The Explanation of: اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنِي فِيمَنْ هَدَيْتَ
“Oh Allah, guide me with those You have guided.”
Meaning: Guide me to the truth and assist me in acting in accordance with it. Complete, beneficial guidance is that in which Allah combines for a servant both knowledge and action. Guidance without action is of no real benefit. Rather it is even harmful because if a person does not act in accordance with what he already knows, his knowledge becomes evidence against him.
An example of guidance in the form of knowledge but with no action is the verse of Allah:
As for Thamūd, we guided them but they preferred blindness over guidance. [5]
Meaning: We clarified the path to them and we conveyed the knowledge to them. However, they preferred blindness over guidance, and from this we seek refuge with Allah.
Also from this type of guidance – simply giving the knowledge and clarifying the truth – is the statement of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) :
And certainly, you guide to the straight path.[6]
Meaning: You direct the people to the straight path and teach them about it. As for the other type of guidance which is the granting of success, an example of this type is the verse:
Indeed, you can’t guide whoever you like.[7]
This type is the guidance of granting one success in their deeds. In this case, the messenger ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ) is never able to grant someone the success of their good actions as this type of guidance is specific to Allah alone. If the prophet ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ) were capable of that type of guidance, he would have guided his uncle, Abū Ṭālib. He did try to guide his uncle and even when he was about to die, the Prophet ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ) said to him:
Oh uncle, say, “There is nothing worthy of worship except Allah,” – a statement by which I will testify on your behalf before Allah.
But the decree of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) had already passed that the prophet’s uncle would be from the inhabitants of the Fire, and from this we seek refuge with Allah. So Abū Ṭālib neither said nor believed that nothing has the right to be worshipped except Allah. The last thing he said before dying was that he would remain upon the religion of ‘AbdulMuṭṭalib.8 Despite this, Allah allowed his messenger ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ) to intercede for Abū Ṭālib, not just because he was the prophet’s uncle, but because he used to continually defend the prophet ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ) and Islam (even though he did not personally accept Islam). So the Prophet ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ) interceded for Abū Ṭālib and as a result of this intercession, he ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ) said about his uncle:
He is in the lowest part of the fire, and if it were not for me, he would have been in the lowest, deepest part of the fire.[9]
And the Prophet ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ) also said :
Perhaps my intercession will benefit him on the Day of Resurrection so that he will be put into the lowest part of the fire, it reaching only to his ankles, yet from which his brain will boil. [10]
So when we say in the Du’ā of Qunūt, “Guide us with those you have guided,” we are asking Allah for both types of guidance: the guidance of knowledge and the guidance of being successful in our actions. As an example, the following verse also includes both of these types of guidance:
Guide us to the straight path. [11]
So when anyone says this du’ā he should sincerely call to mind that he is asking for both types of guidance: the guidance of the correct knowledge and the guidance of acting in accordance with it.
As for the wording, “…with those you have guided,” this is a way of seeking nearness to Allah by mentioning his favors on others in that he guided them. So we also ask him to bestow the same favor upon us and guide us. In other words, we ask you (Allah) for guidance, and receiving it is only by virtue of your mercy, your wisdom, and your past favors as you have guided others
Footnotes:
[5] The Quran, Sūrah Fuṣṣilat, 41:17
[6] The Quran, Sūrah al-Shūrá, 42:52.
[7] The Quran, Sūrah al-Qaṣaṣ, 28:56.
[8] The ḥadīth is recorded by al-Bukhārī (no. 1360, 3884, and 4675) Muslim (no. 24), al-Nasāī (no. 2035), and by Aḥmad.
[9]The ḥadīth is recorded by al-Bukhārī (no. 3883, 6208) and Muslim (no. 209) as well as by Imām Aḥmad.
[10] The ḥadīth is recorded by al-Bukhārī (no. 3885, 6564) and Muslim (no. 210) and also by Aḥmad.
[11] The Quran, Sūrah al-Fātiḥah, 1:5
Posted from : Explaining the Du’a of Qunut in the Witr Prayer – Shaykh ibn Uthaymeen, Translated by Abu az-Zubayr Harrison
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