إِيَّاكَ نَعۡبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسۡتَعِينُ
Only You we worship, and Only You we call for help.
From the previous ayaat, we now know better of our Creator. Knowledge leads to results. In this ayah 5, it is time for action, not merely knowledge. Some religion just need the followers to believe, to have faith without understanding or taking action. On the other hand, some people do a lot of worship without the knowledge of who God truly is or what He really wants. Lack of guided knowledge will lead to deviant acts of worship.
Ayah 5 shows that the original religion for mankind is about having knowledge and implementing them.
In the previous ayaat, we are addressing God as "Him" in the "third person" perspective while in this ayah it changes to the "second person" perspective by using the pronoun "You".
This change in "person perspective" is common in Quranic Eloquence (Balagha) while it will be grammatically wrong in English. The English speaking person may get confused.
After saying that He is the King or Owner over all of us in the previous ayah, He now gives us an opportunity to talk to Him. A human King or a CEO of a big Company will need to have an appointment made in order for a commoner to talk to him while going through the various "red tape" process. However this ayah is teaching us that we can talk to Him anytime without any middle person to arrange for the paper work of the meet up. This shows His Mercy as mentioned in ayah 3.
If we are driving through a highway while there is a family of ants crossing the road, we will not pay any attention to those tiny ants. If a grasshopper drops on our windshield, we will activate the wiper to wipe it off. This is how we treat tiny creatures. We do not have the time to attend to the needs of the ant or the grasshopper.
If a President of a country gives his Phone number to a homeless person and instructs the guy to call him via this direct line everyday so that he can help him with his daily struggles, what will be the reaction of the homeless man? He will call the President everyday and they will become closer.
This is what the All Powerful Creator and Master of mankind has given to us as a GIFT to connect with him a minimum of 5 times a day via the Solah and by saying "Only You we worship and Only You we call for help".
If you have not yet understand the meaning of Solah, you will have to "force" yourself to perform. It is like a sick toddler taking a medicine or an injection will be forced to take it to maintain its health. Once you understand what you are doing, it becomes natural and a part of you. The 5 daily prayers act as a reminder to contact your Creator.
The sequencing of ayaat in this Surah
(1) Firstly is to have the correct definition of God to know Him well enough. Only after knowing who is God and the definition of God that a person will appreciate the greatness of Allah and want to have connection with Him.
(2) "Only to You we worship".
What do we do after thoroughly knowing God? We request to worship Him and be His slaves. As long as a person does not know enough of God, he will either slack in his worship or engaging in deviant worshiping. Only after truly knowing Allah, a person will not be hesitant in worshiping Him. Why? Tremendous benefits by being close to Him.
(3) "Only to You we ask for help".
By worshiping Him and constantly communicating with Him, we will get His help in this world and in the hereafter. Example, in the movies, if your best friend is “Superman”, then you will have an advantage over other people. Imagine if you are very close to the Master of Mankind (God)? The advantages are tremendous.
Ayah 5 is about worship.
Previous Ayah 1 to ayah 4 are teaching us about :
1> Tauheed from "Basmalah" & "AlhamdulillahiRabbil 'Alameen".
2> Ar-Risalah (revelations) from "Ar-Rahman, Ar-Raheem". A Merciful God that sent messages and guidance to His slaves.
3> The Hereafter from "Maaliki Yaumiddeen"
We derived 3 motivational factors of worshiping Allah from the previous ayaat.
These are the 3 Pillars that a worshiper need to have: Love, Hope and Fear.
"Alhamdulillah" giving rise to Love. You don't praise someone you hate.
"Ar-Rahman, Ar-Raheem" giving rise to Hope. We hope for His Mercy to be safe in the hereafter.
"Maaliki yaumi-ddeen" giving rise to Fear. We fear His judgement of our Sins and Wrongdoings.
No society can function only by the Love of God without fearing Him. If you don't fear God, you can do whatever you like to the extent of torturing other people.
On the other hand, no society can function only by the Fear of God. People will loose Hope in everything that they do. They will think that their actions are not good enough to please the Master or their sins will not be forgiven.
The Quran is teaching us our relationship with our Master are based upon Love, Hope, and Fear. Hope in the middle is balancing between Love and Fear. These are the 3 emotions that propelled a Believer to have a balanced life.
