The Prophet ﷺ had a two-step process when encountering hardship:
Turn to Allah in prayer and confide in Him.
iyyāka na’budu wa iyyāka nasta’īn
You alone we worship, and from you alone we seek help.
“You alone” (iyyāka): This is a case in grammar when the direct object comes before the verb, “we worship” (na’budu). In Arabic grammar, when the direct object precedes the verb, it gives a sense of restriction, so the meaning would be, “We do not worship anyone or anything except you alone.”
“we worship” (na’budu): Meaning: We humble ourselves to you in complete humility.
In this way, you find the believers placing the most honorable part of their bodies (their faces) at the level of their feet in humility to Allah (عزّ وجلّ). They prostrate on the ground, covering their foreheads with dirt. This is from their humbleness before Allah. And if another person were to say, “I will give you the whole world and what it contains, just prostrate to me once,” you will never find true believers accepting this because this type of humility is a form of worship specifically for Allah alone.
The word “worship” includes doing everything Allah commands and avoiding everything he forbids. Whoever is not in accordance with this, not carrying out what he is commanded to do and avoiding what he is forbidden to do then he is not a true worshipper and servant. A worshipper is someone who obeys the one he worships in whatever he legislates. So, worship requires that mankind carry out everything they are commanded to do and avoid everything they are forbidden from doing. However, it is not possible to fulfill all of these duties without the help and assistance of Allah. Because of this, Allah ( سبحانه وتعالى ) then says:
“and from you alone we seek help” (wa iyyāka nasta’īn): Meaning, “We do not seek the help of anyone else in worship or in anything else.” This “seeking of help” is to request the help and assistance, and Allah combines between worship and the seeking of assistance or reliance in many places the noble Qur’an. This is because worship could not be completely established except with the help of Allah by entrusting one’s affairs to him, and relying on him.
Points of Benefit of al-Fātiḥah, Verse 4:
- From the virtues of this verse is the sincerity in worship that is due to Allah alone as he says, “You alone we worship“. It shows that this worship is due only to Allah by the direct object (“You”) coming before the verb (“we worship”) according to the rules of Arabic grammar.
- Another point is that seeking help is also sincerely and solely for Allah based on the statement, “and from you alone we seek help“. Likewise, the direct object precedes the verb indicating a sense of restriction just like in the first part of the verse.
Those who trust Allah never lose hope. We still trudge through the mental and emotional storm that surrounds our daily lives. All the problems that we face could one day even take control of us if we do not take control of them first. A Muslim is never in despair, not even in most difficult moments. That is because they believe that Allah is the Creator of all things; that He has the power to create whatever He wants by saying it to “Be!”
The faithful knows that any trying times, he finds himself in, are a God-sent test. He takes things in his stride, recalling what Allah Almighty has advised him: “…it may be that you hate something when it is good for you and it may be that you love something when it is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.” (Qur’an, 2:216),
Allah tells us how Muslims should behave in the face of their own mistakes: “Those who, when they act indecently or wrong themselves, remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their bad actions (and who can forgive bad actions except Allah?) and do not knowingly persist in what they were doing.” (Qur’an, 3:135)
As Muslims we always remember Allah’s verse “Do not give up and do not be downhearted. You shall be uppermost if you are believers” (Qur’an, 3:139), which represents the way they look at themselves. Muslims want to be loved and trusted by others. The Prophet ﷺ had a two-step process when encountering hardship: Turn to Allah in prayer and confide in Him
