The Image of the Road in Islam1

While the religion of Islam has many symbols: the star and the crescent; the minaret; Islamic flags; the profession of faith “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah” [La ilaha illa Allah; Muhammadun rasul Allah]; the proclamation “Allah is the Greatest” [Allahu Akbar]; geometric patterns; the beard; the veil [hijab]; the fountain [al-kawthar]; the numbers 1, 5, 7, 12 and 14; the Ka‘aba, the greeting “Peace be upon you” [salamu ‘alaykum]; all forms of worship [‘ibadat]: ablutions [wudu’], ritual prayers [salah], fasting [siyyam] and the pilgrimage [hajj]; the image of the road [al-sirat; al-tariq; al-sabil, al-nahj] is among the most important symbolic expressions in Arabic-Islamic literature, language and culture.

The image of the road, in its multiple manifestations as path, route, way, highway, pass and bridge, appears in the Arabic language in the form of various idiomatic expressions invoking guidance including: Tariq al-salamah, “May your road be peaceful”; Tariq al-khayr; “May your road be good”; Fi sabil Allah; “In the way of Allah”; Allah yahdik, “May Allah guide you”; personal names including Sabil, or “Way”; Rashid or “One who is guided”; Irshad or “Guidance,” each related, literally or figuratively, to Divine Direction or hidayah, a concept intrinsically linked to the image of the straight path as agreed upon by Qur’anic commentators.

The image of the road, the “straight and middle path,” is a primary principle in traditional Islamic thought, governing all domains: be it politics, economics, law or jurisprudence. Muslims are enjoined to moderation for as Almighty Allah says: “We have appointed you a middle nation” (2:143).

In the field of politics and economics, Muslims are reminded to be neither conservatives nor liberals, neither socialists nor capitalists as embodied in Imam Khomeini’s famous slogan “Neither East nor West.” In the area of Islamic Law, or Shari‘ah, Islam calls for moderation: “do not transgress limits” (2:190). In Islamic Jurisprudence or fiqh, jurists follow the principle of moderation which states that, when two legitimate solutions exist, opt for the easiest one. Even in the area of Islamic mysticism, we find many later orders who taught that the middle way, between excessive hunger and excessive eating, was the safest for the disciple’s progress (Schimmel 117).

The image of the road appears in the names of classical Islamic books like Imam ‘Ali’s Nahj al-balaghah / The Peak of Eloquence; Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq’s Misbah al-Shari‘ah wa-miftah al-haqiqah / The Lantern of the Path; and Ibn Naqib’s ‘Umdat al-salik / The Reliance of the Traveler. It is also found in other works, including al-Siyyasah al-multazamah fi nahj al-Imam al-Hasan by Muhammad al-Musawi; al-Nahj al-‘alawi fi al-fiqh al-islami by Muhammad ‘Ali Hallum; Ibn Baz faqih al-sa’ud: muhakamat al-nahj al-wahhabi by Salih al-Wardani; Nahj al-burdah by Ahmad Shawqi; Wa-’alayhi wadh al-nahj by Salim al-Bushra; Shart fi al-Qur’an ‘ala nahj al-lisaniyyat by ‘Abd al-Salam al-Masaddi and Muhammad al-Hadi al-Tarablusi as well as Nahj al-Shari‘ah wa-al-qanun fi taqrir al-ahkam by Ahmad Muwafi.

In Arabic-Islamic literature, language and culture, the image of the road comes from the religion of Islam, its sacred text, the Holy Qur’an, and the Prophetic Traditions, the ahadith, namely the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and, for Twelver Shi‘ites, the apothegms of the Immaculate Imams - appearing in both exoteric and esoteric exegesis - literally, linguistically, allegorically, symbolically, religiously, theologically and philosophically.

In the Holy Qur’an, the foremost symbol of the path comes from verse 6 of Surat al-Fatihah, the Opening Chapter, the Mother of the Book, the Core of the Qur’an, which reads “Guide us on the straight path” or ihdina al-sirat al-mustaqim. According to Tabarsi’s Tafsir majma’ al-bayan fi tafsir al-Qur’an and ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an, al-sirat means “the straight path” and is derived from sarattu sartan, “I swallowed it up completely,” because this clear path swallows its walkers, without letting them go. According to al-Tabari, “The Arabs use the term sirat in reference to every deed and statement whether righteous or wicked. Hence the Arabs would describe the honest person as being straight and the wicked person as being crooked” (Ibn Kathir). The word al-sirat [path] appears 46 times in the Holy Qur’an; the word sabil [way] occurs 166 times; the word subul [ways] 10 times and the word tariq [road], 4 times, not to mention their multiple implicit appearances. The word sirat, written with both sin and sad in ancient times, is one of the few words in Arabic which is both masculine and feminine, making the path to God gender inclusive.

