“O Allah, I seek Your guidance in making a choice by Your knowledge, and I seek ability from You by Your power, and I ask You of Your immense bounty. For You have power and I do not; You know and I do not; and You are the Knower of all that is unseen.”

He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, thus taught us to seek Allah’s guidance by His knowledge, so that He teaches us from His knowledge what enables us to recognize what is good, and to seek ability from Him by His power, so that He makes us able.

The Arabic form istif‘āl expresses a request for an action, as in the authentic hadith in which Allah Most High says:

“O My servants, all of you are hungry except those whom I have fed. So ask Me to feed you, and I shall feed you. O My servants, all of you are astray except those whom I have guided. So ask Me for guidance, and I shall guide you.”

Seeking Allah’s guidance means asking Him to guide us, and seeking food from Him means asking Him to feed us. The former is nourishment for the hearts, and the latter nourishment for the bodies. The same applies to seeking His guidance in making a choice by His knowledge and seeking ability from Him by His power.

Then he said:

“And I ask You of Your immense bounty.”

This is a request for His generosity, favor, gifts, and kindness, which He bestows through His will, mercy, and compassion.

That is why he said:

“For You have power and I do not; You know and I do not.”

He did not say, “I have no compassion for myself,” because a person seeking guidance in making a choice desires good for himself and asks for it. Yet he neither knows what that good is nor has the ability to attain it unless Allah makes it known to him and enables him to attain it.

If, then, the Messenger is the most knowledgeable of all creation about realities pertaining to what is reported and what is sought, the most eager of all creation to teach, guide, and impart knowledge, and the most capable of all creation in explanation and expression, then it is impossible that anyone below him should have imparted to his own close followers a greater knowledge of these realities than the Messenger imparted to his own close followers;