How to Remain on the Straight Path

Hawzah News Agency | The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali, peace be upon him, states in Nahj al-Balagha:

«لَا [یُرَی الْجَاهِلُ] تَرَی الْجَاهِلَ إِلَّا مُفْرِطاً أَوْ مُفَرِّطاً.»

“You will always find the ignorant person either excessive or negligent.”1

Explanation:

Indeed, what casts a person into the abyss of excess and deficiency is ignorance and lack of knowledge—an ignorance that removes a person from the stage of moderation and separates him from the path of truth.

It is noteworthy that excess and deficiency can distance a person from the path of guidance, because moderation is the very Straight Path that we ask from God Almighty ten times a day in our obligatory prayers.2 More profoundly, as stated in the Qur’an, the Straight Path is the place where God is present;3 therefore, excess and deficiency amount to separation from God.

A key teaching of religion for avoiding excess and deficiency and remaining on the Straight Path of moderation is to follow the vicegerent of God on the earth.

Imam al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, regarding the role and vital position of the infallible Imam, states:

«إِنَّ اَلْأَرْضَ لاَ تَخْلُو إِلاَّ وَ فِیهَا إِمَامٌ کَیْمَا إِنْ زَادَ اَلْمُؤْمِنُونَ شَیْئاً رَدَّهُمْ وَ إِنْ نَقَصُوا شَیْئاً أَتَمَّهُ لَهُمْ.»

“The earth is never without an Imam, so that if the believers add something [to the religion], he brings them back [from that deviation], and if they diminish something, he completes it for them.”4

By putting these points together, we can better understand the statement of the Noble Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, who said: “Whoever dies without knowing the Imam of his time, has died the death of ignorance (Jahiliyyah).”5 This is because being distant from or separated from the Imam is equivalent to being immersed in ignorance, and the outcome of ignorance is separation from the Straight Path and the state of moderation.

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1. Wisdom no. 70.

2. "Guide us on the straight path." (Quran, Fatiha; 1:6)

3. "Indeed my Lord is on a straight path." (Quran, Hud; 11:56)

4. Kafi, v. 1, p. 178.

5. Bihar al-Anwar, v. 51, p. 160.

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