that is straight (6), the path of those You have blessed—not of those who have incurred wrath, nor of those who have gone astray. (7)” [al-Fātihah: 6–7]

Those who have incurred wrath are the people of misery, and those who have gone astray are the people of error. They are those who followed His guidance and thus neither went astray nor suffered misery; rather, they are upon guidance from their Lord, and it is they who are successful.

He also said:

“Indeed, the criminals are in error and torment. (47)” [al-Qamar: 47]

“Torment” is among the greatest forms of misery. This is a vast subject.

The purpose here is simply to draw attention to this principle: whoever turns away from Allah’s guidance in knowledge and action will neither attain what he seeks nor escape what he fears. Rather, he will encounter something more fearful than what he fled, and miss out on something greater than what he desired. Those who follow His guidance, however, are upon guidance from their Lord. They are the successful, who attain what they seek and escape what they fear.

What Allah Most High has testified to in His Book—and sufficient is He as a witness—people may see evidenced on the horizons and within themselves, until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. Thus, transmitted and observed evidence agree on it—[which] form the foundation of the self-evident knowledge and the inferential, syllogistic knowledge claimed by those devoted to rational inquiry and experiential knowledge. Evidence derived from the senses, self-evident truths, and syllogistic reasoning therefore agrees with the transmitted evidence of the Quran, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the believers. Those who contradict the one also contradict the other, even if, in the former case, they lay claim to