Deriving the knowledge from the previous ayaat, the worshiper must fulfill these 3 things during acts of worship:
(1) Love the Master.
Surah Taha (20:83-84): Allah asked,˺ “Why have you come with such haste ahead of your people, O Moses?” He replied, “They are close on my tracks. And I have hastened to You, my Lord, so You will be pleased.”
When Musa (as) was bringing several “pious” Jewish people up the mountain to talk to Allah, he was in a hurry and left them a few distance away. Allah asked him why is he in a rush leaving them several steps behind? Musa replied that he was rushing to get Allah’s love (redha). This is a lesson for us. When we hear the Azan, we are to immediately get ready to worship Allah. If we put on hold until the last minute, that means we still have not shown the love to our Master.
(2) Hope that his worship is accepted by the Master.
Surah Al-Baqarah (2:127): "And ˹remember˺ when Abraham raised the foundation of the House with Ishmael, ˹both praying,˺ “Our Lord! Accept ˹this˺ from us. You are indeed the All-Hearing, All-Knowing."
We can start hoping after we have put the effort. Eg. a student who does not study for his exam, he cannot be hopeful that he will get an A grade. Only after he studied hard, then he can hope to get an A grade.
(3) Fear of the King of the day of Judgement.
Surah Al-Anfal (8:2): "For only those are true believers who, when Allah is mentioned, their hearts tremble; and when His verses are recited to them, it increases them in faith; and upon their Lord alone do they rely".
With fear comes concentration and focus in acts of worship. Without fear & respect, worshiping will be done in a haphazard manner and careless attitude.
In Surah Az-Zariyat, ayah 56: Allah said:
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْاِنْسَ اِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُوْنِ
“and I did not create Jinn and Humans except to worship/enslaving to Me”.
We are created to enslave ourselves to Him.
Worshiping/Enslaving will never take place without the full recognition of knowing God.
Worshiping/Enslaving is not only in the 5 times daily Solah but it runs 24 hours.
The origin of the root word عبد before the coming of Islam:
Generally it means a well used pathway. The pathway that people step upon numerous times. It shows humbleness upon the feet of the people walking over it. There is no arrogance on the part of the pathway.
With the coming of Islam, the word عبد shows humility at the servitude to Allah. This is also where the word "Slave" comes from. Utmost humbleness in worshiping Allah as a slave. The opposite of this is arrogance which is a trait of Iblis, the one who rejected Allah's command. The attitude of thinking that one is self independent from God and better than others. This is the worse of "Kufr". One who rebelled against the Truth. The opposite of "Kufr" is "Islam", one who humbly submits to the Truth. Worshiping Allah with the essence of love, hope and fear. We love Allah and at the same time fear him, this is what worship is all about. Generally you don't love the one you fear. When we fear Allah, we have no where to run away to except towards His love and Mercy.
Even if you don’t worship Him, it will not decrease any of His Greatness. He does not need us in order to be Great. The freedom to choose which religion you think is the truth. You come looking for the Master and He will show you which one is True and which is False. God does not need to force you at all. He does not need you. It is we who need Him. That’s why we are worshiping Him. Your piousness gets His attention over other creatures and He will give you all the help and advantages that you need. Nobody will offer himself to become a slave to another person except to become the slave of Allah.
The other Surahs contain instructions from Allah. Allah gives commands and admonishments to His servants. However in this Surah, His words are uttered on behalf of the servants. Allah taught His servants how to supplicate and speak to Him directly without a mediator.
“You, we worship” = This is not a command. The slaves realized of the tremendous benefits and he made a choice. This religion forbids people to enter Islam by force. Many people from Europe and the Americas made the free choice to revert to Islam, requesting to be slaves of Allah.
“ONLY You, that we worship”.
This is a reversed sentence structure in Arabic.
The usual sentence will be “We worship you” نَعۡبُدُكَ, with the pronoun "You" at the back after the verb.
However, in this Surah, we say “ONLY You, that we worship” إِيَّاكَ نَعۡبُدُ
2 reasons that we derived from the reverse sentence structure
(1) The pronoun "You" is preferred in front of the verb. We are putting Allah first before our action. The emphasis is on the deity of worship and our own action of worshiping comes second.
