Isharat al-I'jaz | The Straight Path | 29
(29-31)

O Lord! Show us what is indeed the truth and empower us to follow it, and show us the false for what it is, and enable us to avoid it.

"The Straight Path (al-sirât al-mustaqîm)"

Know that the Straight Path is justice, consisting of the blending and summary of wisdom (hikma), chastity (iffa), and courage (shajâ'a), which are the mean or middle way of the three degrees of man's three powers.

To explain: when Allâh (May He be exalted and glorified!) housed spirit (ruh) in man's body, which is changing, needy, and exposed to dangers, He deposited three powers in it to ensure its continued existence.

The First: the power of animal appetites to attract benefits.

The Second: the power of savage passion to repulse harmful and destructive things.

The Third: the power of angelic intellect to distinguish between benefit and harm.

However, since His wisdom necessitated that humanity should achieve perfection through the mystery of competition, Allâh placed no innate limitation on these powers, as He did on those of other living beings. He did however limit them through the Shari'a, for it prohibits excess (ifrât) and deficiency (tafrît) and enjoins the middle way (wasat). This is what is inferred by the verse "Pursue then the right course as you have been bidden."(11:112) In the absence of any innate limitation, three degrees arise in the three powers: the degree of deficiency, which is negligence; the degree of superabundance, which is excess; and the middle way, which is justice.

Thus, deficiency in the power of intellect is stupidity and foolishness, and its excess, perfidious deception and over-meticulousness in trivialities, and its middle way is wisdom. "He who has been given wisdom, has been given great good."(2:269)

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Isharat al-I'jaz