The Metaphor of the Path
I am sharing with you my Reflections from Ramadan 2025 when I completed a series of short videos, released daily on my YouTube channel. These blogs have been created from my video notes and I will be sharing a blog daily as we get ready for Ramadan 2026.
Assalamu alaykum.
Today I am going to reflect on the metaphor of the path. You will be familiar with it; the Qur’an uses it quite often. But I am going to specifically focus on the path set out in Surah Al-Fatiha, which becomes more visible if we ponder over the structure of the Surah.
The Arabs were desert dwellers. Many travelled far distances, navigating during the day and using the stars at night to set the travel direction. The literal meaning of the word Shariah is the path to water and you can imagine, especially when you recall the imagery of the Qur’an I read out to you in the last blog, that reaching an oasis with water would be akin to a stay in a heavenly garden. Following the Shariah leads us to an oasis.
The metaphor of the path is also invoked in the Qur’an to remind us that our job is to focus on the quality of the journey. There are no guarantees that we will arrive at the best destination. That guarantee only sits with Allah, the owner of the Day of Judgment.
This point dovetails nicely with the messages in Surah Al-Fatiha, the opening chapter of the Qur’an which is set out as a supplication or dua, in response to which Allah gave us the Qur’an – the guidance needed to find and navigate our path to the oasis.
I am going to be using Raymond Farrin’s excellent work titled ‘Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation: A Study of Symmetry and Coherence in Islam’s Holy Text’. Farrin has suggested that many Quranic narratives and chapters have a ring structure with the central idea in the middle of the ring although some scholars have critiqued his theory. I am borrowing insights from pages 18-24 of the book. Farrin is suggesting that Al-Fatiha has one small ring and a key connecting verse within it.
Let’s read the translation in full first
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds; Most Gracious, Most Merciful; Master of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way, The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray. (Surah Al-Fatiha; tr. Yusuf Ali).
Let's now look at the structure of the surah, which has two rings (ring 1 in green and ring 2 in orange):
I will now ask you to situate yourself in the middle of the verse, iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'een. Imagine now that you are stood at the ‘waw’ in the verse - iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'een. Now look outward from this ‘waw’, from iyyaka na'budu to the start of the surah: it is only You whom we worship. Why? Because we are grateful to you, you created us and sustain us, you are the most merciful and you are the master of the day of judgment. THAT is why we worship you and only you. There is an implication of this: iyyaka na'budu turns to dust any belief in or worship of false gods that we create through extreme admiration.
Let’s go back to visualisation. Stood at the same ‘waw’, look outward again from wa iyyaka nasta'een to the end of the surah. iyyaka nasta'een - YOU alone we ask for help. Why? Because you alone can show us the straight path – the siraat al mustaqeem – on which we must stand firm, mustaqeem. This is the path of those You have favoured with your guidance and who accepted this guidance, not those who rejected Your guidance and went astray by leaving the path.
There is also an implication here: if it is God alone we ask for help, then this belief turns to dust any ideas of the intercession of alive or dead saints. They cannot help or guide us. This idea appears again in Ayat-al-Kursi, the Verse of the Throne, which also has a ring structure and employs a rational argument to explain why only Allah can help us. I will inshallah pick up Ayat al-Kursi in a later blog.
iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'een. We only seek Allah and we are grateful to Him, the most Merciful.
Let me leave this as the key point of our reflection today.
Footnote
Farrin, Raymond. 2014. Structure and Qur'anic Interpretation - A Study of Symmetry and Coherence in Islam's Holy Text. Oregon: White Cloud Press.
