One of the common themes between the Arabic lyric “The Opening” and Good Charlotte’s “The River” is that of followers needing guidance.
In the beginning of the song, the vocalist expresses the journey one takes in the entertainment industry in L.A. While one’s career may start out beautiful, life will inevitably present challenges. This is demonstrated in the allusion “walking through the valley of the shadow of death.” Shadow and death, are symbolic for fears and painful emotional states common to the human experience. After reflecting on his career and realizing how much he’s sinned, the vocalist wants to be “delivered” or saved from his sinful path.
Like the prodigal son, I was out on my own
Now I’m trying to find my way back home
In these two lines, he acknowledges he’s been lost this whole time and needs help finding his way back.
In The Opening, this is presented as follows:
It is You whom we worship
and You whom we ask for help.
Show us the upright way
Again, the follower is asking for guidance in life’s trials and tribulations. Something interesting to point out is the different effect the pronouns used create. By using the pronoun “I” in The River, the follower seems to take center stage while God recedes in the background. In The Opening, “You” (referencing God) comes before “we” establishing a closer dialogue between followers and God, as compared to the song.
As we have seen, The River references the parable of the Prodigal son – the last in a set of three which focuses on redemption. In this parable, the younger of two sons returns home after wasting the inheritance his father gave him. Instead of turning him away, the father celebrates his younger son’s return with open arms. This angers the older brother since he has never wronged his father, and yet has never received anything for his devotion.
The way God is described tends to share similarities between Islam and Christianity. The father represents God the Heavenly Father as he demonstrates his divine love, mercy, and grace. The father explains to his older son, that he’s celebrating the fact that his brother returned to him, having realized his wrongs. In the Arabic lyric God is also described as merciful, compassionate, and the authority on judgment day.
If the repetition of merciful and compassionate are meant to stress these two qualities, I am somewhat confused as to how The Opening’s God would show followers the upright way to everlasting life:
Show us the upright way:
the way of those whom You have favored,
not of those with whom You have been angry
and those who have gone astray.
The “upright” way seems rigid because it exclusively asks for those who God has favored. While it could have stopped there, it didn’t. The sura specifically excludes the way of those who’ve angered him or who’ve gone astray as upright. It makes it seem that the Prodigal Son would probably be denied eternal life under this God, even though he is just as merciful and compassionate.