One of the intriguing things about Thought for the Day is that you have to be able to build a religious homily around such subjects such as a government White Paper on Transport Policy. It can sometimes be a struggle, but that's what keeps it interesting.

It seems that the essential political news of the week has to be Transport Policy, what with the Transport White Paper from John Prescott yesterday, and one to come from Henry McLeish tomorrow. Integrated transport systems, motorway construction, traffic flows and parking charges - perhaps not the most promising springboard for a religious homily.

But why not? As in all matters of Public Policy, judgements have to be made concerning what‘s good for the individual, and what’s good for the group, judgements concerning relative values when the good of one is at the expense of the other. Goodness and Values are at the heart of our religions.

And roads were there before Transport Policy. They began as paths worn by like minded people, travelling in the same direction towards the same objective. A familiar path, skirting geological pitfalls, and with the safety of travelling companions in numbers for protection from marauders - such a path becomes travelled enough to be called a road.

Highways are a common metaphor in the language of Islam. The Muslim Way of Life is known as The Straight Path, and as the community formulated a legal system to define that Way of Life, they called it the Shari’ah, the Main Road, the everyday meaning of which can be seen in the street names of any Arab city. The Shari’ah is the basis of Public Policy in Islam, and is a treasure trove of legal precedent to guide us through the complexity and subtlety of public and private good and values.

But the road we travel as individuals has less need for legal circumscription. Our lives unfold before us, constantly changing our best laid plans, and it’s not always easy picking the best way through. So when muslims around the world ask for guidance in life, as well as a way of praying, they use what is unquestionably the most frequently repeated chapter of the Qur’an, saying: “Show us the straight path, the path of those who have blessings upon them - not anger upon them - and not astray.”