By Ustadz Sidi Zulkifli Md Isa

وَتَرَى ٱلشَّمْسَ إِذَا طَلَعَت تَّزَٰوَرُ عَن كَهْفِهِمْ ذَاتَ ٱلْيَمِينِ وَإِذَا غَرَبَت تَّقْرِضُهُمْ ذَاتَ ٱلشِّمَالِ وَهُمْ فِى فَجْوَةٍۢ مِّنْهُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ ءَايَـٰتِ ٱللَّهِ ۗ مَن يَهْدِ ٱللَّهُ فَهُوَ ٱلْمُهْتَدِ ۖ وَمَن يُضْلِلْ فَلَن تَجِدَ لَهُۥ وَلِيًّۭا مُّرْشِدًۭا

“And you would have seen the sun, as it rose, inclining away from their cave to the right, and as it set, declining away from them to the left, while they lay in its open space. That is one of the signs of Allah. Whoever Allah guides is truly guided. But whoever He leaves to stray, you will never find for them a guiding mentor.”
Quran 18:17

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We live in a world that shuns isolation and takes pride in the number of acquaintances, good friends, and family members who surround us daily.

But it would be during those crucial moments in our lives we realise that we truly need someone to be plain and truthful or to tell us that we are wrong—simply said, we need someone to anchor us down. And the friends and acquaintances that we may have gathered are, most often, not very useful (not to say the least). Each of their words and advice may have caused us to drift away from the shore we are trying to reach and drown us in the clenching waves of deception.

Yes, many would cite Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as the best personality for us to emulate. Unfortunately, the Prophet ﷺ lived his glorious life over 1400 years ago and not even his companions who witnessed him are around now. We listened and read about his beautiful life and his charming, as well as elegant character in books and lectures. Yes, we feel euphoric, but we keep on meeting that obstructing wall of difficulties in trying to emulate our Prophet’s ﷺ ways. The world has changed a lot after 1000 years. Or it’s just that we are missing that important link that would enable us to put all that we know about our Prophet ﷺ into acceptable & practical perspectives, adaptable to all facets of our life.

So who should we turn to in times of need?

The answer is simple and obvious. Known to all, yet understood and fully accepted by only a few—a true teacher who guides.

You see, there are many religious teachers out there. Those who excel in the pyramid of education and flaunt every education title they possess. Or those who are eloquent in speech that could falsely flatter you to ‘feel-good’ as Muslims, in their 3-minute lectures on TikTok. Or those who quote words from the Quran and Hadith ceaselessly to prove their argument, to an audience who are not arguing.

Yet, even after having these religious personalities with various educational accolades, huge fan bases well and quick and witty personalities, we still feel lonely and helpless when we are at the lowest point of our lives when all of our efforts are rendered useless when hope seems to have touched others but have missed us.

We then should realise that we need a true guide who can direct us with his words, silence, actions and decisions. We need such a teacher to elevate our hopes, admonish us at our every transgression and console us at every moment of despair.