A Quranic Journal: Surah al-Fatiha ayah 6

After praising Allaah, the servant then proceeds to ask of Him from His bounty and blessings. This is the most virtuous way of asking Allaah by first praising Him and then asking of Him. The word hidaayah, linguistically meaning direction and guidance is used in two senses in the Qur'aan.

1. Guidance of clarification and direction, not taking into account whether the person to whom it has been clarified traverses the path of guidance or not.

2. The specific type of guidance which is Allaah bestowing His Grace upon the servant by making him conform to the Way of Truth.

There is also a third sense to the word guidance that was mentioned by ibn al-Qayyim, and that is guidance on the Day of Judgement to the path to Paradise - this being the bridge leading to it. So the one who is guided in this life to the Straight Path will be guided to the straight path in the Hereafter that leads to His Paradise. His firmness on the path that Day will be dependant on how firmly he trod the Straight Path in this life. [Ibn al-Qayyim, "Madaarij as-Saalikeen" [1/16]]

...The Straight Path is the path that the one journeying to Allaah traverses and it is none other than obedience to Allaah and His Messenger (SAW)