ask for help” {5}.

We have discussed this at length elsewhere, outside this book, explaining how worship relates to divinity—for a deity is one who is worshipped—and how seeking help relates to His lordship. For the Lord of His servants is the One who nurtures them, which entails that He creates everything within them and everything that proceeds from them. Divinity is the final cause, while lordship is the efficient cause. The final cause is the intended end and is itself an efficient cause of the efficient cause. This is why His words, “You alone we worship,” precede His words, “And You alone we ask for help” {5}.

Affirming Allah’s oneness in divinity entails affirming His oneness in lordship: worshipping Allah alone includes acknowledging no other lord. The converse does not hold, however, for Allah’s oneness in lordship has generally been acknowledged even by those who associate partners with Him in worship. As the Exalted says:

“Most of them do not believe in Allah without also associating partners with Him” {106} [Joseph 106].

Al-Bukhārī reported