“You, we worship” = The word "You" comes first before "We", which is in line with the order of the Surah. The first part of the Surah is about God (You) and the second part is about us (We).
(2) Making the sentence in reverse is important. In English, we have to translate it by adding "ONLY YOU" instead of just "YOU".
“ONLY You, that we worship” and nobody else. This clearly determine that there is no such thing as worshiping the son of God, worshiping the idols that represent smaller “gods”, worshiping a king as representative of God, etc.
The pronoun "You" is a second person that you talk to in front of you. Other religion will promote a Third Person as intermediary between you and God. Allah is teaching us to talk directly to Him.
We say “It is YOU we worship” and not “It is HIM we worship”. We are not talking about HIM. We are talking to YOU directly, our Master. The Master is constantly watching & listening. His presence is constant. Our Master encourage us to frequently talk to him hence we perform the Solah everyday by reciting this Surah Al-Fatihah. Slavery to God will solve lots of human social issues.
“Na’budu” = We worship and enslave:-
> “We” (plural) is recited and not “I” (singular).
> The best act of worship is with the “jama’ah” (collectively)
> Collective worshiping while at the same time each individual having spiritual connection with Allah.
> This is a reminder that the whole Muslim Ummah, billions of us, are praying to Allah.
> We are reminded that we are a part of a collective body and need to stay united.
> When the individual Believer having the Ummah always in his mind, he cannot be selfish in thinking of his own well being when in some parts of the world other Believers are suffering.
Both “we worship” and “we enslave” at the same time make up the word = “Na’budu”
A person can be worshiping God but he is not behaving as a slave to God outside of his prayer times. “Worship” and “Enslave” are two different words, but the word “Na’budu” is saying that once we worship Allah, we are enslaving to Him too.
Enslaving 24 hrs a day and not only during the prescribed worship rituals. Many believed of the existence of God but unwilling to worship Him either that they do not know God enough OR they are refusing to become His slaves. Some already done research of the religion and finds it make sense however are still reluctant to say the "Shahadah" since becoming a Slaves for 24 hours every day until death is an overwhelming thought for them.
For some, the concept of being helpless in fear of a Mighty entity that can do anything to them makes them unwilling to submit. They rather not think about it. They have not understood the concept of Love, Hope and Fear in connection with their Creator.
A Muslim is someone who submits to the Master when he says, “It is You we worship/enslave”. This is a declaration of complete slavery. We give up our independence (Declaration of “non-Independence”). We do what the Master wants and not what we want. Whatever we wish to do, we have to first check with the Master whether is it allowed or not. You have to figure out what He likes and what He don’t like! The way you socialize, the way you work, the way you sleep, the way you treat your parents and children, the way you do business, everything must be according to what the Master want, what the Master like, which in turn only benefit yourself, not for the benefit of the Master. The Master does not need any benefit from you.
This is the result of knowing that He is “your Master”, the “Most Merciful”, the “ONE that provide Justice”. A slave to a human master will quietly do something against his master’s wishes when the master is not watching. The times when we are sinning are when we forget that our Master (God) is watching and listening. (Sinning = doing something against God’s prohibition). Sinning is bad for the person and has no effect on the Master. The Master prohibit you from doing certain things because in reality it is not good for you.
Youngsters nowadays want to do whatever they wish to do. Freedom as they call it. “I want to do whatever I wish to do!”. If you live a life of total freedom in this world, it will harm you, harm others and harm the earth. You get total freedom only in “Jannah” where it will not harm you. As long as you are still alive in this world, you will never get total freedom.
People enslave themselves to their careers or jobs, business, body, their looks, to fashion, to materialism of branded items, to peer pressure, to age-old customs and tribal traditions, to getting richer than the next person, to entertainment, to your children, etc.
If you enslave yourself to Allah, all other kind of slavery that society is busy enslaving to will not affect you. You don’t have to succumbed to “hype” or what your peers want. People put large Banner, eg. “Ferrari” on their car’s windshield. They love the Brand. They sacrificed their money for the Brand. That is a kind of slavery to a Brand. A slave of Allah is not affected by glorifying Brands, glorifying materialism, being enslaved to entertainment and false ideology.
