A double-hulled canoe called Hōkūleʻa sailed from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti in 1976 with no compass or charts. The voyage was about 4,000 kilometres, made with no instruments at all. Its navigator, Mau Piailug from Micronesia, read the stars, the swells and the birds.
An Arctic tern flies about 70,000 kilometres a year between the poles. We are surrounded by guidance. Al-Hādī, the Guide, names the One who gave every guide its way.
Start with what we know
Start with something we know. Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us: it is the Name.
Episode 1
In us
Mau Piailug learned wayfinding as a child on the island of Satawal, trained by his grandfather. In 1976, according to the Polynesian Voyaging Society, he guided Hōkūleʻa from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti, proving that ancient Pacific peoples could have navigated deliberately across vast oceans. He later taught Hawaiians the knowledge that had nearly been lost, and wayfinding is a living tradition today. It is one of the great human achievements. But it took a lifetime of training, and clouds can hide every star.
Episode 2
In nature
In 2010 Carsten Egevang and colleagues fitted Arctic terns from Greenland with tiny trackers. They reported in PNAS that the birds flew on average about 70,900 kilometres a year, from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back: the longest migration known. Loggerhead turtles find their birth beaches by magnetic 'signatures'. Birds use the Sun, the stars and Earth's magnetic field. Some young songbirds, such as blackcaps, inherit the direction of a route they have never flown. Nature's navigators are astonishing. But they are born with one map, for one route, and storms and changing magnetic fields can still lead them astray.
Episode 3
At our best
The Global Positioning System uses a network of about thirty satellites, each carrying atomic clocks. Your phone works out where you are by timing signals from several at once, to within a few metres. Spacecraft are navigated across billions of kilometres by similar timing. It is a triumph of physics. But GPS needs satellites, power and clocks corrected for Einstein's relativity, and its signals can be jammed. Every guide we build depends on something it did not make.
Episode 4
The Break
Every guide we know relies on stars, magnetism, maps, training or a signal. Each follows a sign it did not set: the tern its inner compass, Mau Piailug the stars, GPS the clocks. Al-Hādī gave the tern its compass and the stars their places. He guides hearts as well as journeys. Moses (peace be upon him) told Pharaoh who his Lord was: “He said: Our Lord is He Who gave unto everything its nature, then guided it aright.” (Qur'an 20:50, Pickthall).
From the tradition: Muslim 2577 (qudsi): 'all of you are astray except for those I have guided, so seek guidance of Me'. Ps 25:4 'Let me know Your paths'.
Watch and listen
Films, documentaries and voices that reach towards this Name. Each links out to where you can watch it.
When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him) and Abū Bakr left Mecca for Medina in 622, they needed a guide. He had to know the desert roads well enough to avoid the search parties.
ʿĀʾisha, Abū Bakr's daughter, later explained what they did. They hired a man from the tribe of Banū al-Dīl, ʿAbdullāh ibn Urayqiṭ, an expert guide. He still followed the old religion of Quraysh, not Islam. But they trusted him. They gave him their two riding camels and agreed he would bring them to the cave of Thawr after three nights.
He kept his word. On the third morning he arrived with the camels. He set off with them and a freed slave of Abū Bakr's, ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayra, leading them by little-known paths along the coast, below Mecca, until they reached Medina safely. (Bukhari 2263)
The story is loved for its honesty about trust across difference. At the most dangerous moment of his life, the Prophet relied on the skill and integrity of a man who did not share his faith. Human guidance was real and necessary. And behind it, Muslims believe, was al-Hādī, who guides whom He wills by whatever means He wills.
What each faith says
Read:
Judaism
“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; that they might go by day and by night:”
When the Israelites left Egypt, the Torah says, God went before them. “by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light.” Psalm 23 says “He guideth me in straight paths”.
The Psalms are full of prayers for guidance, such as Psalm 25: “Show me Thy ways, O LORD; teach me Thy paths.”
The word Torah itself means teaching or direction, from a Hebrew root linked to pointing the way. Before a journey, many Jews say Tefillat ha-Derekh, the traveller's prayer, asking God to lead them in peace and bring them safely home.
Christianity
“when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth”
Jesus promised his disciples that “the Spirit of truth” would guide them “into all truth”. Christians understand this as the Holy Spirit.
Christians also love Psalm 23 and sing hymns such as “Guide me, O thou great Redeemer”, written in Welsh by William Williams Pantycelyn in the eighteenth century.
John Henry Newman, becalmed at sea in 1833, wrote the hymn “Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on.” He was an Anglican priest then and later became a Catholic cardinal; both churches sing it.
The opening chapter of the Qur'an, recited in every prayer, asks: “Show us the straight path.” (1:6, Pickthall). God is called al-Hādī in 22:54 and 25:31: “Your Lord is sufficient as a Guide and a Helper.”
A hadith qudsi says: “All of you are astray except those I guide, so ask Me for guidance and I will guide you” (Muslim 2577).
Same and different
The pillar of cloud, the Spirit of truth and 'guide us on the straight path' all express trust that God leads people. All three faiths pray daily for guidance. They differ in how it comes: through Torah, through Christ and the Holy Spirit, or through the Qur'an and the Prophet.
A moment to reflect
Who has guided you at an important moment in your life?
When have you had to trust someone very different from you?
What helps you find your way when you feel lost?
Watch
Hawaiian news on Hōkūleʻa and navigating without instruments.
A Google Earth tour of the Arctic tern's record-breaking migration.
BBC Earth Science on how sea turtles read Earth's magnetic field.
Do it together
families / neighboursStar walk
On a clear night, find the Plough and use it to find the Pole Star, as navigators have for centuries. Talk about other ways people and animals find their way.
faith groups / schoolsTrust across difference
Tell the story of ʿAbdullāh ibn Urayqiṭ and invite people to share a time they relied on someone of a different faith or background. Read Exodus 13:21 and Qur'an 20:50.
families / faith groups / neighboursWalk a pilgrim way
Walk a stretch of one of Britain's old Christian pilgrim routes, such as St Cuthbert's Way to Lindisfarne or the Pilgrims' Way to Canterbury, following its waymarks. Before setting out, read the Jewish traveller's prayer and Psalm 23, and talk afterwards about who has pointed the way for you.
Episode 1
