Tafseer of The Opening · Al-Faatiha · 1:5
It is You we worship and You we ask for help.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The statement concerning the explanation of His saying, exalted is His praise: إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ ("You alone we worship").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The explanation of His saying إيَّاكَ نعبُدُ ("You alone we worship") is: To You, O Allah, we bow down in humility, we abase ourselves, and we submit, as an acknowledgement to You, O our Lord, of Your Lordship (rubūbiyya), and not to any other than You.
171 – As Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, saying: Abū Rawq related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Jibrīl said to Muḥammad ﷺ: Say, O Muḥammad: إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ ("You alone we worship") — You alone we declare One, You we fear, and in You we place our hope, O our Lord, and in no one else.
This saying of Ibn ʿAbbās has the meaning that we have indicated. We have, however, preferred to render its explanation with the meaning "we bow down in humility, we abase ourselves, and we submit," and not with the meaning "we hope and we fear" — even though hope and fear can only exist together with humility — because worship (ʿubūdiyya), among all the Arabs, in its origin means "humility, submissiveness." For they indeed call the levelled road that has been trodden by feet and made passable by travellers: muʿabbad ("paved, made serviceable"). To this belongs the saying of Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd:
"She vies with noble, swift-footed she-camels, and she placed
one shank-bone after the other above a paved sandy track."
By al-mawr he means: the road. And by al-muʿabbad: the levelled, trodden road. To this also belongs that one says of the camel that has been made submissive through being ridden for necessary matters: muʿabbad. And from this the slave (ʿabd) is named "ʿabd," on account of his submissiveness towards his master. The proofs for this — from the poems and the speech of the Arabs — are more numerous than can be counted, and in what we have mentioned there is sufficiency for whoever has been granted understanding of it, if Allah the Exalted wills.
The statement concerning the explanation of His saying: وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ("and You alone we ask for help").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning of His saying وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ("and You alone we ask for help") is: and You alone, our Lord, we ask for help in our worship of You and in our obedience to You, and in all our affairs — no one other than You — since he who denies You in his affairs asks for help from the object of his worship which he worships instead of You, of the idols; whereas we ask You alone for help in all our affairs, devoting worship purely to You.
172 – As Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to me, saying: Abū Rawq related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās, concerning وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ("and You alone we ask for help"), who said: You alone we ask for help in the obedience to You and in all our affairs.
If someone says: What is the meaning of Allah's command to His servants that they ask Him for help in obedience to Him? Is it permissible that He, while He has commanded them to His obedience, would not help them in it? Or can someone say to his Lord: "You alone we ask for help in the obedience to You," without his already being helped in this saying of his — and that is precisely obedience? What then is the sense of the servant asking his Lord for what He has already given him?
The answer is: The explanation of that is other than the direction you have taken. For he who among the believers calls upon his Lord to help him in obedience to Him, calls upon Him to help him in what remains to him of his lifespan with respect to the obedience that He has imposed upon him — not with respect to what has already elapsed and passed of his good deeds in the already-spent portion of his life. And it is permissible for the servant to ask his Lord for that, because Allah's bestowal of it upon His servant — besides the fact that He enables his limbs to carry out the obedience that He has imposed upon him and the obligations that He has imposed upon him — is a favour from Him, exalted is His praise, with which He has favoured him, and a kindness from Him that He has shown towards him. And in the fact that He refrains from favouring some of His servants with success (tawfīq) — while His servant occupies himself with disobedience towards Him and turns away from His love — nor in the fact that He spreads His favour over some of them — while the servant exerts himself in His love and hastens towards His obedience — is there any corruption in His governance, nor any injustice in His judgement, such that an ignorant one might be ignorant of the place of Allah's wisdom in His command to His servant to ask Him for help in obedience to Him.
And in Allah's command, exalted is His praise, to His servants to say: إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ("You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help"), in the meaning of their asking Him for help in worship, lies the strongest proof of the falsity of the saying of those who hold the doctrine of delegation (tafwīḍ) among the adherents of qadar (ahl al-qadar), who deemed it impossible that Allah should command any of His servants to anything, or impose upon him the obligation of a deed, except after He has given him the help for performing it and for refraining from it. For if what they say concerning that were as they say, then the yearning to Allah for help in obedience to Him would be void. For according to their saying it would be — given the existence of the command, the prohibition, and the imposition — a right that Allah is obligatorily owing to the servant, namely the giving of help in it, whether His servant asks Him for it or refrains from asking for it. Rather, the refraining from it would, according to them, be injustice on His part. And if the matter herein were as they say, then he who says: إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ("You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help") would only be asking his Lord that He commit no injustice.
And in the consensus (ijmāʿ) of all the people of Islam — that they consider correct the saying of him who says: "O Allah, we ask You for help," and consider erroneous the saying of him who says: "O Allah, commit no injustice against us" — lies a clear proof of the falsity of what those say whose saying I have described. For the explanation of the saying of him who says: "O Allah, we ask You for help" would, according to them, be: "O Allah, do not refrain from giving us Your help, the refraining from which would be an injustice on Your part."
