Surah Al Fatihah – An Understanding about نَعْبُدُ we worship

Surah Fatihah is such a comprehensive and intense Surah that within every verse you can find a ravine of meanings and thought-provoking insights. Only by thinking about the contemporary usage of past tense or present tense (both of which are extensively used in the Al Quran), we can sketch out two different veins of thought and see why the one used is perfect in every way possible. Consider the following Verse of Surah AlFatihah:

“إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ”

This means:

" You alone may we worship, and from you alone may we seek help."

The Past Tense Of The Verb:

By saying إِيَّاكَ (You alone) before نَعْبُدُ (we worship) our attention is diverted to the beginning of the Verse where the object the pronoun "You" is placed before the finite verb "We worship". The object pronoun is in the initial position of the sentence which implies exclusivity; as in, there's none other than Allah whom we proclaim, acknowledge, worship, whom we turn to, bow before, and seek comfort in.

Another very subtle point to notice is the tense of the Verse; instead of using abadnā (we worshipped), which is the past tense, in this Verse Allah uses نَعْبُدُ (we worship), which is the present tense. Abadnā, which is the past tense form of the verb ‘A-Ba-Da, it denotes that "We made it!" or "We did it!" which is contrary to the spirit of worship, this would mean that: we have completed or fulfilled our duty of worship of Allah(which is a fundamental violation of worship), we would sound like we are acting in pride by making it sound like a personal accomplishment (Pride is an attribute of Allah and forbidden upon Humans). In other words, it would mean that the worshipper has arrived at his or her intended mark by fulfilling his or her required duty of worship (which can never be the case, as The Holy Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) worshipped all his life; until he passed away from the world into the afterlife).

The Present Tense:

However, the present tense of the verb A-Ba-Da, which is نَعْبُدُ (we worship), implies that the task of worshipping is unfinished, which renders the misunderstandings mentioned in the above paragraph impossible. نَعْبُدُ (we worship), refers to our determination and our intention to acknowledge our eternal powerlessness and neediness in front of Allah.

It also means that we are determined that we will not sacrifice our freedom to anyone but You, we will not fall in humiliation before anyone or anything except You, we are filled with a desire for submission and prayer, we are fully prepared to show and prove out servanthood and intent for worship to you and nobody else, resolute to distance ourselves from anything other than You, we wish to stand away from all that you dislike or have forbidden on us, our intention is our greatest form of worship and we hope that you will accept our intentions as your worship, we plead for Your favour to not limit our worship in the portion of the number of things that we have done but to also consider those that I have intended to do.

What The Finite Form Of The Verb Means:

The finite form of the verb نَعْبُدُ (we worship), (which is not only inflected for the tense but also for the first-person plural) emphasizes that the worshipper is not the only one having such thoughts. Hoping that all others are on the same train of thought the worshipper proclaims; "When I am making this request, I am in full agreement with all my fellow worshippers."

Only through such an irrefutable agreement and alliance, the worshipper is empowered with the ability to shoulder the same intention, confirmation, and testimony of all worshippers. Hence, he or she turns towards Allah who grants all the needs; of every living being. By constantly having these thoughts in their mind, the people can relieve themselves from all evil involuntary thoughts that Satan might invoke and as a consequence, they can reproduce a comprehensive form of worship toward the Perfect-Divinity. Which is an attribute of the Surah Al Fatihah itself?