How can we reconcile the meaning of “help” in these three verses?

The noble verse:
إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَ إِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
It is an affirmation and testimony that worship belongs to Him alone, and that seeking help is reserved solely for His Majesty—whether in the realm of creation or in the realm of legislation and authority.

Every kind of help and support comes from Him, whether directly or through an intermediary (by means of causes). For unless He wills and ordains it, no help will reach anyone, in any measure or form.

The means are His ever-ready, active and ongoing support, just as our limbs and organs are His abiding support for our bodies. The air, the sky, the earth, the trees and all God’s other blessings are likewise divine support, spread before us on the table of His grace. Because this support is continually present and flowing, it may easily go unnoticed.

In truth, these forms of support are “answers given before they are asked for”!

So, in our relationships with other creatures, and in the mutual aid and cooperation between them, we must hold firmly to this truth: divine support embraces God’s servants in many different forms, and “every kind of help, in whatever form,” comes from Him.

Anyone who forgets God and assumes that the divine support reaching them through worldly means comes from the means themselves, treating them as the source rather than as the “Causer of causes,” has fallen into associating partners with God and disbelief.

From one perspective, seeking help has two aspects:

1—One concerns matters in which Allah has not made the means a factor in their fulfilment. In such cases, seeking anything from any means is unequivocally shirk—for example, seeking forgiveness, asking for what is naturally or supernaturally impossible, or making a supplicatory request.

2—The other concerns matters whose fulfilment divine wisdom has made dependent on means: that is, matters in which Allah has made means instrumental in meeting people’s needs. Even here, anyone who forgets the “Causer of causes,” or fails to observe the proper limits, has again fallen into shirk.

In the noble verse:
البقرة : 153 يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَ الصَّلاةِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرينَ
Allah, Mighty and Glorious, points out the means that lead to Him. These means are themselves divine support—forces that aid by His command. In verse 153 of al-Baqarah, two of the greatest examples are mentioned: the support of patience and the support of prayer. It is like Allah providing His servants with sustenance through a variety of foods.

God’s command to seek help through patience and prayer shows the honour, dignity and greatness of patience and prayer. They are among the central forms of divine support: Allah, Blessed and Exalted, Himself wills that we seek His support through these means and instruments.

Perhaps divine support has its own treasuries, such as the treasury of patience and prayer.

Seeking help among beings and created things
الكهف : 95 قالَ ما مَكَّنِّي فيهِ رَبِّي خَيْرٌ فَأَعينُوني‌ بِقُوَّةٍ أَجْعَلْ بَيْنَكُمْ وَ بَيْنَهُمْ رَدْماً
(ذو القرنين) said, “What my Lord has placed at my disposal is better than what you offer. So help me with your strength, and I will build a strong barrier between you and them!”

Support through means applies only to particular matters in which Allah, Mighty and Glorious, has, in His wisdom, established dependence among created beings so that they may act like a single body. This gives rise to mutual affection and divine mercy among them, or allows His particular will to unfold. Such cooperation truly strengthens servitude to God and unites people in that servitude.

As He says in noble verse 2 of al-Ma’idah:
المائدة : 2 ... وَ تَعاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَ التَّقْوى‌ وَ لا تَعاوَنُوا عَلَى الْإِثْمِ وَ الْعُدْوانِ وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ شَديدُ الْعِقابِ
“Help one another in goodness and piety, and do not help one another in sin and transgression. And be mindful of God; surely God is severe in punishment.”

This is a form of assistance that God Himself has sanctioned.

Summary 1—
Divine support in three verses

1. The very essence of support: patience and prayer (al-Baqarah 2:153)
استعینوا بالصبر والصلاة
Patience, prayer and the like are among the instruments of divine support. That is, divine support is made available through means.

Just as striving is a condition for attaining God’s provision, so in this verse—استعینوا بالصبر والصلاة—the All-Wise Allah has made His special support conditional on seeking help through patience and prayer. In other words, He has made His support conditional on the worship embodied in patience and prayer.

Thus patience and prayer are, on the one hand, means of seeking help and, on the other, themselves forms of help and support from God. That is, “patience, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and the like” are allies that help us by God’s command.

