and others like the wind, others like galloping mounts, some running, some walking, and some crawling. Some will be scratched but escape safely, while others will be hurled down among the people. Let the servant judge his progress along that path by his progress along this one: the two will correspond exactly—a fitting recompense. “Are you recompensed for anything but what you used to do?”

Thus, asking for guidance encompasses attaining every good and being safe from every evil.

The seventh indication comes from understanding the very thing being asked for: the straight path.

For a road to qualify as a path in this sense, it must possess five qualities: straightness, arrival at the intended destination, shortness, sufficient breadth for those travelling upon it, and its being the designated route to that destination. Clearly, the straight path encompasses all five.

Let the servant consider the doubts and desires that hinder his progress along this straight path. They are the hooks on either side of that other path, snatching at him and hindering his passage. If they are numerous and strong here, so will they be there. “And your Lord is never unjust to His servants.”

Describing the path as straight implies its shortness, because a straight line is the shortest line between two points. The more it curves, the longer and more distant it becomes. Its straightness implies that it leads to the intended destination, while its being laid out for everyone who travels upon it entails its breadth. Its attribution to those who have been blessed, and its description as differing from the path of those who have incurred anger and those who have gone astray, establish it as the designated route.

The path is sometimes attributed to Allah, since He prescribed it and laid it out, as in His words:

6:153 “And this is My path, which is straight.”

And His words:

42:52 “And indeed, you guide to a straight path—the path of Allah.”

At other times, it is attributed to His servants, as in al-Fātihah, because they are the ones who follow it. It is attributed to them, and they are the ones who travel upon it.

The eighth indication comes from mentioning those who have been blessed and distinguishing them from the two groups: those who have incurred anger and those who have gone astray. People thus fall into three categories according to their knowledge of the truth and their adherence to it. For a person either knows the truth or is ignorant of it; and the one who knows the truth