to the one upon whom He obligated it. Or he would have been commanded to supplicate his Lord to impose upon him obligations that He had not imposed.

And in the invalidity of the aspect of a servant asking his Lord for that, there is what clarifies that the meaning of {Guide us to the straight path} is other than the meaning of: "Clarify to us Your obligations and Your limits."

Or he thought that he was commanded to ask his Lord for an increase in help and granting success. If that were the case, his asking for that increase would not be free from being either a request for an increase in help for what has already passed of his deeds, or for what will occur.

And in the absence of the servant's need for help regarding what has already passed of his deeds (1), there is that which makes known that the meaning of asking for that increase is only his asking for an increase for what will occur of his deeds. And since that is so, the matter returns to what we described and said regarding it: that it is the servant asking his Lord for success to perform what he has been charged with of His obligations in what lies ahead of his life.

And in the correctness of that is the invalidity of the view of the Qadarites who claim that everyone who is commanded with a command or charged with an obligation has been given of help toward it that which renders his need for his Lord in that obligation non-existent (2). Because if the matter were as they said regarding that, the meaning of the statement of God, Exalted be His Praise: {You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path} would be nullified. And in the correctness of the meaning of that, as we have explained, is the invalidity of their view.

Some of them claimed that the meaning of His statement: {Guide us to the straight path} is: "Lead us along the path to Paradise in the Hereafter," that is: "Advance us toward it and proceed with us to it," just as He, Exalted be His Praise, said: {So guide them to the path of Hellfire} [Sūrat al-Ṣāffāt: 23] (23), meaning: enter them into Hellfire, just as a bride is guided to her husband—meaning by that that she is brought in to him—and as a gift is presented to a man, and as the foot guides the leg, similar to the saying of Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd: