imagine of. It was a reminder+ a form of Guidance.

The Name Al-Hadi is mentioned twice in the Quran:

1. Surah Hajj, Verse #54,
And that those who have been given knowledge may know that it (this Qur'an) is the truth from your Lord, and that they may believe therein, and their hearts may submit to it with humility. And verily, Allah is the Guide of those who believe, to the Straight Path.

2. Surah Furqan, Verse #31
Thus have We made for every Prophet an enemy among the Mujrimun (disbelievers, polytheists, criminals, etc.). But Sufficient is your Lord as a Guide and Helper.

There are 4 different types of Guidance that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala ("Glorious and Exalted is He") provides to his Creation. We shall discuss thi in the next blogpost! Insha'allah!

My beloved teacher sister E tells us, that you love somebody because you know so much about them, and they are just the creation, now think of the love you would feel if you know more about your creator. The One who brought you into existence, nurtured you, sustained you through His means. Wouldn't you want to know more about that Creator of yours? and when you do, The best way is by starting to study the Names & Attributes of Allah SWT in a way that after that 'Everything around you shall remind you of a Name and Attribute of Allah'

Another good reason to learn more about Allah's names and attributes is when you are aiming at getting close to Him because, When you know a friend of yours overtime, you feel free to tell them any of your problems seek their help, or advice and once you do that you feel that your bond with that friend becomes tighter than ever. Then Imagine What about Allah? Wa Lillahi'l Masa lil 'Ala (To Allah belongs the best descriptions)

In Short, to learn about Allah SWT is like to start a journey in a huge never-ending ocean and initially near the port, the water may seem shallow but as you move further and further in the sea of knowledge you realize there's SOO much more to discover!