and seek His help in that, as He said in the opening of the Book: "You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help." Among His worship and obedience is enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong to the best of one's ability, and striving in His cause against the people of disbelief and hypocrisy. They strive to establish His religion, seeking His assistance, removing and eliminating thereby whatever evil they can, and warding off whatever consequences they fear, just as a person removes present hunger by eating and wards off future hunger by it. Similarly, when the time of cold comes, one wards it off with clothing. Likewise, every desired thing is used to ward off something disliked, as they said to the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam): "O Messenger of Allāh, do the medicines we use to treat ourselves, the incantations we use, and the protections we employ ward off anything from the decree of Allāh?" He said: "They are from the decree of Allāh." And in the ḥadīth: "Indeed, supplication and affliction meet and wrestle between the heaven and the earth."