You are FREE from all things that the modern world is caught in. Enslaving to Allah protects you, protects the people around you, protects the earth, etc. If you are not in total slavery to Allah, there will be one thing or another that you will somehow be enslaving to. Human will never be free from slavery. It is a whole lot better to be the slave of Allah than to be the slave of other than Allah. If only Allah is the One that you want to impress, then all other things that society are impressed with are flushed out of your system. You gained Freedom. Slavery to God frees us from all other Slavery.
From a bird’s eye view of people doing “tawaf” around the “ka’bah”, it is like a washing machine turning and cleaning dirty clothes that you put in daily for wash, flushing out things that are not supposed to be. This is a declaration of independence from everything else except Allah. Independence from expecting “praise” from people other than the “praise” of Allah.
Having this knowledge, we are ready to be His slaves. It moved you from being "forced" to sincerely wanting to enslave yourself to Him. This is the only way to be safe, protected, achieve goodness, etc. in this world and the hereafter. Requesting to be His slave comes with following His commands and prohibitions.
A person becomes a slave to another human is when he gets instructions from his master and perform those instructions. If he lives in the same house as the master but he never gets any command or any rules from the master, then he is actually not a slave.
We become the slaves of Allah only when we receive instructions & rules from Him and we execute them. After our declaration to Him that we are His slaves, we now ask Him what are we supposed to do (actions) to be His slaves. He gives His instructions to the people via the Book and His Messenger.
(1) One who eagerly waits for commands and excitedly execute the command.
(2) One who painfully waits for commands and lazily execute the command with low morale.
Which kind of slave are we ?
Do you accept this Master and Slave concept? Only the “Mushrikuun”, the “Munafiquun” & the disbelievers reject this concept.
Worshiping Allah must be in accordance with what has been taught by our Prophet (saw). The previous nations followed what was taught to them by the Prophets of their time. If we invented our own way of worshiping Allah deviating away from what our Prophet (saw) had taught, it will not be accepted.
Prophet Ibrahim (as) after finishing building the Kaabah, made a do’a to Allah asking for a Rasul for the future inhabitants of the land to teach them the correct way of worshiping Allah (eg. The Hajj). If the Rasul never come, the people will start inventing their own way of worship and becoming a deviant group. Hence it is very important that we worship according to the Sunnah of the Prophet (saw), not adding into what the Prophet (saw) never taught.
(1) It must be sincerely done for the sake of Allah and
(2) The rituals must come from the Prophet s.a.w.
The above are enshrined in the "Shahadah": I believe that there is none to be worship except Allah and Muhammad (s.a.w) is His Messenger.
What is Worship? There are two types of worship, "Specific" and "General".
Must be done by all Believers. By not doing “Specific” worship, any “General” worship (general good deed) will be wasted. Non believers did lots of General good deeds but on the day of judgement, the good deeds will turn to dust.
“Specific” worship consists of <1> "The pillars of Islam" & <2> "The Sunnah".
<1> The Pillars of Islam:
These specific rituals are maintenance of your eeman and slavery to Allah.
1. The Shahadah, 2. the Solah, 3. the Zakat, 4. the Fasting, 5. the Hajj.
The last 3 are only for those who have the capacity and have no valid excuse for not doing it.
As for the first two, only those who have "lost their mind", eg. overslept, lower intellectual ability, in a coma or those who have not reached puberty are excused. Even a Slave who is without a tongue, hands or feet, is to do the Shahadah and Solah if the mind is still sound.
The above is like a Doctor's prescription to his sick patient or a dietician list of supplements to maintain health. Our spiritual well beings needed these prescribed acts of worship.
A believer works for an Employer but during office hours he does not perform the Solah to the one who gave him “Rizq”? He mistakenly thought that the Employer is the one who gave him “Rizq” (eg. salary). If God the Master remove his sight or health, he will not be employed by the current Employer. Worshiping God is the source of getting blessed “Rizq” for the Believers.
<2> The Sunnah:
Consistent in performing Sunnah rituals such as:
- The Nawafil prayers before/after Fardh Prayer,
- The set of Zikr after Fardh Prayers.
- The daily morning and evening set of Zikr,
- The sunnah fasting such as 6 days of Shawwal, 9 Zulhijjah, 10 Muharram, Mondays and Thursdays, 13th, 14th, 15th of the each month, etc.
