Al-Hadi

The Guide, who brings to guidance whom He wills. Allah Almighty says: "And sufficient is your Lord as a guide and a helper." (Al-Furqan, 31) "So whoever Allah wants to guide — He expands his breast to [contain] Islam." (Al-An'am, 125) "He sends astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills." (An-Nahl, 93) "Then Allah sends astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills." (Ibrahim, 4) "Indeed, [O Muhammad], you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided." (Al-Qasas, 56) When Allah wills guidance for someone and wishes to bring him straight to Himself, He expands his breast for Islam. He does not feel distressed at accepting the truth and fulfilling the obligations of truth; he suffers no hardship or anguish but instead feels joy and delight. And when Allah wills to lead someone astray from His path, He constricts his breast, presses it, closes it utterly and stifles it. Just as climbing to the sky would be for him an impossible burden and hardship, so too faith, Islam, accepting the truth and obeying become that difficult for him. At the mention of Islam and uprightness he becomes distressed, constricted and stifled. He says "Enough!", resists, chokes, turns aside, leaves the path and sinks into swamps from which there is no escape. He now seeks relief not in uprightness and safety but in crookedness and ruin. Allah's guidance means His showing and making known to His servants the ways of knowing Him, teaching His creatures the ways of sustaining their lives and directing them toward this. In this respect He shows people the way of salvation and the paths to happiness in this world and the next. Allah gave animals instinct; by their instincts they find what is beneficial for them. To human beings, however, reason was given. By using their reason people have the possibility of making conscious choices, and for this reason they have been held responsible. Alongside their reason, Allah Most High also sent them prophets. Guidance is of two kinds. The first means showing the way, calling and warning. In this sense guidance is one of the essential duties of the prophets. The second meaning is supporting, protecting and granting success. This kind of guidance belongs to Allah alone; no being has any effect in this kind of guidance. The benefits of knowing this name: Every Muslim should always ask Allah to guide him and to let him die upon Islam, and should supplicate for this — for he should not forget that Allah comes between a servant and his heart. The Muslim should know that the prophets, the scholars and the friends of Allah call people to guidance, show them the straight path, and are guides to it.

The noble name Al-Hadi is recited 20 times as "Ya Hadi, jalla jalaluhu" in order to find guidance and enter the path of truth, and for all one's affairs to proceed soundly. Whoever persists in the remembrance of the noble name Al-Hadi finds the straight path. Whoever recites it after every obligatory prayer, he himself and other people attain guidance in religious and spiritual matters. Whoever persists in the remembrance of the noble name Al-Hadi comes to hold sway over hearts and lands.