From another perspective, “patience, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and the like” are practical supplications: in truth, we call upon God through patience, prayer and the like. Patience and prayer, and the like, are like hands raised toward God with our needs.

Obligatory striving (جاهدوا فینا) + reliance on God = support

2. The source of support: “إیّاک” (al-Fātiḥah 1:5)
Every form of support ultimately leads back to Him.
إیّاکَ نستعین
This verse testifies to divine oneness. It is a confession of the truth that every kind of support, in whatever form, comes from Him.

3. Using assistance: a blessing from God (al-Kahf 18:95)

God’s assistance, in all its forms, is a means of worshipping and serving Him. Cooperation and mutual assistance strengthen that worship and service.

By sharing God-given assistance, we create a harmonious order of worship. We are all, for one another, means of God’s assistance.

Thus, in cooperation, each person is for the other a reminder of God!
We help one another purely for His sake!

تَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى
Cooperation is like congregational prayer: a group moving and turning together toward God!

Cooperation is in righteousness and piety:
righteousness and piety = the ultimate goal
cooperation = the means of reaching that goal

God-given means are there to advance God’s purposes.
Wherever that purpose is forgotten in providing assistance, there is a danger of idolatry or heedlessness.

In truth, in all our affairs we ask only the Exalted God, because every means is accessible and of benefit to us only through God Himself!

Belief in this truth is the path of seeking in full recognition of God’s oneness.

God makes His means known to us so that we can benefit from them. Without God’s assistance, we cannot even benefit from the means He provides; with His assistance, we can benefit from them!

For example:
اللَّهُمَّ عَرِّفْنِي نَفْسَكَ فَإِنَّكَ إِنْ لَمْ تُعَرِّفْنِي نَفْسَكَ لَمْ أَعْرِفْ نَبِيَّكَ اللَّهُمَّ عَرِّفْنِي رَسُولَكَ فَإِنَّكَ إِنْ لَمْ تُعَرِّفْنِي رَسُولَكَ لَمْ أَعْرِفْ حُجَّتَكَ اللَّهُمَّ عَرِّفْنِي حُجَّتَكَ فَإِنَّكَ إِنْ لَمْ تُعَرِّفْنِي حُجَّتَكَ ضَلَلْتُ عَنْ دِينِي‌

God-given means and instruments are themselves a form of divine assistance. Indeed, a means is among the most important forms of God’s assistance: one of His finest and most special gifts of help!

We ask God Himself directly for the means and instruments we need.

To benefit from God’s assistance with awareness of this truth is itself an expression of seeking help in recognition of God’s oneness.

“The example of cooperation was intended to show that in matters where God has willed that people help one another, seeking help in a way that affirms God’s oneness is entirely proper.”

If God Himself has permitted cooperation, then in these very matters cooperation is not only free of idolatry; it is also an act of worship.

A brief synthesis

Level one: Oneness in God’s acts
All means come from God; to use any means is, in reality, to make use of His assistance.

Level two: Oneness in worship
Worship and devotion belong to God alone. We do not worship the means; with God’s permission, we make use of them.

Level three: Idolatry
To regard the means as independent of God and worship them in His place, or to disregard the principles and conditions governing the seeking of help from others.

Assistance is an act of God!

There can be no doubt that God ordains and decrees the act of every agent, and that the choice of every free agent comes about only by His permission. But when seeking assistance, we must do more than acknowledge this truth: we must also take into account God’s permission to seek that assistance and observe the basic principles governing the seeking of help from others.

A fundamental question:

How do we distinguish the matters in which God has willed that people help one another from those in which He has not? What is the criterion?

General principles of “legitimate seeking of help”:

The one seeking assistance must:

Begin the legitimate seeking of help with God’s name and remembrance.

Bear inward witness that the existence, continuance and effect of all means depend solely on His will.

Bear witness that seeking help from God comes first: every beginning is from God.

When seeking legitimate help from someone other than God, the seeker must begin with God, asking His help in order to seek help legitimately.

