Straying from the Straight Path

The personal misguidance (ḍalāla) and leading astray (iḍlāl) of these followers of desires: “They had already gone astray before and misled many.”

This became the cause of their own misguidance and separation from the straight path: “and they strayed from the right way.” This is the same compound and accumulated misguidance, or misguidance upon misguidance. Thus the repetition of the verb “and they strayed” (wa-ḍallū) - meaning their straying from the straight path: “and they strayed from the right way” (wa-ḍallū ʿan sawāʾ al-sabīl) - is in reality the bitter fruit of their two previous actions (straying and leading astray: “They had already gone astray before and misled many”).

The multiplicity of misguidance can be in terms of prior and subsequent, and it can be in terms of the rational path (ṭarīq ʿaqlī) and the transmitted way (sabīl naqlī), just as it can be in terms of the occurrence and continuance of a persistent vice that is connected with precedence and succession, just as leading others astray is also considered misguidance, because it is a false and forbidden action.

“The right way” (sawāʾ al-sabīl) is the level path protected from improper lowness and elevation, the same highway that has neither deviation nor difference (the straight path - ṣirāṭ mustaqīm); and the traveler on it has no need for inquiry, because the path itself leads him to the destination. The infallible Imam is its perfect exemplar.(151)