Section: An Introduction to the Explanation of “You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help.”

This functions as a prelude to what follows. Every human being is a purposeful, active, perceptive creature who moves by his own will; indeed every living being is the same, endowed with knowledge and action through its volition. Will (irāda) is desire and choice, and any voluntary deed must have an intended object—the thing sought. That objective, however, can be realized only through causes and means that bring it about. If its attainment rests on the servant’s own action, he must possess power and strength. If it depends on something outside him, there must be an external agent. If it requires both internal and external factors, ancillary means are needed, such as tools and the like. Thus every living being must possess a will, and everyone who wills must have some form of assistance by which his aim is achieved.

The servant is therefore fashioned to set his sights on something he wants and to seek help from something he relies on to obtain that want. This is an inescapable, necessary truth that every person finds within himself. Yet both the desired object and the helper fall into two categories:

Some things are sought for the sake of something else, and others are sought for their own sake. Likewise, the helper may be relied upon for its own sake, or it may merely be subordinate to another helper, functioning as its instrument. Among the objects of desire is that which constitutes the ultimate end in itself; the seeker humbles himself before it and loves it—this is the deity who is worshipped,