His saying: "Guide us" (Ihdina)
31 - By the same chain, from Ibn ‘Abbas, who said: Gabriel said: "Say, O Muhammad: 'Guide us,'" meaning: "Inspire us."
[His saying: "The straight path"]
[The first interpretation]
32 - Al-Hasan ibn ‘Arafah narrated to us, Yahya ibn al-Yaman narrated to me, from Hamzah al-Zayyat, from Sa‘d al-Ta’i, from the nephew of al-Harith al-A‘war, from al-Harith, who said: I entered upon ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib and he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) say: "The straight path is the Book of Allah."(1)
And the second interpretation:
33 - My father narrated to us, Abu Salih the scribe of al-Layth narrated to us, Mu‘awiyah ibn Salih narrated to me that ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr narrated to him, from his father, from Nawwas ibn Sam‘an al-Ansari, from the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), that he said: "Allah has struck a parable of a straight path, and the path is Islam."(2)
And the third interpretation:
34 - Sa‘dan ibn Nasr al-Baghdadi narrated to us, Abu al-Nadr Hashim ibn al-Qasim narrated to us, Hamzah ibn al-Mughirah reported to us, from ‘Asim al-Ahwal, from Abu al-‘Aliyah, regarding "Guide us to the straight path," he said: "It is the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and his two companions after him." ‘Asim said: We mentioned that to al-Hasan, and he said: "Abu al-‘Aliyah has spoken the truth and provided sincere advice."
And the fourth interpretation:
35 - Yahya ibn ‘Abdak narrated to us, Khalid ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Makhzumi narrated to us, ‘Umar ibn Dharr narrated to us, from Mujahid, regarding His saying "the straight path," he said: "The Truth."
36 - ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn narrated to us, Muhammad ibn al-‘Ala’ Abu Kurayb narrated to us, ‘Uthman ibn Sa‘id al-Zayyat narrated to us, Bishr ibn ‘‘Umarah narrated to us, Abu Rawq narrated to us, from al-Dahhak, from Ibn ‘Abbas, regarding "Guide us to the straight path," he says: "Inspire us with Your true religion, and it is that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner."(4)
(1) Ibn Kathir said: "The farthest this hadith reaches is that it is from the speech of the Commander of the Faithful, ‘Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), and some have erred in raising it [to the Prophet]. It is a sound and correct statement, although a corroborating evidence has been narrated for it from ‘Abd Allah ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)" 1/42. (2) Ibn Kathir said: It is a sound and correct chain of narration 1/43. (3) Al-Hakim 2/259 - Book of Tafsir, from Ibn ‘Abbas, declared it authentic, and al-Dhahabi reviewed it. (4) Ibn Kathir said: All of these statements are correct and they are mutually linked; for whoever follows the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and follows those who came after him, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, has followed the Truth; and whoever follows the Truth has followed Islam; and whoever follows Islam has followed the Qur’an 1/43.
