Root ص ر ط ṣ-r-ṭ

— صِرَاطٌṣirāṭ pl. صُرُطٌṣuruṭ: an open, wide and straight road; originally it is سِرَاطٌsirāṭ, from the root s-r-ṭ: سَرَطَ يَسْرُطُ سَرْطًاsaraṭa yasruṭu sarṭan (to swallow, to gulp down without hindrance). The road was given this name because it as it were swallows those who travel it, or because the traveller is absorbed into it as a morsel into the throat. The sīn was changed to ṣād because a ṭāʾ (an emphatic letter, ḥarf mustaʿlī) follows, and the orthography of the muṣḥaf is based on this. The lexicographers state explicitly that صِرَاطٌṣirāṭ always occurs in the singular in the Quran, unlike سَبِيْلٌsabīl and طَرِيْقٌṭarīq, which also occur in the plural — and this is itself a point of meaning. ﴿اِهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيْمَ﴾ (Al-Fātiḥah 1:6); ﴿وَاللّٰهُ يَهْدِيْ مَنْ يَّشَآءُ اِلٰى صِرَاطٍ مُّسْتَقِيْمٍ﴾ (An-Nūr 24:46)