Lessons:
1 — One lesson from this verse is the affirmation of Allah’s kingship and dominion on the Day of Recompense, for on that Day all ownership and all kings will vanish.
If someone asks, “Is He not the Owner of both the Day of Recompense and this world?”
The answer is: Indeed He is. However, His dominion, kingship, and authority will be fully manifest on that Day, for Allah Most High will proclaim, ﴿To whom belongs all sovereignty today?﴾ [Ghāfir: 16]. No one will answer, so He Most High will say, ﴿To Allah, the One, the Supreme﴾ [Ghāfir: 16]. In this world, kings rise to prominence; indeed, some kings arise whose peoples believe that no one possesses sovereignty besides them. The communists, for example, do not believe that there is a Lord of the heavens and the earth. They believe that life is merely wombs bringing forth and earth swallowing up, and that their lord is their leader.
2 — Another lesson from the verse is the affirmation of resurrection and recompense, based on the words of Allah Most High, ﴿Owner of the Day of Recompense﴾.
3 — Another is that it urges people to work in preparation for the Day on which everyone’s deeds will be recompensed.
﴿You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help﴾
In the words of Allah Most High, ﴿You alone we worship﴾, “You alone” is a direct object placed before its governing verb, “we worship.” It is placed before the verb to express exclusivity; thus, the meaning is: We worship none but You. The pronoun is in its detached form because it cannot be attached in this position. “We worship” means: we humble ourselves before You with the utmost humility. This is why believers place the noblest part of their bodies where feet tread, humbling themselves before Allah, Glorious and Exalted: a believer prostrates upon the earth until his forehead is covered with dust—all out of humility before Allah. Were someone to say, “I will give you the entire world if you prostrate yourself before me,” a believer would never agree, because such utter humility belongs to Allah, Glorious and Exalted, alone.