This constitutes perfection in knowledge and action, for straying results from a lack of knowledge, while error consists in following caprice. For this reason, Allah Most High has commanded us to say in our prayers:

“Guide us to the Straight Path—
the path of those You have blessed,
not those who have incurred wrath,
nor those who have gone astray.”

(Surah al-Fātiha: 6–7)

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“The Jews are those who have incurred wrath, and the Christians are those who have gone astray.”(1)

Thus, the rightly guided and rightly directed person is one whom Allah has guided to the Straight Path, so that he is neither among the ignorant who have gone astray nor among those who have fallen into error and incurred wrath.

The point here is that some of the Companions knew more about the Messenger than others, and some transmitted more of what they knew than others. A Companion of lesser merit may nevertheless know about a particular matter of which the more excellent is unaware, and the latter may therefore learn it from him. This does not entail that the former is more knowledgeable than him in an absolute sense, nor that the more knowledgeable person learns from the less excellent one the knowledge by which he is distinguished.

That is why the caliphs would acquire from some Companions knowledge that they themselves did not possess. Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—thus learned the ruling concerning a grandmother’s inheritance(2) from Muhammad ibn Maslama(3) and al-Mughīra ibn Shuba(4), while Umar—may Allah be pleased with him—learned about the blood money for