If someone says: How is it that it was said: إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ("You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help"), so that the report about worship was placed first and the asking for help in it was put after it? Whereas worship comes about only through help, the asking for help was more entitled to be placed first, before that in which one is helped to a deed, and worship would come thereafter.
The answer is: Since it is known that there is no way for the servant to worship except through help from Allah, exalted is His praise, and it is impossible that the servant be a worshipper without his being helped in the worship, and that he be helped in it without his performing it — therefore it is equal whichever of the two is placed first before the other. Just as it is equal whether you say to the man, when he has fulfilled your need and acted well towards you in fulfilling it: "You have fulfilled my need and acted well towards me," placing first the mention of his fulfilling your need; or whether you say: "You have acted well towards me and fulfilled my need," placing first the mention of the acting well before the mention of the fulfilling of the need. For he is not one who fulfils your need without his acting well towards you, nor one who acts well towards you without his fulfilling your need. Likewise it is also equal whether someone says: "O Allah, we worship You alone, so help us in Your worship," or whether he says: "O Allah, help us in Your worship, for we worship You alone."
Abū Jaʿfar said: Some of the people of heedlessness have supposed that this belongs to that which is placed first while its meaning is put after, as Imruʾ al-Qays said:
"And if that which I strive for were the most meagre livelihood,
a little wealth would suffice me — without my seeking it."
He means thereby: a little wealth would suffice me, and I would not seek much. But this is far removed from the meaning of placing first and putting after, and from any correspondence with the verse of Imruʾ al-Qays. The reason for that is that a little wealth may suffice him while he yet seeks the much; the existence of what suffices him of it does not therefore oblige him to refrain from seeking the much, such that this would be equivalent to worship, with whose existence the existence of help in it is conjoined, and with the existence of help in it its existence is conjoined, so that the mention of the one points to the other, and it comes out equal in the correctness of the saying whether the one of the two is placed first before the other, so that it is placed in its rank and ordered in its position.
If he says: What then is the sense of the repetition of "iyyāka" ("You alone") together with His saying "nastaʿīn" ("we ask for help"), while that had already preceded before نَعْبُدُ ("we worship")? Why was it not said: "iyyāka naʿbudu wa-nastaʿīn" ("You alone we worship and ask for help"), since the One about Whom it is reported that He is the Worshipped is the same One about Whom it is reported that He is the One whose help is asked?
To him it is said: The kāf that is joined to "iyyā" is the kāf that would be joined to the verb — I mean to His saying نَعْبُدُ ("we worship") — if it were put after the verb. It is the personal pronoun of the addressee, which is put into the accusative by the verb; and it was augmented by "iyyā" when it was placed first, since the nouns, when they stand on their own, in the speech of the Arabs do not consist of a single letter.
Since, then, the kāf of "iyyāka" is the personal pronoun of the addressee, which would be a detached kāf joined to the verb when it stood after the verb, and since it is then its due that it be repeated with each verb to which it is joined — so that one says: "O Allah, we worship You, and we ask You for help, and we praise You, and we thank You," and that is more eloquent in the speech of the Arabs than that one should say: "O Allah, we worship You, and ask for help, and praise" — therefore it is such that, when the personal pronoun of the addressee is placed first before the verb, joined with "iyyā," it is more eloquent to repeat it with each verb. Just as it was the eloquent form of speech to repeat it with each verb when it stood after the verb and was joined with it, even though the omission of its repetition was permissible.
And some of those who have not carried out the consideration well have supposed that the repetition of "iyyāka" ("You alone") together with "nastaʿīn" ("we ask for help"), after it had preceded in His saying "iyyāka naʿbudu" — corresponds to the meaning of the saying of ʿAdī ibn Zayd al-ʿIbādī:
"And He who has made the sun a boundary-line — therein is no concealment —
between the day and between the night, which it has separated."
And as the saying of Aʿshā Hamdān:
"Between al-Ashajj and between Qays there is a lofty one;
hail, hail to his father and to that which is born!"
But that, on the part of him who says it, is ignorance, because it is the due of "iyyāka" that it be repeated with each verb, for the reason that we have just described, and that is not the rule of "bayna" ("between"). For "bayna" — when it requires two things — can only constitute a repetition when it is repeated, since it does not stand alone with one. And if it were used with only one of the two nouns, in the state where it requires two, the saying would be as if impossible. That is because, if someone were to say: "The sun has separated between the day," this would be a corrupt form of speech, on account of the deficiency of the saying with respect to that which it needs, namely its completeness which "bayna" requires.
But if someone were to say: "O Allah, You alone we worship," then that would be a complete saying. It is thereby known that the need of each word — that is similar to إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ ("You alone we worship") — for "iyyāka" is like the need of نَعْبُدُ ("we worship") for it, and that the correct thing is that "iyyāka" accompany it, since each word thereof forms a complete predicative sentence of a subject. And thus the rule is clear that this differs from the rule of "bayna" with respect to that in which he whose saying we have described has brought the two into agreement with each other.