According to Sunnis, Shi‘ites and Sufis, the “straight path” mentioned in the Qur’an refers to Islam in contrast to “the path of those who go astray” and “the path of those who incur your wrath” which, according to some Islamic sources, refers to Christianity and Judaism (Vernet 4). According to the Prophet, Allah has set an example: a sirat (straight path) that is surrounded by two walls on both sides, with several open doors within the walls covered with curtains. There is a caller on the gate of the sirat who heralds, ‘O people! Stay on the path and do not deviate from it.’ Meanwhile, a caller from above the path is also warning any person who wants to open any of these doors, ‘Woe unto you! Do not open it, for if you open it you will pass through.’ The straight path is Islam, the two walls are Allah’s set limits, while the doors resemble what Allah has prohibited. The caller on the gate of the sirat is the Book of Allah, while the caller above the sirat is Allah’s admonishment in the heart of every Muslim. (Ahmad)

In Sunni thought in general, and Salafi ideology in particular, the sirat al-mustaqim, the straight path, is typically viewed as one, consistent with a literalist, essentialist and reductionist interpretation of Islam. As Tabari explains in his Tafsir, jami’ al-bayan fi tafsir al-Qur’an, “The ‘ummah [Muslim Nation] agreed that sirat al-mustaqim is the path without crookedness [la ‘iwaja fih], according to the language of the Arabs.” For the Wahhabis, however, these words are not sufficiently clear and exclusionary; as a result, they mistranslate them as “the straight path without branches,” which is not only incorrect but a manifestation of their belief in a single path, to the exclusion of all others, and that it consists of their Salafi sect (www.tafsir.com). This cult-like conception is repeatedly reinforced in their writings.

According to Tabari, the “straight path” is interpreted as Islam or the Qur’an. According to Tabarsi, there are various opinions: for ‘Ali, it is the Book of Allah; for Jabir and Ibn ‘Abbas, it is Islam; for Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, it is the religion of Allah, and for others, it is the Prophet Muhammad and the Imams who followed him. While Sunni scholars interpret the “straight path” as being Allah, Islam, the Qur’an and the Prophet, they hold that they are one and the same. In Tafsir bahr al-‘ulum, Samarqandi quotes a hadith to support this contention. He relates a tradition on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ud which says that the Prophet drew a straight line with various crooked lines beside it. The Prophet explained that: “This one is the straight path and the others are paths. At the head of each path is a devil encouraging people to follow it.” Then he recited: “Verily, this is My way, leading straight: follow it: follow not [other] paths: they will scatter you about from His [great] path: thus doth He command you that ye may be righteous” (6:153). Despite the fact that some Sunni scholars believe in the sole nature of the straight path, their schools of jurisprudence are nonetheless divided in ways, madhahib and paths, manahij, much as the Sufis denominate their religious orders as turuq [sing. tariqah] or ways, each following a particular silsilah or spiritual chain of initiation.

Among Shi‘ites, however, a multiplicity of paths is acknowledged, consistent with the Prophetic Tradition which states that “The numbers of paths to God is equal to the number of human souls” (Chittick, 1989: 52, Note 1). ‘Allamah Muhammad husayn Tabataba’i, the Shi‘ite commentator of the Qur’an, explains that “the straight path itself may be divided in various ‘traffic lanes,’ ways or branches.” He observes that “Allah repeatedly mentions al-sirat [path] and al-sabil [way] in the Qur’an; but He has never attributed to Himself except one straight path; although He attributes several ways to Himself (29:69).” Tabataba’i stresses the fact that “the ways” is in plural and “the straight path” is in singular explaining that “[e]ither ‘the straight path’ is the same thing as ‘the ways,’ or ‘the ways’ on going further join together and then merge into the straight path.”

He further explains that: the ways of Allah are one with the straight path; but sometimes a way - the way of the believers, of the followers of the Prophet of those who turn towards Allah or any other way - suffers from some kind of deterioration, although the straight path is immune from all defects and imperfections ... In short, the ways are of various grades near or distant; safe or unsafe; clean or unclean - but all are in the straight path, or, let us say, are one with the straight path. From the above analysis it may be seen that the straight path is a sort of controller of all the ways leading to Allah. We may say that a way leading to Allah leads a man to Him as long as it remains one with the straight path; but the straight path leads to Allah unconditionally, without any if or but.

