We are asking Allah (SWT) to guide us as individuals and groups. It could be because the person is reciting by themselves and reciting for themselves, we could say “guide me”, but Allah (SWT) has instructed us to say “guide us”. The reason is, of course, in the ilm of the Allah (SWT), but there are many wisdoms to this. One of them is that if one individual is guided and the rest of the group is not, it makes walking the path of guidance extremely difficult, and Allah (SWT) makes many decisions based on what the masses are doing. Even if there are a few pious people amongst a community of many non-believers, Allah (SWT)’s punishment in this world could be applied to everyone, and on the Day of Judgement, they will be raised independently according to their own intentions. The other thing is that we are an Ummah of collectiveness, and through this, the collectivity of our deen shows. We are not just practicing on deen by ourselves, but rather, we are taking a whole group with us. We are a community and we are asking Allah (SWT) to guide us all. It is something that we should genuinely want for everyone – for those who understand and for those who do not understand. The next thing is asking for Allah (SWT) to show us to a path. It could be that we could say “guide us to Jannah” or “guide us to your pleasure” or a single destination that we are asking guidance for, but rather, it is a path, and a path is indicative of many things. One is that it is going to take time to traverse that path, and two, without the path we cannot reach the destination. In our case, this path will consist of acts, beliefs, attitudes, perceptions and things that we give up. There are many things that will be involved, and this is a part of life walking on any path. The other thing is that a path requires two types of guidance; one is the inner ability to follow the path and navigate down that path, and secondly, the external light that will enable us to walk down that path. A person could have the sharpest instincts, eyesight and so on and so forth, but if there is no light, a person cannot walk down that path. Similarly, you could have the best lighting on any road, but if a person is not able to see, there will also be problems. This analogy of metaphor of the path is a very profound one, and in fact, entire books can be written on this one metaphor that Allah (SWT) is using. May Allah (SWT) give us understanding.
