The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 73
Faith, Certainty and Insight 73 and are prostrate at His threshold. Every person by virtue of his inner faculties is a community and a nation. The prostration of one's entire faculties before God consti- tutes the condition referred to as Islām. اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ 63 'Guide us along the straight path and establish us firmly on it; show us the path of those on whom You have be- stowed Your bounties and favours. ' غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ 0 64 'And save us from the paths of those who incur Your wrath, and could not reach You and lost their way. ' Āmīn. O Allah, accept our supplication. These verses tell us that Divine bounties and favours are bestowed only upon those who offer their lives as sacri- fice in the cause of God and, devoting themselves wholly to and being occupied entirely with His pleasure, con- tinue to supplicate so that they might be granted all the spiritual bounties that a human being can receive by way of nearness to God, meeting Him and hearing His words. With this supplication they worship God through all their faculties, eschew sin and remain prostrate at His thresh- old. They safeguard themselves against all vice and shun the ways of God's wrath. As they seek God with high re- solve and perfect sincerity, they find Him and are filled with the cups of Divine knowledge. . . . Steadfastness in Faith The true and perfect grace that conveys a person to the 63 Al-Fatihah, 1:6-7 [Publisher] 64 Al-Fatihah, 1:7 [Publisher]