The Map and the Compass

Imagine you are handed the task of crossing unfamiliar terrain to reach a destination you have never seen. What do you need to arrive? Two things, and both are indispensable. You need an accurate map: a true representation of the land, its paths, its hazards, and where the destination actually lies. And you need to be correctly oriented within that map: you have to know where you stand and which way you are facing, so that the lines on the page connect to the ground under your feet.

Take away either one and the journey fails in exactly the same way. Give a traveler a flawless map but let his compass read south as north, and he will stride off with perfect confidence in the wrong direction. Give him a working compass but hand him a forged map, and his confidence will be just as misplaced. In both cases, the walker feels sure. In both cases he is lost. Certainty is not the test. The alignment of the map, the compass, and the world is the test.

This is the situation the Quran describes for the moral life. God has given us a map—the revelation—and He has given us a compass—the moral orientation written into us and refined by knowing who He is. Success is not a matter of walking hard or walking sincerely. It is a matter of walking with the right map and the right orientation together.

When the compass is corrupted

Consider the man in 35:8: