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God makes it very
clear that the purpose of our lives is to worship Him, “And I did not create
the jinn (spirit world) and mankind except to worship Me.” (Quran 51:56). The
concept of worship in the Islamic tradition is profound. Worship entails that
we must know, love and obey God, as well as single out and dedicate all acts of
worship to Him alone. If we want to know, love and obey something other than
God the most, including direct acts of worship (like ultimate gratitude) to
something other than Him, then that is our object of worship. In this sense,
human beings, including those who do not believe in God, cannot not worship. However,
many misdirect their worship to things other than God; something this essay
aims to address.
According to the Islamic spiritual tradition, acts of
worship are accepted if they fulfil two conditions. The first is that the act
of worship should be done purely for the sake of God. The second is that the action
itself is prescribed by the Islamic source texts: the Quran and the authentic
Prophetic traditions. So a natural question that follows from this is: What
are these acts of worship?
The acts of worship are many. Any good action that is
done to please God is an act of worship. However, there are some basic acts of
worship which are essential to Islamic spiritual practice. These have been
summarised by the Prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, as
the five pillars of Islam. They include: affirming and recognising in one’s
heart that there is no deity worthy of worship except God and that Muhammad,
may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, is God’s final messenger; praying
five times a day; giving the obligatory charity if one can afford to; fasting
in Ramadan (the 9th month of the Islamic calendar) and performing
the pilgrimage if one is able to do so. These acts of worship have profound
meanings and inner dimensions. These are the basic pillars of Islam. However,
in developing one’s spiritual practice one can engage in a plethora of
additional spiritual activities. These include: reciting the Quran;
remembrance of God; removing the spiritual diseases in one’s heart; voluntary
charity; repentance; spiritual reflection; conveying the message of Islam to
others; feeding the poor; spreading peace; taking care of animals; studying the
life of the Prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him;
memorising the Quran; the night prayer; reflecting on natural phenomena and
much more.
Since our reason for being is to worship the Divine, it
is important to understand why we must dedicate all acts of worship to Him
alone. In this essay I will provide 7 reasons for why we must worship God and
dedicate all acts of worship to Him alone. These reasons include:
1. God is worthy of worship by virtue of who He is.
2. God has created and sustains everything.
3. God provides us with innumerable favours.
4. If we love ourselves, we must love God.
5. God is The-Loving, and His love is the purest form of love.
6. Worship is part of who we are.
7. Obeying God is the most rational thing to do.
Knowing God
Before I discuss the above reasons, it is important to
elaborate on what is meant by knowing God. Knowledge of God is essential to
understanding why God is worthy of our worship, because we cannot worship
something we are ignorant of. This is why, in the Islamic tradition,
traversing a path of knowing God is a form of worship:
“So know,
that there is no deity except God.” (Quran 47:19)
To know God means that we affirm that He is the sole
creator and maintainer of everything that exists (known as Oneness of God’s
Creativity). It also entails that we affirm His names and attributes in
the context of recognising that they are unique and that nothing can compare to
God (known as Oneness of God’s Names and Attributes). Knowledge of God
also involves that we must know that He is unique in His Divinity; He alone is
entitled to all acts of worship (known as Oneness of God’s Divinity). It
must be noted that in Islamic theology it is critical to affirm that nothing
whatsoever shares in God’s creative power and ability, names and attributes,
and Divinity. All forms of anthropomorphism are completely rejected. God is
transcendent and maximally perfect. He has no imperfections. The concept of
oneness in the Islamic spiritual tradition is referred to as tawheed,
which linguistically means to affirm oneness or to make something one or
unique.
Oneness of Creativity
The oneness of God’s Creativity is to affirm and
recognise that God is the sole creator, master and owner of everything that
exists. God is the One who sustains, takes care of, and nourishes everything.
According to the Islamic doctrine of tawheed, anyone who denies this has
associated partners with God, which is polytheism (known as shirk in
Islamic theology). Anyone who believes that these descriptions of God can be
shared by any created thing has deified that thing. Therefore, they have
associated partners with God.
Oneness of God’s Names and Attributes
The ‘oneness of God’s names and attributes’ means to
describe God only by the names and attributes by which He has described
Himself, which are found in the Quran and the Prophetic teachings (some names
such as Al-Khaaliq, The-Creator, and Al-Qadeer, The-Powerful, can
be affirmed by a sound rational mind). These names and attributes, such as
The-Loving and The-Subtle, are affirmed but they are not comparable to creation.
God’s names and attributes are perfect without any deficiency or flaw, God is
maximally perfect. God’s names are described by God Himself as the most
beautiful:
“The
most beautiful names belong to God: so call on Him by them.” (Quran 7:180)
The one who compares these names and attributes to
creation has committed humanisation, and therefore has associated partners with
God. The one who compares any created thing to God has committed deification,
which is also a form of associating partners with God.
Oneness of God’s Divinity
The oneness of God’s Divinity is that we must affirm
that all acts of worship must be directed to Him alone. Someone who directs
acts of worship to anything other than God, and the one who seeks reward from
anything other than God in any act of worship, has associated partners with
Him.
In certain contexts some acts of obedience, if directed
to other than God, do not constitute associating partners with Him. For
example, one’s love for God may be deficient and require perfecting. Associating
partners with God in the context of love would involve loving something or
someone instead of God or as much as God. Someone can love their family and it
would not constitute associating partners with God. If they loved their family
instead of God or as much as God, then that would constitute a form of
associating partners with Him.