And His saying, exalted is He: "You alone we worship" is the utterance of the believer with it, an acknowledgment of lordship, and a submission and affirmation of the worship of Allah. This is because all people worship others besides Him, from idols and other than that. The object has been placed before the verb out of importance, and it is the custom of the Arabs to prioritize what is more important. It is mentioned that a Bedouin insulted another, and the one insulted turned away from him. The insulter then said to him: "You alone I mean," to which the other replied: "And from you I turn away," thus they both prioritized what is more important. Al-Fadl al-Ruqashi read "You alone" with a fatḥah on the hamzah, which is a well-known dialect. Amr ibn Faid read "You alone" with a kasrah on the hamzah and lightening of the yaa, because he disliked the doubling of the yaa due to its heaviness, and the presence of the kasrah before it. This is similar to the lightening of "Rab" and "In." Abu al-Siwār al-Ghanawi read "You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help" with a ha, which is a dialect.

The grammarians have differed regarding "You alone." Al-Khalil said: "Iya" is a pronoun that is implied, added to what follows for clarification, not for definition. It has been reported from the Arabs: "When a man reaches sixty, then beware of the young women." Al-Mubarrid said: "Iya" is an ambiguous noun, added for specification, not for definition. Ibn Kaysan narrated from some of the Kufans that "You alone" in its entirety is an implied noun, and there is no known implied noun whose ending changes.

It has been reported from some of them that he said: The kaf, ha, and yaa are the implied name, but they cannot stand alone, and they can only be connected. If the verbs precede, "Iya" serves as a basis for them, so it is said: "You alone," "Him alone," "Me alone." If they come after, they connect to the verbs and "Iya" is not needed. It has been reported from some of them that "Iya" is an ambiguous name used to refer to the accusative, and the kaf and ha are added to distinguish between the addressed, the absent, and the speaker, and they have no place in grammatical case, just like the kaf in that regard, as in "I saw you, O Zayd, what did he do?"

And "We worship" means: We establish the law and commands with submission and humility. The path that is made easy is called a muʿabbad, and likewise the camel. And Tarafah said:

"They compete with noble she-camels that have followed a path above a muʿabbad shore."

And "You alone" is repeated according to the difference of the two verbs, so each one of them needed emphasis and importance.

And "We ask for help" means we seek help from You in all our affairs. All of this is a disavowal from the idols. Al-A'mash, Ibn Waththab, and al-Nakha'i read "We ask for help" with a kasrah on the noon, which is a dialect of some of Quraysh regarding the noon, taa, and hamzah. They do not say it in the yaa of the absent, but rather this is in every verb whose doer is named with it as a supplement, or in what comes from the triliteral form as fa'ala yaf'alu with a kasrah on the past and a fatḥah in the future, like 'alim and shariba. Likewise, in what comes with a weak middle letter, like khāl yakhāl, they say: takhāl and akhāl. And "We ask for help" originally is nas'taʿwinu. The vowel of the waw has been transferred to the 'ayn, and it has been turned into a yaa due to the brokenness of what precedes it.

And the source is "seeking help". Its origin is "seeking assistance". The vowel movement of the waw was transferred to the 'ayn. So when what precedes it opened and it was in the intention of the vowel movement, it turned into an alif. Therefore, it was necessary to remove one of the two silent alifs. It was said: the first was removed because the second is brought for a meaning, so it is more deserving of remaining. And it was said: the second was removed because the first is original, so it is more deserving of remaining. Then the ha became necessary as a substitute for the omitted.