6:161

Salaam all,

Qul innanee hadanee rabbee ila siratin mustaqeemin deenan qiyaman millata ibraheema haneefan wama kana mina almushrikeena

The Aya says: Say (O Muhammad): My nurturing Lord had indeed guided me towards a self straightening path. An upright fulfillment of obligation, religion of Abraham (who was) tilting towards God and he was not one of the polytheists.

My personal note: Deen continues to be one of the harder words to translated. The word covers in meaning debt, law, judgement and also religion. However when one understands as religion then it is religion including law within it as well as a sense of obligation to abide by it that a person who belongs to the religion is binding himself or herself to it’s code of belief, conduct and so on.

Translation of the transliterated words: Qul: Say/ communicate/respond Note: the root is Qaf-W-L and it means saying or communicating. QUL is an order or a request addressed to a singular. It means: say or communicate. Innanee: I indeed hadanee: He guided me Note: the root is root H-D-Y and it means gift in all it’s forms and it carries the meaning of guidance since guidance is a gift. HADANA is an action that is completed. It means: the action of guiding happened by the subject (third person singular pointing to Allah, coming next) to the object (NEE=me). Rabbee: my nurturing Lord Note: the root is R-B-B and it means nurturing and Lordship as two components of the meaning that can be present together or one at a time according to the context of the sentence. RABBEE is nurturing Lord of mine.

Ila: to/ towards Siratin: path Note: the root is Sad-R-TTa and it means path. SIRAT is path. mustaqeemin: made upright/ self straightening / leading to uprightness Note: the root is Qaf-W-M and it means standing upright or standing. The upright can be in all planes of position and for a horizontal dimension it means straight. MUSTAQEEM is a derivative word that means literally aimed uprightness and became upright. That is then the straight path or the path made straight or self straightening path, but the main thing is the aim of the path and where it leads. Deenan: religion/ law/ fulfilling of obligation/ binding obligation Note: the root is D-Y-N and it means debt or law or religion. What groups them together is the concept of obligation, since religion is the obligation of man towards God. DEENAN is fulfillment of obligation and that includes law and religion.

Qiyaman: upright Note: the root is Q-W-M and it means standing upright. QIYAMAN standing upright and so on. Millata: way of/ religion of Note: the root is M-L-L and it means to repeat something many times that you become bored with it. MILLA is a word that is derived from this root. It means the way and used in religious terms as the way of the religion. MILLATA is way of or religion of, since the religion is the way. ibraheema: Abraham Haneefan: righteous/ tilted towards God Note: this is a word that is hard to translate. The root is Ha-N-F and it means the foot that is tilting inwards so that the sole is exposed. The Haneef is the one whose foot is tilted towards the other foot. This is then used to mean, in this context, that the person who is haneef is the one who tilts to the natural spiritual tendency and that is a tilt towards God.

Wama: and not/ while not Kana: was/ happened to be Note: the root is K-W-N and it means being. KANA is an action that is completed that is derived from the root. It means: the action of being happened by the subject (third personal singular or plural). This in turn means: He/ they was or He/ they happened to be Mina: of/ from Almushrikeena: the ones who make partners (To Allah)/ the polytheists Note: the root SH-R-K and it means partner or partnership and with this partnership is a measure of equality or being on par. ALMUSHRIKEENA are the ones who make partners to God in worship or in action and that includes the polytheists

Salaam all and have a great day, Hussein