Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
Now, suddenly the conversation changes to addressing a second person singular. It started like a third person narration: ‘Praise to Allah..’ through ‘…the Day of Judgement…’ and suddenly the address changes to the third person singular ‘You do we worship…’
And why not ‘You do I worship’ since the reciter of al-Fatihah is a single person? It is as if you are saying: ‘O Allah! I align myself to this multitude of worshippers; my recitation is intertwined with theirs and my du’aa so You may look upon me despite my shortcomings and, thus, accept me among these righteous servants of Yours and give me a share out of what You have granted them.’
Al Faatihah is divided into two parts: one part is praise, and the other is du’aa. And even here, we are taught how to offer that du’aa, and that the most essential duty of the servant is worship to his Maker.
Thee do we worship,
By saying this, the servant recognises that the deity precedes the act of worship. You alone do we worship, and not we worship You. The deity is mentioned first. He also realises that the act of worship is a firm handhold that stretches to Allah; it does not emanate from the servant; it is an honour Allah bestows on him.
Thee do we worship,
Worship is the pinnacle of subservience and self-effacement; that is why worship is attributable to Allah only.
In some places in the Qur’an, worship is referred to as du’aa (prayer) –
- And your Lord hath said: Pray unto me, and I will hear your prayer. Lo! those who scorn My service, they will enter hell, disgraced. (Ghaafir)
It could also mean obedience –
- Did I not charge you, O ye sons of Adam, that ye worship not the devil Lo! he is your open foe! (Yaa Seen)
Satan is not worshipped, but he is obeyed.
It could also mean at-Tauheed –
- I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me.
Thus, du’aa, obedience and at-Tauheed are all encompassed in ‘Thee do we worship,’ – meaning we do not worship other than You, and there is none worthy of worship except You!
‘..and Thine aid we seek.’ denotes that worship without Allah’s help and permission is null and void. The servant does not worship out of his whim; he follows regulations as directed by Allah, whose help he seeks in observing the worship accordingly.
Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
The deity is repeated here to remove any assumption of worshipping Allah and seeking help from any other than Him. No, Allah, we worship, and His aid we seek in having good health for the worship, in acquiring the knowledge of how to worship You and so on.
And now prayer:
- Show us the straight path,
As if this is a chorus and not a prayer chanted by one person. The plural is used, as mentioned earlier in Thee do we worship. The worshiper places himself within the multitude of worshippers, his recitation is intertwined with their recitation, and his prayer is woven into theirs so that Allah may accept and guide him along with others.
The guidance could be part of nature, like the guidance in a child to its mother’s milk or in the process of producing honey by the bee.
- He said: Our Lord is He Who gave unto evening its nature, then guided it aright. (Taa Haa)
There is sensory guidance of knowing changes in whether; of hearing and sight, of benefit and harm, of distinguishing bitter from sweet tastes. Hearing the hissing of a snake or the roaring of a lion will guide you to fleeing from impending danger. Some animals have a more extraordinary gift of this guidance than humans. Like the sense of hearing in cats or the sense of smell in dogs and the mighty sight of birds with the ability to see their prey thousands of feet above sea level.
The guidance of feelings with which comes love and so on.
There is the guidance of intellect that is given only to humans. If an animal sees its image in water or a mirror, it assumes it’s another animal; the intellect in humans guides them to the correct position; the image you see in the mirror is you and not another person.
Then comes the guidance of prophets and messengers, the guidance of books and ordinances. This guidance shows the right way and the way of error. The choice is yours.
- Lo! We have shown him the way, whether he be grateful or disbelieving. (al-Insaan)
- Say: (It is) the truth from the Lord of you (all). Then whosoever will let him believe, and whosoever will let him disbelieve. Lo! We have prepared for disbelievers Fire. Its tent encloseth them. If they ask for showers, they will be showered with water like molten lead which burneth the faces. Calamitous the drink and ill the resting place! (Kahf)
And even to the Prophet, he said:
- Lo! thou (O Muhammad) guidest not whom thou lovest, but Allah guideth whom He will. And He is best aware of those who walk aright. (Qasas)
- Show us the straight path,
Then, there is yet another guidance other than the one we have mentioned so far, for the worshipper to pray that Allah to guide him to the straight path. Because only those who are guided to the straight path read al-Fatihah. This refers to persistence on the path and patience with whatever may befall one while they remain on the path until they meet Allah’s mercy to dwell in al-Jannah.
- And (He commandeth you, saying): This is My straight path, so follow it Follow not other ways, lest ye be parted from His way: This hath He ordained for you, that ye may ward off (evil). (al-An’aam)
The paths of error are many, but that of Allah is only one.