According to Tabataba’i, there are many ways leading to Allah, guidance for one differs from those of others with each way having its own special guidance of its own, as is hinted to in the verses:

“And [as for] those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide them unto Our ways; and Allah is most surely with the doers of good” (29:69).

In Shi‘ite tradition, the “straight path” has a rich repertoire of meanings. According to Imam ‘Ali, “The straight path, in this world, is that which stops short of excesses and rises above shortcomings, and remains straight; and, in the next world, it is the path of the believers [leading them] to the Garden” (Ma’ani al-Akhbar). Imam al-Sadiq explains that the straight path is the path that leads to God’s love, to His Garden, and that protects people from following their own vain desires (Ma’ani al-Akhbar). In another ahadith, the Sixth Imam says that the straight path “is the knowledge of Allah” (Ma’ani al-Akhbar).

In Shi‘ite tradition, the “straight path” referred to in Surat al-Fatihah also refers to al-Sirat, the bridge over hell, which every human being must cross as explained in the Qur’an:

“Not one of you but will pass over it: this is, with thy Lord, a Decree which must be accomplished” (19:71).

According to both Shi‘ite and Sunni sources, it will be made wide for believers yet thinner than a hair, sharper as a sword and hotter than fire for unbelievers; true believers will cross it quickly and with ease like a flash of lightning; some will pass it with difficulty and yet be saved, and others will fall from it into the depths of hell (Merrick 406 Note 74; Qummi, 1942: 71-72).

In Shi‘ite tradition, the “straight path” is often personified as being the Ahl al-Bayt, the Prophet Muhammad and his Household, namely ‘Ali, his son-in-law, Fatimah his daughter, and their 11 direct descendants. Ibn Abbas is reported to have said that “the straight path” refers to the love of Muhammad and his Family (Tabataba’i). According to Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq, “The straight path is Amir al-Mu’minin [the Leader of the Believers]” (Qummi, 1970; Qummi, 1960; al-‘Ayyashi). In yet another tradition, the Sixth Imam says that: “‘Ali is the sirat whom God entrusted with the knowledge of everything in heaven and earth. He is God’s wali [vicegerent] over the people and the Trustee of His Truth” (Bursi 140). In another tradition, the Sixth Imam explains that there are two paths, one in this world and one in the other. As for the path in this world, it is the Imam whose obedience is obligatory; he who knows him in this world and follows his guidance, shall proceed on the path which is over hell in the next world; and whosoever does not know him in this world, his foot shall slip [over the bridge] in the next world, and he shall fall down into the fire of hell (Ma’ani al-Akhbar).

Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin, speaking on behalf of the Household of the Prophet, proclaimed that: “We are the gates of Allah, and we are the straight path, and we are the [treasure] chest of His Knowledge, and we are, the interpreters of His revelation, and we are the pillars of His Oneness, and we are the place of His secret” (Ma’ani al-Akhbar). According to ‘Allamah Qummi, also known as Shaykh Saduq, one of the founding fathers of Shi‘ite scholarship: “Al-sirat means the names of the Proofs of Allah,” namely, the Twelve Immaculate Imams (1942:71). According to Qummi, he who acknowledges and obeys the Imams in this world, Allah will grant him permission to traverse al-Sirat, the bridge over Hell, on the Day of Resurrection for, as the Prophet said to ‘Ali: “On the Day of Resurrection, I will sit near the Bridge with you and Gabriel, and no one will cross the Bridge unless he can produce a writ [of absolution] by reason of devotion [wilayah] to you.” (72)

According to Qummi, al-Sirat, the bridge which spans Hell, passes through various mountain passes, each with a specific name: some are called fard or religious obligation, others amr or command; and yet others nahy or prohibition. If a human being has neglected any of his duties, he will be stopped and Allah will demand His dues. Finally, if he escapes from all the stages, he will arrive at Dar al-Baqa’, the Abode of Permanence (1942:72). As Qummi explains, the name of one of the passes is al-wilayah, the love of Imams, before which all humankind will be stopped and questioned regarding their love for ‘Ali, the Leader of the Believers, and for the Imams who followed him, for as the Qur’an says, “stop them for they must be questioned” (37:24) (1942: 72). Those who answer correctly will be saved, those who are unable to respond will be hurled into Hell, a belief consistent with Imam ‘Ali’s saying: “I am Allah’s division between Heaven and Hell” (Kulayni 1: 196-98).

