Bismillaahir-Rahmaanir-Raheem
Whoever knows the harm and evil of misguidance will pray Allaah does not misguide him. A benefit!
A Salaf has said: ‘I am not amazed at he who is doomed how he became doomed; but he who he is safe; how he became saved.’
The Means to misguidance are numerous while the means to guidance are few. The same way the guided ones are few and the misguided are many.
وَإِنْ تُطِعْ أَكْثَرَ مَنْ فِي الأرْضِ يُضِلُّوكَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ إِنْ يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلا الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلا يَخْرُصُونَ
And if you obey most of those on earth, they will mislead you far away from Allâh's Path. They follow nothing but conjectures, and they do nothing but lie. [Al-An’aam: 116]
It has been the Will of Allaah the Mighty that some will be guided while some will be misguided.
فَرِيقًا هَدَى وَفَرِيقًا حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الضَّلالَةُ إِنَّهُمُ اتَّخَذُوا الشَّيَاطِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمْ مُهْتَدُونَ
A group He has guided, and a group deserved to be in error; (because) surely they took the Shayâtin (devils) as Auliyâ' (protectors and helpers) instead of Allâh, and consider that they are guided. [Al-‘Araaf: 30]
A Muslim upon the Sunnah should therefore not fret rather he should thank Allaah that he is guided. There are benefits, for him, in the misguidance of others.
وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ لَجَعَلَ النَّاسَ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَلا يَزَالُونَ مُخْتَلِفِينَ إِلا مَنْ رَحِمَ رَبُّكَ وَلِذَلِكَ خَلَقَهُمْ وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَةُ رَبِّكَ لأمْلأنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ
And if your Lord had so willed, He could surely have made mankind one Ummah [nation or community (following one Religion Only i.e. Islâm)], but they will not cease to disagree. [Huud: 118]
Safety from all kinds of prevailing misguidance is by the mercy of Allaah Alone. Nobody guides except Allaah. We can be means to guidance but we don’t have the power to guide. If a person is guided through you, which is a great feat, be thankful to Allaah, don’t be boastful and do not lord yourself over the person. You were guided yourself through a means.
كَذَلِكَ كُنْتُمْ مِنْ قَبْلُ فَمَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمْ فَتَبَيَّنُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا
[O you who believe! When you go (to fight) in the cause of Allâh, verify (the truth), and say not to anyone who greets you (by embracing Islâm): "You are not a believer"; seeking the perishable goods of the worldly life. there are much more profits and booties with Allâh, even as He is now], so were you yourselves before till Allâh conferred on you His Favours (i.e. guided you to Islâm), therefore, be cautious in discrimination. Allâh is ever WellAware of what you do. [Nisaa: 94]
The guidance from Allaah the Mighty is the true guidance.
قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى اللَّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَى وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلا نَصِيرٍ
Say: "Verily, the guidance of Allâh (i.e. Islâmic Monotheism) that is the (only) Guidance. and if you (O Muhammad) were to follow their (Jews and Christians) desires after what you have received of knowledge (i.e. the Qur'ân), then you would have against Allâh neither any Walî (protector or guardian) nor any helper. [Al-Baqarah: 120]
And the guidance is an embodiment, as for misguidance, it is many embodiments. The true guidance is being upon Tawheed and the Sunnah as opposed to Shir’k and Bid’ah in whatever way they may come.
وَأَنَّ هَذَا صِرَاطِي مُسْتَقِيمًا فَاتَّبِعُوهُ وَلا تَتَّبِعُوا السُّبُلَ فَتَفَرَّقَ بِكُمْ عَنْ سَبِيلِهِ ذَلِكُمْ وَصَّاكُمْ بِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
"And Verily, this (i.e. Allâh's Commandments) is My Straight path, so follow it, and follow not (other) paths, for they will separate you away from His Path. This He has ordained for you that you may become Al-Muttaqûn (the pious)." [Al-An’aam: 153]
Whoever has once courted, heard or seen misguidance will know the benefits of guidance and conversely the good in guidance.
The theme of this piece, once again, is benefits of misguidance.
The major benefit of misguidance is that it makes one to be grateful to Allaah in guidance.
The Christians, the Jews, the Buddhists, etc, are all there in misguidance. How many are they! You will wonder what will make a Christian Professor of mathematics still believe that 1+1+1=1. Misguidance, by Allaah. And the Jews continue to wail by the Jerusalem Wall thinking they only will make it to the heaven, after the Qur’aan has cursed and condemned them to the hell. Subhaana-Llaah, misguidance is everywhere.
And when you come home and see the Sufis, one of the worst set of the people, when they show their madness at ‘kubraa,’ shouting on top of their voices, their misguidance will make you know the value of guidance. The Dervish are not many here, though the Qadriyyah [not ‘Qadariyyah’, please take note] take after them; they are abound in North Africa and some areas of the Middle East. When you see them in their mystical whirling and howling, their misguidance will teach you a lesson.
That is just an example of the misguidance of the Sufis. There are other forms of misguidance that come from them. You would have seen their recent displays of madness with which they claim wilaayah of Allaah. The Sufis are daft; in fact they are insane in their misguidance. Imagine someone saying a particular word of remembrance is better than the Qur’aan six thousand times! He must surely be mad.
