Reply to Question 1

The point that Allah is Sufficient, as a Helper for His servants, does not contradict with the fact that man seeks help from his fellow human-beings. Allah helps mankind in two ways: One in direct form, without any medium, and the other through some creature who has been created and bestowed power by Himself.

By Essence, Allah’s help is independent and He is the source of every power and might. On the other hand, help from others takes effect by His Will and Power. Some examples of help via medium: Allah helps the living creatures to subsist via the sun; helps vegetation to grow via the rain; helps man to move from one place to another via the animals. In all these cases, Allah is the Helper but via some medium. The holy verse 71 from Chapter Yasin says:

“Do they not see that We have created cattle for them, out of what Our hands have wrought, so they are their masters?” (Qur’an, 36:71)

These creatures are helpers too; but nobody says their help contradicts Allah’s Help. Rather their help is by Allah’s Will, and they derive the power of help from the Beneficent Allah. Thus, we find in the holy Qur’an verses that exclusively declares help to be from Allah“And victory is only from Allah, the Mighty, the Wise” (Qur’an, 3:126) or“Thee only we worship and Thee only we beseech for help” (Qur’an, 1:5). At the same time, the holy Qur’an also talks about seeking help from creatures and other means like,“Seek help through patience and prayer” (Qur’an, 2:45) or“And help one another in goodness and piety” (Qur’an, 5:2) or“And if they seek help from you in the matter of religion, then help is incumbent on you” .(Qur’an, 8:72)

Such verses clearly reveal that there exists no contradiction between exclusive help from Allah, and the power bestowed by Allah to other helpers.

Help from the holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.), Amir-ul-Mu’minin (a.s.) and Hazrat Mahdi (a.s.) is exactly Allah’s Help. That which contradicts divine monotheism is the belief that someone can possess“independent” power without having to rely on Allah’s Will and Authority. In our daily routine affairs, we seek help from one another; as well as, from nature and industry. Nobody considers this to contradict Allah’s Help. In beseeching help by Allah’s Will, it makes no difference whether it is the world of nature or the supernatural world.