The Sufis, like the Shi‘ites, believe that the “straight path” is a balance between extremes; equilibrium between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, between the law, al-Shari‘ah and mysticism, tasawwuf, ‘irfan and ma’rifah; it is the avoidance of extremes, following the milestones of moderation. According to Ibn Ajiba’s Tafsir al-bahr al-madid fi tafsir al-Qur’an al-majid:

The straight path is following the Shari‘ah outwardly and being humble inwardly. It is following the Shari‘ah outwardly and the haqiqah inwardly. Your appearance is submission, but your interior is freedom. The straight path which Allah has commanded us to seek is the balance between the Shari‘ah and the truth.

The Sufis, like the Shi‘ites, acknowledge a wide array of ways. For them, the mystical path is a parallel path, a ladder of love towards spiritual perfection, a staircase that leads to heaven, on which the traveler slowly and patiently climbs towards higher levels of experience (Schimmel 105). According to Sufi thought, all human beings are on a road [shar’] designated by God. Each individual is a “wayfarer” or salik. The word used in the Qur’an to refer to “wayfarers” is ibn sabil, namely, “the son of the path” (2:177; 2:215; 4:36; 8:41; 8:41; 9:60; 17:26; 30:38; 59:7). Interpreted by Sunni commentators of the Qur’an as merely “traveler,” in Sufism, the salik and the ibn sabil are symbolically charged; they are adepts on a spiritual journey [sayr wa suluk]; they are travelers to tawhid, the existential affirmation of Divine Unity (al-Qushayri); they are wayfarers on the path of Allah as embodied in the example of al-Khidr, the patron saint of travelers, the immortal who drank from the water of life and whose encounter with Moses appears in the Holy Qur’an (18:60-82).

According to the Sufis, the first stage of the path is abiding by the Shari‘ah, the Divine Law, which literally means “road” or “path” (Qur’an 45:18; Nasr, 2002: 115; Larus 681). One of the 99 Names of Allah is “the Legislator” or al-Shari’ which literally means “the one who guides on the path.” The second stage of the path is the tariqah, the Order or the Fraternity, which literally means “path.” Finally, the third stage of the path is the haqiqah or Divine Truth which can only be reached by following the spiritual paths of the Shari‘ah, the via purgativa, and the tariqah, the via illuminativa, in order to reach the haqiqah, the Divine Truth, the mystical quest for unio mystica. As Annemarie Schimmel explains:

The tariqah, the “path” on which the mystics walk, has been defined as ‘the path which comes out of the Shari‘ah, for the main road is called shar’, the path, tariq.’ This derivation shows that the Sufis considered the path of mystical education a branch of that highway that consists of the God-given law, on which every Muslim is supposed to walk. No path can exist without a main road from which it branches out; no mystical experience can be realized if the binding injunctions of the Shari‘ah are not followed faithfully first. The path, tariqah, however, is narrower and more difficult to walk and leads the adept - called salik, “wayfarer” - in his suluk, “wandering,” through different stations [maqam] until he perhaps reaches, more or less slowly, his goal, the perfect tawhid, the existential confession that God is One. (98-99)

This tripartite path to God can be traced back to a tradition in which the Prophet states that: “The Shari‘ah are my words [aqwali], the tariqah are my actions [a’malib], and the haqiqah is my interior states [ahwali],” demonstrating that the Shari‘ah, the Path of Divine Law, the tariqah, the Sufi Path, and the haqiqah, Divine Truth, are mutually interdependent (Schimmel 105).

As we have seen, both Sunni and Shi‘ite scholars have traditionally viewed the path as a line, single or multiple, moving horizontally from point A to point B. While some Sufi scholars share this conception, others have viewed the straight path as a vertical ladder of spiritual perfection and yet others, have embraced the image of sphere, an interpretation more consistent with Islamic circular symbolism.

At the heart of the Islamic universe is the Ka‘aba, both earthly and ethereal, towards which all Muslims turn in prayer and around which they perform tawaf or circumambulation during the greater and lesser pilgrimage, counter clock-wise, a motion in universal harmony with cosmic cycles. This circular symbolism is found in Islamic art, architecture and social structure. When Muslims gather, for personal or religious reasons, they sit in a circle, a halaqah, which is equally used to describe a religious study circle. When the Sufis gather, they form a circle, a halaqah, around a pivot, or qutb. When Muslims invoke the Divine Name [dhikr], the royal path to spiritual realization, they use a circular rosary to perform tasbih, from the root sabbaha, which not only means “to declare His glory” but also “to rotate” and “to orbit” (Qur’an 17:44; Larus 603).

In Islamic mysticism, the wasat or center is the axis around which the world rotates and is referred to as the qutb or pole, generally represented by a wheel, referring to the absolute dominion over the worldly order. As Luis Alberto Vittor explains, the title of wasat, center, qutb, pole, and rukn, pillar, is applied to Imam al-Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam, the Spiritual Pole of the Age, Qutb al-Aqtab, the Pole of the Poles, around which the world revolves.