First, the seeker must make clear in their intention that they regard the one from whom help is sought as, in reality, “God’s means”—not merely a means, nor merely a helper.

They must proceed from God to the means, regard the means as “from God,” and seek God’s help in order to benefit from them.

They must ask God for help so that, through His special aid, they may be granted success.

Seeking help from God is prayerful; therefore, in seeking legitimate help, the seeker’s attitude toward the means must not be prayerful or devotional.

When seeking help through means, the seeker must know that God has permitted them to do so.

The seeker must know that God has granted the means the capacity to meet a need.

The seeker’s request to the means must not take the form of prayer or worship.

The seeker must acknowledge that the means, too, are servants of God.

The seeker must know that the Creator designed the relationships between different phenomena, and that their need for one another is part of this wise design.

The seeker must regard God alone as the source of every effect.

The seeker must know that devotional supplication belongs to God alone and must not call upon anyone in a spirit of prayer, for that is idolatry.

الجن : 18 وَ أَنَّ الْمَساجِدَ لِلَّهِ فَلا تَدْعُوا مَعَ اللَّهِ أَحَداً

And the mosques belong to God, so do not call upon anyone alongside God!

القصص : 88 وَ لا تَدْعُ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلهاً آخَرَ لا إِلهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ كُلُّ شَيْ‌ءٍ هالِكٌ إِلاَّ وَجْهَهُ لَهُ الْحُكْمُ وَ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ

Do not call upon any other deity alongside God. There is no deity but Him. Everything will perish except His Face. His is the judgment, and to Him you will all be returned!

Matters in Which One Cannot Act through Means!

Whatever must be sought without intermediaries or means:

Forgiveness and the like belong to God. Therefore, one cannot seek forgiveness for a sin from anyone other than God. Seeking intercession is, in reality, seeking help in asking forgiveness and in fulfilling one’s needs—not asking the intercessor for forgiveness or for one’s needs!

Seeking from created beings what lies beyond human possibility and is not within the divine realm—for example, asking them to bring the dead back to life, to do the impossible, or to disclose the unseen.

Only God can be asked to bring about a breach of the ordinary order of things; prophets perform miracles by God’s permission!

The bestowal of means, too, belongs exclusively to the Majestic Essence.

Let knowledge of the means go hand in hand with knowledge of the One who causes them.

For example, knowing that:

Farming and animal husbandry are among the earthly means.

Social relationships, social needs, different occupations, and people’s needs in various fields are among the human means!

The Prophet, the Imams, and the awliyāʾ of God, peace be upon them, are among the transcendent means!

A summary for the way ahead

To receive divine aid while knowing this truth is itself an expression of monotheistic reliance on God.

“General Principles of Legitimate Seeking of Help”

Principle number

1. The one seeking help should begin in God’s name and with His remembrance.
2. The heart should bear witness that the means have effect only by His will.
3. Seeking help from God is “primary.”
4. The one seeking help should regard the means as “God’s means,” not merely as means.
5. One should not adopt an attitude of “worshipful supplication” toward the means.
6. Divine permission is a condition for seeking help.
7. One should understand the means’ status as servants.
8. One should regard Allah alone as the one who has effect.
9. Devotional supplication belongs exclusively to God.
10. Knowledge of the means must go hand in hand with knowledge of the One who causes them.

Supplement: “Transcendent Means”

“The Prophet, the Imams, and the awliyāʾ of God, peace be upon them, are among the transcendent means.”

Seeking help through means in matters of forgiveness applies only to seeking forgiveness, not to granting forgiveness!

A person can forgive only a wrong committed against them; no one but God can forgive a violation of God’s right!

An-Nisāʾ: 64 وَ ما أَرْسَلْنا مِنْ رَسُولٍ إِلاَّ لِيُطاعَ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَ لَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ جاؤُكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا اللَّهَ وَ اسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُوا اللَّهَ تَوَّاباً رَحيماً
We sent no messenger except that he should be obeyed by God’s command. Had these people, when they wronged themselves by transgressing God’s commands, come to you, sought God’s forgiveness, and had the Messenger sought forgiveness for them, they would have found God accepting of repentance and merciful.