Memorize Surah al-Mulk Ramadan 2021 | Verse 22

Āyah 22

أَفَمَن یَمۡشِی مُكِبًّا عَلَىٰ وَجۡهِهِۦۤ أَهۡدَىٰۤ أَمَّن یَمۡشِی سَوِیًّا عَلَىٰ صِرَ ٰ⁠طࣲ مُّسۡتَقِیمࣲ

Who has been guided more? It is someone who has their face planted in the ground, or is walking and dragging their face in the ground? Or is it someone who is walking upright, properly, on the correct upward path?

Allāh again continues to ask them questions to point out their ignorance and fallacies. The question here is: who has guidance? Who has more / better guidance? Who is moving, living, going in the right direction towards success?

This at face value is an obvious analogy. Who has a better chance of getting to their end destination? Someone whose face is literally in the ground unable to see the road in front of them? Or someone who’s walking upright and able to see the road in front of them? Obviously it’s the person who can properly walk and actually see what’s in front of them.

The example here draws on the realities of someone with and without guidance. The end for every human being is the hereafter, and the destination we all want to achieve in the hereafter is Jannah – Paradise. So, with the end goal is mind, who has a better shot of getting there? Obviously someone who can see clearly and walk straight. But this isn’t a physical road. It is a spiritual path that requires one to be able to see clearly by acknowledging and submitting to the truth of God’s Revelation, and by walk properly imitating the lifestyle of the Prophet Muḥammad . This person will be able to make it into Jannah. But someone who is blind to God, and cannot walk in the footsteps of the Prophet ﷺ is so lost, and has such little chance of success, they’re just stuck with their head in the ground.

When asked this question outside of the question of faith, Islam, and the Day of Judgement, everyone would give the same answer. But when asked to the disbelievers, they are, again, at loss for an answer to justify their actions.

أَفَمَن یَمۡشِی مُكِبًّا عَلَىٰ وَجۡهِهِۦۤ

• Is it a person
• Who is walking
• With their face on or directed towards the ground
• Walking on their face
• In this life or the next
• Metaphor: totally blind from everything around
  • Cannot see up / down / right / left

أَهۡدَىٰۤ

• More guided, more guidance
• Allāh help, guides, aids
• Shows them the path towards Jannah: in this life and the next

أَمَّن یَمۡشِی سَوِیًّا عَلَىٰ صِرَ ٰ⁠طࣲ مُّسۡتَقِیمࣲ

• Or is a person
• That is walking upright, correctly, straight, properly
• On the straight correct upward path
  • Towards the truth, righteousness, Jannah

Always ask yourself:

• Is this action, choice, lifestyle I’m living representative of me walking upright?
• And am I headed in the right direction?