اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ
“Guide us to the straight path.”
The words evoke a physical route and straightness. In the rhetorical application to the true religion and correct way of life, the intended target is intelligible rather than an object of sight. This does not make the target an impossible invention.
A physical path carries a traveler toward a destination; a right course guides human conduct to its proper end. This functional likeness motivates the transfer. The designation ʿaqlī concerns how the target is grasped, not whether the expression is an unreliable or false statement.