وَ لَقَدْ نَصَرَکُمُ اللّٰہُ بِبَدْرٍ

And indeed, Allah helped you at Badr. ^[1]

Who came to help? Angels. But what does the Quran say? It was Allah Who helped. Putting these two matters together, we learn that when the special servants of Allah help others with the power He gave them; this is not them helping, but Allah Himself giving help. They are simply a means.

Seeking help from people

Hadith even show us how to seek help from people. Here are three hadith in this regard.

1.   Seek needs from the soft-hearted members of my nation; you will find sustenance.^[2]

2.   Seek goodness and your needs from those with appeasing faces.^[3]

3.   When any of you lose something, or forgets the path and requires help whilst no friend is around, he should call as follows:  یَاعِبَادَاللہِ اَغِیْثُوْنِیْ، یَاعِبَادَاللہِ اَغِیْثُوْنِی -“O servants of Allah, help me! O servants of Allah, help me!”, as there are some servants of Allah a person does not see.”^[4]

The great hadith master and commentator of Saḥīḥ Muslim, Imam al-Nawawī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَـلَيْه states:

I have experienced the effects of this hadith myself. I set out with a small group on a journey. Our animal began to run away and ignored our calls for it to stop. At that time, I said, “O servants of