The third group is made up of those who act without knowledge; these are the misguided—namely the Christians and all who follow their path.

All three categories are encompassed in the Almighty’s words in Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, which we recite in every rakʿah of our prayers: “the path of those You have favored, not of those who have incurred wrath, nor of those who are astray.”

Imām Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. 1206 AH) said: “With respect to His words, ‘not of those who have incurred wrath, nor of those who are astray,’ those who have incurred wrath are the scholars who do not act on their knowledge, while the astray are those who act without knowledge. The first description applies to the Jews, the second to the Christians. An ignorant person may imagine that this warning is restricted to them, even as he recites a supplication that his Lord has made obligatory for him, seeking refuge from the path marked by these very traits! Glory be to Allah! How could Allah teach him this prayer, select it for him, and obligate him to repeat it continually if there were no danger that he might fall into what it cautions against? Failing to realize this amounts to thinking ill of Allah!” End of the Shaykh’s words.

He thus clarifies for us the wisdom behind the obligatory recitation of this majestic sūrah, Sūrah