Islamic circular symbolism is particularly prevalent among later Islamic sages, especially the Sufis who spoke of the hierarchy of the Shari‘ah, the Divine Law, the tariqah, the Spiritual Path and the haqiqah, the Divine Truth, which is the origin of both. As Sayyed Hosein Nasr explains:

Islam is then envisaged as a circle whose center is the haqiqah. The radi of the circle are the turuq (plural of tariqah), later identified with the Sufi orders, and the circumference is the Shari‘ah. Each Muslim is like a point on the circumference, whose totality composes the Islamic community, or ummah. To reach the haqiqah, one must first stand on the circumference, that is, practice the Shari‘ah, and then follow the tariqah, or Path to God, whose end is the Center, God Himself, or the haqiqah. (2002: 60)

In Sufi philosophy, the soul is the cosmos and the cosmos is the soul, so much so that the primary function of Sufi cosmology and sciences is to provide a prototype of the cosmos for the traveler upon the path (Nasr, 1973:46). As Shaykh al-‘Arabi al-Darqawi explains: “The soul is an immense thing; it is the whole cosmos, since it is a copy of it. Everything which is in the cosmos is to be found in the soul; equally everything in the soul is in the cosmos” (4). In other words, the cosmos reflects aspects of the spiritual world in the mirror of the material and temporal (Nasr, 1973:28). As such, Sufis view the straight path as a mystical quest, the journey of the soul from the outward to the inward, from the periphery to the Center, from the form to the meaning; it is at once a penetration to the center of the soul and a migration to the abode beyond the cosmos which are in reality but a single locus where the Divine Essence resides, the Presence which is at once completely our-Self and totally other than ourselves” (1973: 29).

In order to explain the cosmological concept of the celestial soul and its journey to its Center, Frithjof Schuon evokes the symbolism of the spider’s web with its cosmic compartments and their contents:

[J]ust as the relationship of the center to space cannot be conceived except in this form of the spider’s web with its two modes of projection - one continuous and the other discontinuous - so the relationship of Principle to manifestation - which makes up the Universe - is only conceivable as a combination between worlds arranged according to gradation around the Divine Center and beings who pass through them. To speak of ‘Existence’ is to proclaim the relationship between the receptacle and content, or between the static and the dynamic; the journey of souls through life, death and resurrection is nothing other than the very life of the macro-cosmos; even in our experience in this world we pass through days and nights, summers and winters; essentially we are beings who pass through states; and Existence is not to be conceived of otherwise. Our whole reality converges towards that unique ‘moment’ which alone matters: our meeting with the Center. (82-83)

According to Schuon, even the Qur’an is a picture of the cosmos: the chapters [suwar] are the worlds and the verses [ayat] are the beings (82).

In line with such circular symbolism, and for the sole purpose of scholastic philosophy [kalam] and intellectual exposition [bayan], we can conceive of the straight path as rays of light and Divine Truth as an imploded or inverted sun, a black hole, an event horizon, the sublime singularity, the absolute axis, an irresistible and inescapable force which draws all light. Although individual in origin, the rays or ways to Allah transcend multiplicity and attain singularity, the refracted rays becoming a totality, the many becoming One in universal unity. While each ray is a way, the countless rays combine, and unite in the Divine, leaving the lost to stray, without a way, damned in darkness, devoid of light and Divine Love, an interpretation consistent with the Qur’anic definition of the straight path as sirati Allahi, the path of Allah (42:53), the Swallower of Souls, like space flowing into a black hole,

“and to Him is our return” (2:156);

“Everything will perish except His own face ... and to Him will ye be brought back” (28:88).

As we have seen, the image of the road appears in the Arabic language in the form of idiomatic expressions; in the names of people, journals, magazines, books and businesses, and throughout Arabic-Islamic literature where it is derived from the Holy Qur’an and the Prophetic Traditions and is endowed with a multitude of literal and metaphorical interpretations. As we observed, Sunni and Salafi scholars, in their literalist line, believe in a single and unique path, devoid of branches. The Shi‘ites and the Sufis, however, accept various paths to God and multiple interpretations of Islam, making them the farthest removed from the fundamentalist fallacy. On the basis of this study, it is evident that the road is one of the fundamental symbols found in Arabic-Islamic literature, language and culture, with far reaching philosophical implications in the realm of religious pluralism.

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• 1. This chapter was originally published in Proceedings from the Image of the Road Conference. Eds. Will Wright and Steven Kaplan. Pueblo: SISSI, Colorado State U-Pueblo, 2005: 329-36.