Grades of Guidance
The Holy Qur'an, in surah al-A'la (87:2-3), makes reference to four different stages in the process of Divine creative activity:
| 1. | Takhliq - | Allah (swt) brings into existence the previously non-existent. |
| 2. | Taswiyah - | Fashioning the created with due proportion and in a form ideal to its level of existence. |
| 3. | Taqdir - | Assigning to the Creation an appropriate role and imbuing it with ability consistent with its form. |
| 4. | Hidayah - | to show it the natural way for its existence and development through inherent and external modes of guidance. |
Hidayah has been provided as a gift of nature. The Holy Qur'an states: Our Provider is He Who granted everything a particular nature then provided it with appropriate guidance. (Q 20:50)
It is due to the inherent hidayah that various animate and inanimate components are able to perform functions peculiarly entrusted to them. In general significance, hidayah is common to all creation including matter, plants and animals, because according to the Holy Qur'an (Al-Isra' 17:44), each category of creation has its own level of consciousness.
There exist basically four grades of hidayah:
| 1. | Hidayah of instinct which serves as inspiration and tends to be intuitive. |
| 2. | Hidayah of the senses which provides those sectors of creation which have the sensory faculties of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing to gather information of the external world and react and interact upon that sensory information. |
| 3. | Hidayah of reason is that directive force inherent in human beings, which suggests the manner instinctive and sensory information could be utilized to open endless vistas of development. |
| 4. | Hidayah (the Ultimate Guidance). In keeping with Allah's Rububiyyah and Rahmah, He has throughout history granted us Divine Guidance via Revelation. This level of guidance is probably the greatest Divine gift vouchsafed to humanity as the Holy Qur'an constantly asserts: We have created human beings from the union of sexes that We might test him; We granted him sensory faculties and provided him the Guidance to the Right Path; whether he be thankful or ungrateful. (Q 76:23). |
Therefore we are instructed: Say, certainly the Guidance from Allah (swt) is the Ultimate Guidance. (Q 6:71)