The Sunnah of du'a & zikr for your daily actions
Worship via your routine daily action that everyone else is doing. Your daily routine will get you divine reward if you are constantly making du'a or zikr for every of your action. These are taught in the Sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w and is a form of worship to Allah.
Eg.
Eating and drinking with Basmalah and ends with Alhamdulillah
Du'a before sleeping and waking up.
Du'a before and after using the toilet.
Dua' exiting and entering your home.
Du'a before studying.
Du'a when riding a vehicle.
And the list goes on.
Any general good deeds. There are no specific rituals that we must follow. These are for the Believers to acquire additional divine rewards provided it comes with sincerity to Allah. Eg.
A sincere smile to another person is an act of worshiping Allah.
Picking up a litter and throwing it in a public dustbin.
Removing an obstacle from the walkway or path.
Cleaning up your baby, cleaning up the house, cleaning your body.
Washing dishes, washing clothes, ironing clothes.
Disciplined at workplace, honest in commerce, obeying the laws of the land, etc.
Pondering and thinking about Allah's Creation and His Greatness are included as acts of worship.
Talking and motivate people to gain religious knowledge.
Feeding the Poor. It is a command in the Qurán. So if we don’t feed the poor, we are guilty of not obeying the Master.
These deeds are done because Allah commanded us to be righteous. Whatever deed that you are certain Allah will be pleased. Not because of any other reason, then that is worshiping/enslaving to Allah. These are acts of worshiping Allah. You become conscious of your daily routine. There is a mental link with Allah.
After worshiping Allah, the second part of this ayah is about asking for help.
وَإِيَّاكَ نَسۡتَعِينُ
Making Du'a is one of the noble act of "Ibadah" (act of worship). Therefore this 2nd part of the ayah is linked to the first part of the ayah.
[Surah Ghafir 40:60]
“Your Lord has proclaimed, “Call upon Me (make du'a), I will respond to you. Surely those who are too proud to worship Me will enter Hell, fully humbled.”
Both Du'a and Worship are mentioned together.
This is again a reversed sentence structure = “ONLY You that we asked for help and none else”.
Allah taught us to ask directly to Him. “Iyyaka” is talking to a 2nd person.
There is an etiquette on asking Allah for help
Praise Allah.
Mention his noble names and attributes.
- If you need forgiveness, call upon His name "Al-Ghaffar" (The Most Forgiving)
- If you need peace in the heart, call upon His name "As-Salaam" (The Source of Peace)
- If you need something of this world, call upon His name "Al-Wahhab" (The Bestower)
- If you need sufficient in provisions, call upon His name "Ar-Razzaq" (The Provider)
- If you need safety, call upon His names "Al-Mu'min" & "Al-Muhaimin"
(The Giver of Faith and Security, The Protector and Guardian)
- If you need His Mercy, call upon His names "Ar-Rahman" & "Ar-Raheem"
(The Most Merciful, The Most Compassionate)
- If you need help that encompass everything, call upon "Ya Rabb" (My Lord/ Master)
Mention our own weakness, an element of pleading and desperation.
At the best times for du'a as taught by the Prophet s.a.w.
- the last third of the night, before Fajr
- between Adhan and Iqamah
- last Hour of ‘Asr on Fridays
- while Drinking Zamzam Water
- during Prostration in Solah
- on the Night of Qadr
- on the day of Arafat
- during the Month of Ramadan
- the first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah
- after Wudu
- during Rain - اللَّهُمَّ صَيِّبًا نَافِعًا
Du'a by certain people is nearer to fulfillment
- the prayers of a traveler
- the prayers by your parents or righteous person
- when a Muslim make dua for another Muslim without them knowing
- du'a made by a sick person
- the dua of a fasting person
When you ask another living person to help you, in reality it is God who help you. That is why you need to ask Allah for help first before engaging the help of another person. That person acts as a tool or a reason by Allah to help you in this physical world and as a test what is in your mindset when you got help. We thanked the person that helped us because God told us to be appreciative of someone good deeds even though God is the one that helped us.
Asking another living person for help is permissible because you can literally see the result of his physical help. The help is not coming from under the "Unseen" world.
Asking a dead person for help is in the category of the "Unseen" world". You are not able to know whether there is any action from the dead person. When it involves the "Unseen" world", we only engage with what was said in the Divine revelations. Allah told us to say “ONLY YOU that we asked for help".