You would have heard about that man saying rubbish at Markaz Agege. He is also an epitome of dalalaat.
You would probably have seen the Shias in their annual 10th of Muharam bloody processions, cutting themselves (and sometimes, one another) in commemoration of murder of Husayn blamed on Yazeed. If one witnesses it, anyhow, one will but thank Allaah for the guidance in Sunnah. That is another benefit of misguidance.
The Shia have been a historic trouble making enclave among the Muslims. The Jews were their forefathers. They embraced Islam to cause problem within. Since they came the Muslim society had been in trouble. They always stand against everything that is the Sunnah. If the Muslims break their fast at Maghrib, they delay theirs till the appearance of the stars. If the Muslims face the Ka’abah during prayers, some of them face Karbala in Iraq. In fact, ‘hajj’ to Karbala is better than hajj to Makkah and Madeenah in their faith. You will see him, during a faked Salat, prostrating on the backs of his palms because all the land is cursed and filthy except the land of Karbala! When he makes ablution for Salaah, he just wipes the legs anyhow without washing them. To him, the Ayatollahs in Iran have said wiping is what is required. A Muslim will finish a salaah and make Tasbeeh as normal, no; the Shia will rather start cursing Abu Bakr, Umar and several prominent Companions of the Messenger of Allaah. He can lay down his life for El-Zaky Zaky or Khamenei to live, but not the Messenger of Allaah. So far an Ayatollah is happy a Shia does not mind being unhappy. The Ayatollah should keep on living big, he will remain poor. He can walk from Kano to Kaduna for a procession to register a message that el-Zaky Zaky is saint. Madness and misguidance, by Allaah.
And if you look at the acts of the partisan bigots, those who rate belonging to warped organizations over belonging to Islam such that when the latter teaches what is correct the former contravenes it if it does not suit its whims. You may hear an adherent of such affiliations saying, ‘I will rather die here than accept anything from anywhere.’ They seek evidence for their falsehood and twist evidence against them. Their mind is beclouded and they are rendered stupid in their misguidance. A Muslim free from encumbrances of bigoted affiliations, except the affiliation to the pristine Sunnah, lives a life of freedom and tranquility. Nothing tosses him about except the established texts of the Shariah that fetch one rewards in this world and the hereafter.
There are also those who are steeped in democratic politics in the name of Islam, the Siyaasees. They have compromised every good in Islam because of votes on the election day. You will see them justifying vying for positions on jaundiced claim that they are doing it for the deen whereas when they get there they destroy the Deen more than they found it. Why not! What has pushed them to democratic politics if not love for wealth and fame.
The harakees are the other people upon profound misguidance though they think they are the best among the people. To them, Islam must move quickly. The Muslims of today are too slow to engender the necessary change. There must be violence there must be insurrection. The stools of Muslim rulers must be shaken; if the occupiers of those stools are not ready to bulge they must be forcefully ejected, if they die in the process they go to hell, after all they have been Kuffaar all along.
The harakees are mostly jihaadees and takfeerees. The jihaadees fight wanton Jihaad in the name of the deen, killing anyone that is killable: kids, the elderly even the foetuses. To them, the only way the khilaafah can be restored is to bomb all the people along the way. Any Muslim that stands in their way will fall a collateral damage. A thousand Muslims can be killed in a Muslim market if a single kaafir is the target.
Takfeeriyyah is usually a precursor to harakiyyah and jihaadiyyah. A takfeeree takes joy in seeing all the Muslims in the hell. He is not happy if Muslims are making efforts to be righteous. So far you don’t buy his thought you are a kaafir. For instance, if you take your breakfast with a spoon; you have opposed the Shaari [the Law-Giver] so the hell is your abode, not for a day but forever and ever, unless you repent before death. If you give someone a respectful but unjustifiable bow, your blood can be shed in the town square. A takfeeree sees Islam according to his intellect claiming he is following the proofs. He is always uncouth, disrespectful, lousy, mischievous and malevolent. Until he comes out of where he has put himself he can never know any joy.
And the sins Muslim engage in constitute misguidance. No Muslim will commit sins and have peace of mind. The Messenger of Allaah Sal-Allaahu 'alayhe Wa Sallam has said sins cause trouble to the heart, righteousness brings tranquility. A Muslim who takes intoxicants and spends heavily on them may think he is enjoying his life but the day he quits drinking he will know the havoc he had caused to his life. Perhaps he will remember many days he had slept in the gutters and bush areas. Smoking is another harm a Muslim may cause to his life. There is no doubt that when a Muslim smokes, he burns himself and his wealth. What intelligent person will ‘eat’ smokes into his tummy and think he is happy? And when a Muslim engages in fornication or adultery how will he see joy? An act that is just momentarily appealing but everlastingly troubling. An adulterer or fornicator is evil, no doubt. He is dangerous to a righteous society.
Misguidance of any form is not what one should seek. Whoever has a form of misguidance or the other in his life should try and eschew it. It is hard to be completely free from misguidance therefore one needs to pray to Allaah always for guidance. Has He not taught to always say: Ihdinas-siraatal mustaqeem? Meaning that a Muslim is in need of constant guidance from Allaah. Thus the fear of falling to misguided paths is enough as a benefit one can derive from misguidance.
We pray Allaah continue to guide us. None can guide to what is right except He.
