الْهَادِي

الهادي اسمُ فاعلٍ من هدى يهدي هدايةً وهُدًى، والهُدى: البيان. قال القشيري: الهداية في اللغة الإمالة، ومنه سُمّيت الهديّة لأنها تُميل قلبَ المُهدى إليه إلى المُهدي؛ وقيل أصلُها التقديم، ومنه سُمّي العنقُ هاديًا لتقدّمه على البدن. وقال الزجّاجي: الهادي الدليل، ويقال: هديتُه الطريق، وهديتُه للطريق، وهديتُه إلى الطريق، بثلاث لغاتٍ قد جاءت في التنزيل. وقال الحليمي: هو الدالُّ على سبل النجاة والمبيِّنُ لها، لئلا يزيغ العبدُ ويضلَّ فيقعَ فيما يُرديه ويهلكه.

Hādī is the active participle of hadā, yahdī, with the nouns hidāyah and hudā; hudā is making plain. Al-Qushayrī says: hidāyah in the language is inclining; hence a gift is called hadiyyah, because it inclines the heart of the one given it towards the giver. It is also said that its root is going before; hence the neck is called hādī, because it goes before the body. Az-Zajjājī says: the hādī is the one who shows the way; one says hadaytuhu ṭ-ṭarīq, hadaytuhu li-ṭ-ṭarīq and hadaytuhu ila-ṭ-ṭarīq — three usages, all found in the Revelation. Al-Ḥalīmī says: He is the One who points to the ways of salvation and makes them plain, lest the servant swerve and go astray and fall into what ruins and destroys him.

قال الغزالي: هو الذي هدى خواصَّ عباده أوّلًا إلى معرفة ذاته حتى استشهدوا بها على الأشياء، وهدى عوامَّ عباده إلى مخلوقاته حتى استشهدوا بها على ذاته، وهدى كلَّ مخلوقٍ إلى ما لا بدّ له منه في قضاء حاجاته. وقال الخطّابي: هو الذي منّ بهداه على من أراد من عباده، فخصّه بهدايته وأكرمه بنور توحيده؛ وهو الذي هدى سائرَ الخلق من الحيوان إلى مصالحها، وألهمها كيف تطلب الرزق، وكيف تتّقي المضارّ والمهالك. فالهدايةُ هدايتان: هدايةُ دلالةٍ وبيان، يُنسب منها شيءٌ إلى الأنبياء والعلماء؛ وهدايةُ توفيقٍ وإلهام، ينفرد بها الحقّ، لا يملكها أحدٌ من خلقه؛ ولذلك أثبت الله لنبيّه ﷺ الهدايةَ بمعنى الدلالة في آية الشورى، ونفاها عنه بمعنى التوفيق في آية القصص.

Al-Ghazālī says: He is the One who guided the elect of His servants first to knowing His essence, so that through it they bore witness to things; who guided the generality of His servants to His creatures, so that through them they bore witness to His essence; and who guided every creature to what it cannot do without in meeting its needs. Al-Khaṭṭābī says: He is the One who bestowed His guidance as a favour on whom He willed of His servants, singling him out for His guidance and honouring him with the light of His tawḥīd; and He is the One who guided all creatures, the animals among them, to what is good for them, and inspired them how to seek provision and how to guard against harm and ruin. So guidance is of two kinds: guidance that shows and makes plain, some of which is ascribed to the prophets and the scholars; and guidance that grants success and inspires, which belongs to the Truth alone and which none of His creatures possesses. That is why Allah affirmed guidance of His Prophet ﷺ in the sense of showing the way — “you guide to a straight path” — and denied it of him in the sense of granting success: “you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills.”

في الحديث أعلاه علّم النبيُّ ﷺ عليًّا أن يسأل الهدى والسداد. قال النووي: أي تذكَّرْ ذلك في حال دعائك بهذين اللفظين، لأنّ هاديَ الطريق لا يزيغ عنه، ومسدِّدَ السهم يحرص على تقويمه ولا يستقيم رميُه حتى يقوّمه؛ وكذا الداعي ينبغي أن يحرص على تسديد علمه وتقويمه ولزومه السنّة. وقال الغزالي: والهُداةُ من العباد الأنبياءُ والعلماء الذين أرشدوا الخلق إلى السعادة الأخروية، بل الله الهادي لهم على ألسنتهم، وهم مسخّرون تحت قدرته وتدبيره. وقال القشيري: الهدايةُ إلى حسن الخلق فرعُ الهداية إلى معرفة الحق، لأنّ الدين شيئان: صدقٌ مع الحق، وخلقٌ مع الخلق. فحظُّ العبد من هذا الاسم أن يدلّ على الله بحاله قبل مقاله، وألّا يرى اهتداءَ غيره على يده منّةً له عليهم، بل منّةً من الله عليه.

In the ḥadīth above, the Prophet ﷺ taught ʿAlī to ask for guidance and for being set straight. An-Nawawī says: that is, call this to mind as you pray with these two words; for the one guided along a road does not swerve from it, and the one who straightens an arrow takes care to make it true, and his shot is not straight until he has made it so — and so the one who prays should take care to set his knowledge straight, make it true, and hold to the Sunnah. Al-Ghazālī says: the guides among the servants are the prophets and the scholars who directed people to the happiness of the Hereafter; rather, Allah is the One who guides them on their tongues, and they are subject to His power and His governance. Al-Qushayrī says: guidance to good character is a branch of guidance to knowing the Truth, for the religion is two things: truthfulness with the Truth, and good character with creation. The servant’s share in this name is to point to Allah by his state before his words, and never to see another’s being guided at his hand as his own favour to them, but as a favour from Allah to him.

قال القشيري في لطائفه على الآية المذكورة أعلاه: كفى بربّك اليومَ هاديًا إلى معرفته، وغدًا نصيرًا على رؤيته. وقال قبلها في شكوى الرسول ﷺ من قومه إلى ربّه: من شكا من الله فهو جاحد، ومن شكا إلى الله فهو عارفٌ واجد. فالهدايةُ أوّلُ الطريق وآخرُه: يهديك إليه وأنت لا تعرفه، ثم يهديك فيه وقد عرفته، ثم ينصرك على نفسك حتى تلقاه. وقال الغزالي في هداية الخواصّ: هداهم إلى معرفة ذاته حتى استشهدوا بها على الأشياء؛ فهؤلاء عرفوه قبل كلّ شيء، وعرف غيرُهم الأشياءَ ثم استدلّوا بها عليه، وكلا الطريقين هداية، وأعلاهما أن يكون هو الدليلَ على كلّ شيء.

Al-Qushayrī says in his Laṭāʾif on the verse above: sufficient is your Lord today as a guide to knowing Him, and tomorrow as a helper to seeing Him. And just before it, on the Messenger’s ﷺ complaint of his people to his Lord, he says: whoever complains of Allah is a denier, and whoever complains to Allah is a knower who has found. So guidance is the first of the way and the last of it: He guides you to Him while you do not know Him, then guides you in Him once you know Him, then helps you against yourself until you meet Him. Al-Ghazālī says of the guidance of the elect: He guided them to knowing Him, so that through Him they bore witness to things. These knew Him before anything; others knew things and then reasoned from them to Him. Both ways are guidance, and the higher is that He be the proof of everything.