Whenever you have any request, there is no "Unseen" intermediary (third person) between us and our Creator. We ask directly to Him. God don’t need a spiritual “son” or a dead “wali” (saint) in his grave to act as an intermediary for your request. You are disrespectful to the Creator by asking a dead human for help. By putting a dead person as intermediary between you and your Master, some scholars said that it was an act of "syirk" while others said that it is a grave sin that can lead to "syirk".
Scholars also prohibit asking the Prophet s.a.w for help since he is no longer alive in this world but alive in the "Unseen" world. You must separate between physical reality and the unseen world of creatures in terms of getting help. We will only act upon a ritual when there is clear inevitable evidence that the companions have done it.
Your Master wants you to have direct personal connection with Him. He will be offended when there is a middle "Unseen" person between you and Him. You are to talk to Him directly! This is your personal message to Him. He wants to personally listen to you.
If you ask a Jinn for help, the Jinn may lie to you or manipulate you since you can't see him. There is a narration that a scholar got lost on his way to his destination and he invoke the help of the "slaves" of Allah. Other scholars said that this person was calling out to the Angels since they are obedient slaves of Allah unlike the Jinn. They said that this may be permissible since the Angels are LIVING around us even though they are in the "Unseen" world. They are not DEAD. They are always making du'a for us. They may even wake us up to pray Tahajjud if we put the "niyah" before sleeping. You will feel that someone is tugging your big toe.
[Imam Baihaqi in Shu’ayb ul Iman, Volume 6, Page No 128, Hadith No. 7697]
Abdullah bin Ahmed bin Hanbal (r.a) said that he heard his father (Imam Ahmad) who said: I performed Hajj 5 times, thrice on foot and twice on ride or he said thrice on ride and twice on foot, once when I was on foot I lost my way hence I started to exclaim this: O Allah’s servants (the Angels) show me the way, I kept on repeating this until I came back on track.
We ask for help after we have struggled. It is not help that we ask without putting in any effort to solve the problem.
Example:
(1) a person ask you to help him replace a punctured tire, but he is sitting and doing nothing while you do all his work. This person is not worth to be helped.
(2) a person is struggling trying to replace a punctured tire. He has difficulty in putting the tire in place as it keeps falling off. He calls your help to hold the tire while he tighten the nuts. This person is worth the help given.
“Nasta’ieen” – We calling for help after we have put in considerable effort. Your “do’a” asking Allah is only valid after you have put in effort.
Example: Some people who are addicted to drinking alcohol said,” I want to stop drinking and practice the Deen but the help of Allah has not come yet. I ask Him but He has not responded”. If this person never make any kind of effort and rehabilitation to stop drinking, it is not viable that the help of Allah will come. If he starts the first step in rehabilitation programme, then his call for help from Allah will come “inshaAllah”.
Some people never put any action but only asking for Allah’s help. He thinks he can’t do anything on his own. While the other extreme is that of a person who thinks he can do everything on his own. He does not ask for any help from Allah since he thinks that he is too smart. All the successes in his education and business he claimed to be coming from his own intelligence.
The answer to this issue is = It is the balance between your effort and Allah’s help. We are reminded everyday in “Solah”.
The human master needed help from the slaves (eg. building pyramids, cultivating crops, etc). That was why people bought slaves in ancient times.
The Master of mankind does not need your help. Instead, He offer and give help to you for your slavery to Him. The human master wants help, the Master of mankind wants to give you help.
The declaration of worshiping comes first before the call for help.
“Only You we worship” comes first before “Only You we ask for help”.
The first mission for us is to enslave to Him. While you are on this mission, then the help that you ask for will come. Most people will like only the “nasta-‘een” part and ignoring the “na’budu” part. In fact if you have done the first part “na’budu”(for Allah), the second part “nasta’een”(for yourself) will be taken care of.
Do not shamelessly asking for help without worshiping Him. Or worship only on “special” days.
People nowadays have a habit of waiting for certain "Holy" blessed days or nights that “du’a” is promised to be fulfilled by Allah. But what kind of person whose do’a will be fulfilled ?