- Show us the straight path,
Therefore, it is an essential prayer in the life of a Muslim. You are praying to Him in His words. He uttered the words and revealed them, and we, as Muslims, repeat them in every rak’ah in our salah.
Let us revert to the earlier question; why will one who is reciting al-Fatihah pray to Allah to guide him unto the straight path? Is he not on the straight path already? Will he be reciting al-Fatihah if he was not rightly guided?
Yes, we know and believe in Allah as the only deity, and Muhammad is His Messenger; His religion is the right religion, and His guidance is the only guidance. But upon that, moreover, we seek the ultimate guidance of Allah as the concluding verse of al-Fatihah stated:
- The path of those whom Thou hast favoured; Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who astray.
The difference between the guidance of the prophets and this one is that Allah will be with you every step of the way, guiding you and not letting you slip or swerve until He admits you into al-Jannah. On this guidance, Allah said to His beloved, sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam:
- Those are they whom Allah guideth, so follow their guidance. Say (O Muhammad, unto mankind): I ask of you no fee for it. Lo! It is naught but a Reminder to (His) creatures. (al-An’aam)
This guidance is contextualised in the verse where Allah said:
- Whoso obeyeth Allah and the messenger, they are with those unto whom Allah hath shown favour, of the Prophets and the saints and the martyrs and the righteous. The best of company are they! (an-Nisaa)
- The path of those whom Thou hast favoured; Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray.
It is clear from this that those unto whom Allah has shown favour are free from Allah’s anger and of going astray.
Could you look at the respect accorded to Allah in the last part of the prayer? In those whom You have favoured, Allah it was that bestowed the favour, but for those who earn His anger and those who go astray, the act was not attributed to Allah. Yes, the sentence denotes He was angry with them; He caused them to go astray, but the words used did not attribute that to Him as a mark of respect to Allah. Like what Ibrahim, alaihis salaam said:
- And when I sicken, then He healeth me, (Shu’araa)
As if the sickness was caused by Ibrahim himself and not by Allah, as a token of reverence to Allah’s Majesty, he said when I’m sick, He heals me.
That is why the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam said in respect of Allah:
All good is within Your hands, and evil does not stem from You.
Who are they that earned Allah’s anger? They are those who knew the truth but refused to follow it, and knew falsehood and accepted it. They imitated what their ancestors did.
- Nay, for they say only: Lo! we found our fathers following a religion, and we are guided by their footprints. (Zukhruf)
And those who went astray are of four types:
1- Those that the prophets’ message has not reached, so worshipped calf, or stone or images of their own manufacture. Since no message has reached them, such people will not be punished for what they did.
- Whosoever goeth right, it is only for (the good of) his own soul that he goeth right, and whosoever erreth, erreth only to its hurt. No laden soul can bear another’s load. We never punish until We have sent a messenger. (al-Israa)
2- Those who got the message, but it came to them in an interpolated state. Over the years, people have been adding to the original scripture, so the message came to them in a corrupted version, not what Allah has revealed.
3- Those who received the message as it is but only used their intellect to interpret it. Thus, they only innovate and do not follow the teachings of the texts. So, they went astray and caused others to go astray.
4- Those who change words from their context, using whatever is in the Qur’an that strengthens their opinion, subjecting the Qur’an to their whim. Thus, they judged with what Allah has not revealed. To them, the text of the Qur’an was revealed to the Beduin Arabs in a way that suited their condition and time, but the world today is in a state of rapid advancement; therefore, they forsook what Allah has revealed and went astray.
It is said that those who earned Allah’s anger are the Yahud, and those who went astray are the Nasaarah.
- Shall I tell thee of a worse (case) than theirs for retribution with Allah? Worse (is the case of him) whom Allah hath cursed, him on whom His wrath hath fallen! Worse is he of whose sort Allah hath turned some to apes and swine and who serveth idols. Such are in worse plight and further astray from the plain road. (al-Maa’idah)
So, Allah was angry with them.
On Nasaarah, Allah said:
- Say: O People of the Scripture! Stress not in your religion other than the truth, and follow not the vain desires of folk who erred of old and led many astray, and erred from a plain road. (al-Maa’idah)
So, they went astray, the Nasaarah.
Allah knows best concerning the meaning of His words.
Allah’s anger or the act of going astray should not be confined to Yahud and Nasaarah alone. Whoever acts in the same fashion as these will earn Allah’s anger and go astray, as we have seen with the communities that have passed away before us.
The beginning of al-Fatihah is praise to Allah, the Almighty, and the end has classified people into three distinct groups: those unto whom Allah has shown favour (may He make us of this group), those who earn His anger and those who go astray. Join any of the groups you want.
