إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ﴿5﴾اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ﴿6﴾

﴾5﴿ Iyyaaka na'budu wa lyyaaka nasta'een
﴾6﴿ Ihdinas-Siraatal-Mustaqeem

﴾5﴿ We worship You alone, and we seek help from You alone in all matters and at all times.
﴾6﴿ Make us steadfast on the straight path.

[5] “You alone we worship”—this is the result of the previous evidences, for when the oneness of the Divine Essence and attributes is established, the oneness of worship follows as a result.
Worship means complete devotion with utmost humility, and this includes acts of the heart, bodily acts, acts of wealth, and within it are obligatory, sunnah, recommended, disliked, and forbidden acts.
Obedience in matters of the lawful and unlawful is also worship.
“You alone”—when the aim is to make worship exclusive to Allah, this is true oneness, which is why “You alone” comes first.
“And You alone we ask for help”—seeking help and supplication in worship is a core part of worship, so it is specifically mentioned after worship.
This also points to the fact that the servant even in worship is in need of Allah’s help, so there is no favor in one’s worship upon Allah.
Here, “You alone” indicates that supplication, seeking aid, fulfillment of needs, and help in removing hardships are exclusive to Allah.
This refutes those who, besides Allah, call upon prophets, saints, elders, or the poor during difficulties or for fulfilling their needs, humbling themselves in worship to them.
This is shirk, like the shirk of the pagan Arabs in the time of ignorance.
[6] After all forms of monotheism have been mentioned, Allah now teaches His servants a supplication to remain firm upon that monotheism.
In language, guidance means to show the path of goodness, though at times it is used in contexts of misguidance as a form of judgment.
From Allah, there are many levels of guidance: the first is innate guidance, the second is the granting of physical senses, the third is the gift of intellect, the fourth is presenting rational signs within the self and the world, the fifth is the revelation of books and the sending of messengers, the sixth is divine success and firmness, and the seventh is ultimately granting entry into Paradise.
The word “guidance” is used for all these stages.
Here, what is meant by guidance is the granting of divine success and spiritual maturity, and attributing these stages to Allah is exclusive to Him.
“The straight path” is the path that has no excess, deficiency, or deviation, and it leads directly to the goal.
In the Noble Quran, it is interpreted in four ways: first, the monotheism of Lordship and Divinity as in Surah Āl-‘Imrān (5); second, the Noble Quran itself, as in Surah al-An‘ām (126); third, the path of the prophets (peace be upon them), as in Surah al-Saffāt (118) and Yā-Sīn (4); and fourth, following the way of the messengers, as in Surah al-Zukhruf (61).