Example a person who for the most of the year did not establish “Solah” but on the 27th day of Ramadhan, he is very active in performing “Solah” and “Du’a”s. For the rest of the year he is not obeying Allah and only for this particular day he is asking for favors from Allah to fulfill what he ask for. Allah mention “worship” (obey Him) first, then when you think you have tried your best obeying Him, at least you have the courage to ask for help. It is very shameful asking for favors when you have not put any effort in pleasing your Master.
When we perform our “Solah”, we recite this ayah “we worship/enslave to Him and we ask Him for help”. What if immediately after Solah, we go hang out at a party with girls dancing or watching indecent movies at the cinemas? That means our recitation of “we worship/enslave” to Him is a lie. Performing Solah is “talking” to Allah, and we just lied to him.
We casually ask for guidance in Solah. We recite the shortest surah “al-‘Asr” which is saying that people is loosing time, but we chose that short Surah to recite in Solah because we want to finish off the solah as quickly as possible. Our behaviour is opposite to what this ayah is saying.
The sequence of “we enslave to you” first than comes “to you we ask for help” second. It shows that the primary objective in life is to do what the Master wants come first, before what we want for ourselves.
“we ask for help” – help in what??
1. Allah already knew what the help that you need. So there is no need to mention as different people have different need.
2. The list of help that we need is very long as it covers every aspect of our life. So we just say “Help us!!”.
3. The help that we need is very urgent and desperate like a person hanging by the cliff holding on to a tree branch for dear life. He shouts “HELP!” without any delay of explaining his situation first.
However, the top reason of the help that we need from Allah is to become a good slave to Him. Becoming a slave is no easy task. There are lots of effort and commitment that you have to put in thereby the more reason to ask for His help.
Unfortunate is the one who only ask for the pleasure of "Dunya" without asking for the safety and pleasure in the hereafter.
A pious person after reciting this ayah, Allah replied, “My slave will get what he is asking for”
Getting out of slavery of this world
We call upon His help to get us out of all other slavery (materialism, status, etc). There are too many things that want to take over our lives. We only want one true slavery. There are many things to consider when acting as a Slave to Him in the course of your life, hence we call for His help to act correctly.
Help in getting guidance from Him
The next ayah teach us the most important Du'a by a person. It is of getting Hidayah from Allah. Without Hidayah, all other help are meaningless.
(1) Improve in the perfection of our worship.
– We realize the rights of the Master to be worship in an excellent manner but we are unable to fulfill that rights with the quality of our worship up to His divine standard. Hence we ask Allah to help us improve in our worship. The more quality we put into our worship, the nearer our doás will be answered.
(Riyad as-Salihin 1422 by Abu Dawud) The Prophet (saw) taught his sahaba Muáz bin Jabal to recite this doa after every Solah.
اللّهُمََّ أَعِنِّي عَلَى ذِكْرِكَ، وَشُكْرِكَ وَ حُسْنِ عِبَادَتِكَ
O Allah, help me to remember You, to be grateful to You, and to worship You in an excellent manner.
Hadith on mentioning the quality of worship:
[Sahih al-Bukhari 4777] .... The man again asked, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) What is Ihsan (i.e. perfection)?" The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you do not achieve this state of devotion, then (take it that) Allah sees you ..."
(2) Having patience.
– To perform worship in a daily and consistent manner is not easy and requires lots of patience. Hence Allah teaches us in Surah Al-Baqorah ayah 45 :-
وَٱسۡتَعِينُواْ بِٱلصَّبۡرِ وَٱلصَّلَوٰةِۚ وَإِنَّہَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱلۡخَـٰشِعِينَ
= And seek help in patience and As-Salât (the prayer) and truly it is extremely heavy and hard except for Al-Khâshi’ûn (righteous slaves that are focussed in their worship).
Only with patience in enduring any difficulties to perform worship, can our worship gradually becomes lighter and focused. Hence our plead for Allah’s help will get even better.
(3) Helping people.
– Help people in any way you can, beginning from the very easy. When out on the streets, lookout for any way that you can help people. Giving money to charity is also a good form of helping people. When we are good and helping people, Allah will help you in times of your need.
A human master will not give assistance to the slaves. The Master of mankind will help you if you are sincerely and obediently enslaving yourselves to Him. What is the most important help that you can get from your Master? It is HIDAYAH. The next ayah is the answer.