It is You we worship and You we ask for help.
Sahih International
Grammar, phrase by phrase
إِيَّاكَ
(It is You…)
إِيَّاكَword 1
Detached Pronoun · ضمير منفصلA detached pronoun is a standalone word for 'I / you / he'. إِيَّا is the special detached pronoun used when the one an action lands on is announced before the action itself, and the ـكَ fastened to it specifies who: 'You' — one person, addressed directly; placed first like this, it carries the force of 'You alone'. L3 · R5
Direct Object · مفعول بهThe direct object is the person or thing an action lands on — here, the One who is worshipped. Arabic normally puts the action-word first; announcing the object before it — إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ, 'You — we worship' — signals emphasis and exclusivity, restricting the worship to You alone. L9 · R6
Here the speech turns from speaking about Allah to speaking to Him: after praising and thanking Him, the servant stands before his Lord and addresses Him directly.
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 1:5
نَعْبُدُ
(…we worship,)
Root عبد — to worship, serve; servant, slave · 275 times in the Quran
نَعْبُدُword 2
Verb · فعلA verb is a word for an action or happening that is always tied to a time — past, present/future, or a command. نَعْبُدُ is an action unfolding now — 'we worship' — from the root عبد: to worship, to serve. L1 · R7
Present Tense Verb · فعل مضارعA present tense verb describes an action happening now or ongoing, and it always opens with one of four prefix letters: أ, ن, ي, or ت. This word opens with نَ, the prefix meaning 'we' — so it reads 'we worship', an act alive in the present. L8 · R3
Worship (ʿibādah) gathers the utmost love, humility, and fear; Ibn ʿAbbās said it means 'it is You whom we single out, whom we fear and in whom we hope, You alone and none else' — a declaration of innocence from worshipping anything besides Allah.
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 1:5
So far: “It is You we worship”
وَإِيَّاكَ
(…and You…)
وَإِيَّاكَword 3
Conjunction · حرف عطفThe prefix وَ is a conjunction — a small joining word meaning 'and' — that links what follows to what came before. It ties the second half of the declaration to the first: we worship You, and we seek Your help. L4 · R4
Detached Pronoun · ضمير منفصلA detached pronoun is a standalone word for 'I / you / he'. إِيَّا is the one detached pronoun reserved for the person an action lands on when that person is placed before the action, and its ـكَ ending specifies 'You' — one person, addressed directly — again with the force of 'You alone'. L3 · R5
Direct Object · مفعول بهThe direct object — the one an action lands on — can be a standalone pronoun set before its verb for emphasis. إِيَّاكَ stands ahead of نَسْتَعِينُ ('we ask for help'), restricting the asking to You alone. L9 · R5
نَسْتَعِينُ
(…we ask for help.)
Root عون — to aid, assist, help · 11 times in the Quran
نَسْتَعِينُword 4
Verb · فعلA verb is a word for an action or happening that is always tied to a time — past, present/future, or a command. نَسْتَعِينُ is an action unfolding now — 'we ask for help' — built on the root عون: to aid, to assist, to help. L1 · R7
Present Tense Verb · فعل مضارعA present tense verb describes an action happening now or ongoing, and it always opens with one of four prefix letters: أ, ن, ي, or ت. This word opens with نَ, the prefix meaning 'we' — 'we ask for help', here and now. L8 · R3
Weak Verb · فعل معتلA weak verb is a verb — an action word — whose root (the core set of, usually three, letters carrying the word's base meaning) contains one of the soft letters و or ي, letters that easily change shape or disappear. The root here is عون — to aid, to assist, to help — with the soft و as its middle letter; look at نَسْتَعِينُ and that و is nowhere to be seen — in its place stands the long ي of ـعِينُ. L24 · R2
Form X Verb · اِسْتَفْعَلَArabic builds extra shades of meaning by adding fixed letters onto a root, and the added pair س and ت of this pattern means seeking or requesting the root's action. Here they sit on the root عون — to aid, to assist — so نَسْتَعِينُ means 'we seek aid': we ask for help. L13 · R6
This second half declares that we have no power or strength of our own — all affairs are controlled by Allah alone, whose aid we seek in all of them; worship is mentioned first because worship is the objective, and Allah's help is the means to attain it.
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 1:5
So far: “It is You we worship and You we ask for help.”