Shaykh al-Islām Abū al-ʿAbbās Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—said:

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The servant is always in dire need of Allah to guide him to the straight path. He therefore desperately needs what this supplication seeks, for there is no escape from punishment and no attainment of happiness except through this guidance. Whoever lacks it is either among those who have incurred Allah’s wrath or among those who have gone astray. This guidance can only be attained through Allah’s guidance, and this verse is among those that demonstrate the falsity of the Qadariyyah’s doctrine.

Both the objection, “He has already guided them, so they have no need to ask,” and the reply, “What is sought is the continuation of that guidance,” are the words of those who do not understand the true nature of causes or what Allah has commanded. For following the straight path means that the servant does, at every moment, what he has been commanded to do at that moment, in knowledge and action, and refrains from what he has been forbidden. This requires him, at every moment, to know and carry out what he has been commanded at that moment