and four books. He gathered their meanings in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran, and gathered the meanings of these three books in the Quran. He gathered the meanings of the Quran in the Mufassal section, the meanings of the Mufassal in al-Fātihah, and the meanings of al-Fātihah in “You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help.”

These are the two statements divided equally between the Lord and His servant: one half belongs to Him, Most High—“You alone we worship”—and the other belongs to His servant—“You alone we ask for help.” The secret and meaning of this will be explained in their proper place, Allah willing.

Worship combines two foundations: the utmost love together with the utmost humility and submission. The Arabs describe a road as mu‘abbad (smoothed and made passable), while ta‘abbud means humility and submission. If you love someone without submitting to him, you are not worshipping him; and if you submit to someone without loving him, you are not worshipping him. Both love and submission must be present. Thus, those who deny that servants love their Lord deny the reality of servitude to Him. Those who deny that He is their beloved—indeed, He is their ultimate object of desire, and His Most High Face is the final goal of their longing—deny that He is the God worthy of worship, even if they acknowledge that He is the Lord of all worlds and their Creator. This is the furthest their affirmation of His oneness goes: the oneness of His lordship, which the Arab polytheists acknowledged without thereby ceasing to be polytheists. As Allah Most High says:

“If you ask them who created them, they will surely say, ‘Allah.’” 43:87

And He says:

“If you ask them who created the heavens and the earth, they will surely say, ‘Allah.’” 39:38

“Say, ‘To whom belongs the earth and whoever is in it?’ They will say, ‘To Allah.’” 23:84-89

Thus, He uses their acknowledgment of His lordship as an argument establishing that He alone is worthy of worship: none but Him should be worshipped, just as there is no creator besides Him and no lord other than Him.

Seeking help combines two foundations: trust in Allah and dependence upon Him. A servant may trust another person yet not depend upon him in his affairs, despite trusting him, because he has no need of him. He may also depend upon someone, while trusting him, because he needs him and has no one else to take his place. He therefore needs to depend upon him, although he does not trust him.

Reliance upon Allah combines two foundations—trust and dependence—and is the very essence of