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Concept of Worship in Islam
The concept of worship in Islam objectively and subjectively, by both means, differ from the concept of worship given by any religion followed by man in the world we dwell in, as it’s concept is not of certain set of rituals only which lie there upon the border of one’s life rather it is the basic objective upon which Allah has always send down his guidance upon his Prophets or in his Books revealed upon them “And We have not sent any of the messengers before you(o Muhammad) except that We have ordered him that there is no god except Me, so worship me(alone)”(al-Anbiya:25) “Worship Allah only for there is no god except Him”(al-‘Araaf:9) and many other verses which we find in Quran gives us the same message. And when Allah wished to send down to us his final message in the shape of Quran with the last messenger prophet Muhammad( صلى الله عليه و آله وسلم) it was proclaimed and made clear the very reason for the creation of this specie(humans and jins) “and We have not created the Humans and the Jins except for Our worship, neither We want from them to earn their livings nor We wanted to feed them, as Allah is the only nourisher and He is all powerfull”(az-Zariyaat:56-58) Meaning of Worship: The word used for worship in Quran and Sunnah is “عبادة” which linguistically means complete submissiveness. This absoluteness is not attained in the eyes of Islam unless a person submit all of his personal
desires and freedom to God almighty because if someone is only following the orders of the orderer without submitting his desires and freedom he will be doing that either due to his weakness or in capability and he might don’t like what he is following. In this way he is for sure completing only one aspect of “ ibadaa ” but is not fulfilling what is required from him by his Lord. What is missing than??? The concept of “ ibadaa” in Islam comprises of two parts which completes each other to give it the meaning which the Creator wants, Absolute submission with utmost love. By saying this it is absolutely clear that being extremists for any of the above aspects is not accepted as, the one who only fulfills the ritual aspect negating love and the other deeply drowned in love not assuring the physical or outward nature of the worship(actions) are equally un acceptable. The notion and motto of Quran is very clearly stated as “well being in this world and well being in the here after”(al-Baqara:101) there is, so no space for the ultra-materialists, who don’t believe in the rights of others, and the ultra-spiritualists, who want to renounce(reject) all worldly things and mortify themselves as a duty. Hence it has to be the middle path which seeks to develop simultaneously the body and the soul, creating a harmonious equilibrium in a man as a whole. Islam has insisted on the importance of both these constituents of man and on their inseparability, so that one should not be sacrificed for the benefit of the other. If Islam prescribes spiritual duties and practices, these contain also material advantages. Similarly if it authorizes an act of temporal utility, it shows how this act can be a source of spiritual satisfaction. The following examples can illustrate the above notion. The aim of spiritual practices is to get closer to the Creator our Lord and to obtain His pleasure, therefore man tries to “Dye himself with the color
A natural result of what has been said above can be seen at several places in Quran where Quran very often uses the double formula “Believe and do good deeds”(for instance see al-Bqara:82,277, aal-e ‘Imran:57,an-Nisa:57,al-Jathia:30,at-teen:6,al-baiyena:7,al-‘asr:3) the mere profession of faith without application or practice has not much value. Islam insists as much on the one as the other. The doing of good deeds without the belief in God is certainly preferable, in the interest of society only, than to practice evil deeds; yet from the spiritual standpoint a good deed with out faith can not bring salvation in the here after. The quranic direction may be considered as a characteristic trait of Islam as it states “and of the bounty of your Lord(upon) you should proclaim(through actions and appearance)”(ad-dhuha:11) A saying of the Prophet(صلى الله عليه و آله وسلم) explains this verse in an impressive manner: “God likes to see the traces of his bounty on His creature”(this hadith is authentic, Sunan Tirmidhi, book of manners, chapter: Verily Allah loves to see the signs of his bunty on His Creation.). It happened that one of the companions of the Prophet( صلى الله عليه و آله وسلم) came to see him with a miserable appearance, even though he was a well of person, the Prophet asked him the reason, he replied that he preferred to have a wretched(miserable) look not because of miserliness but for piety, as he preferred the needy to his own self. The prophet did not approve this attitude and put a limit to self-sacrifice and ordered “when God has given you the means, the traces of His bounty should be visible upon you”(it’s an authentic hadith of Musnad Imam Ahmad, vol25, page227) and to this Quran further adds “and neglect not your portion of this world”(al-Qasas:77) Islam does not admit that man should cease to work and become a parasite, on the contrary one must use all one’s gifts and talents for profiting by God’s creations, and acquire as much as possible. What exceeds one’s requirements may go to the aid of those who lack necessaries. The
prophet has clearly said “ it is better to leave behind you, your relatives, well-off rather than obliged to beg alms of others”(Bukhari, Book of Inheritance, Chapter Share of daughters in Inheritance). Not withstanding the imposition of heavy daily practices , Islam does not demand mortification or voluntary misery, on the contrary the Quran reproaches those would develop such an attitude: “Say who has forbidden the adornment of God which He has brought(created) for His servants, and the delicious and pure food? Say: they are in the life of this world for those who believe, being exclusively for them on the day of resurrection. And in this way we explain our commands for people who have knowledge” (al-A’araf:32). Direct Connection Between Man and God: Islam freed and the returned the actual direct relationship between the man and the God by negating all forms of intercession. Worship was hijacked by the religious people in Islamic times by bounding it with certain place or certain ritual which can not be observed except through the priest or a religious person, neither can u offer any offering to the God directly nor can you repent to Him directly. Islam rejected all of these kinds of intercession or mediatory,whether personal or locational, and laid down the concept of direct approach of man to God. Quran exerts “And for Allah is the east and west so where ever you go you will find Him”(al-Baqara:115) and how beautifully has the prophet noted this international version of Islam by saying “whole of the earth has been made for me as a mosque and pure, so where ever my
believe in prophets to be God’s divine partners(highly exalted is He from what they think) and to be their intercessors to God Quran responded harshly upon that saying “…Rather they are (nothing but) highly honored servants, they can not precede Him in Word, and They act by His command, He knows what is(presently) before them and what will be after them, and they can not intercede except on behalf of whom He approves, And they, from fear of Him, are apprehensive”(al- Anbiyaa:26-28) and in the same manner Quran responds to the Book of people “ And the Jews and the Christians say: we are the children of Allah and His beloved, say:, Than why does He punishes you for your sins? Rather you are human beings from among those He has created. He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills, to Allah belongs the domination of the heavens and the earth and what is between them, and to Him is the final destination”(al-Ma’ida: 18) And Quran quotes Jesus Christ saying: “if You punish them, indeed they are Your servants, but if You forgive them indeed it is You who is the exalted in Might, the Wise”(al-Ma’ida:118). It should be clear after all what has been mentioned above regarding the nature of this divine and un divine relationship and we will end it with the verse mentioning the stand point of Quran very clearly again that the only intercession accepted are the good deeds that a person perform “Paradise is not obtained by your wish full thinking nor by that of the people of book. Whoever does a wrong will be recompensed for it, and he will not find besides Allah a protector or a helper. And whosoever does righteous deeds, whether mail or female, while being a believer those will enter paradise and will not be wronged,(even as much as) the speck on a date seed”(an-Nisa:123-124)
Course Of Easiness: Among the aspects through which the concept of worship in Islam differs from other religions and faiths is the course of easiness which Islam has adopted in all of it’s teachings generally and in worship specially. This is also what Allah has thought us in Quran while mentioning the prayer of the Faithfull’s “…O our Lord do not lay upon us a burden as was laid upon those before us…”(al-Baqarah:286). Worship has always been a basic and compulsory component of every religion but followers of previous religions have always thought that the best way of worship and getting closer to god is through torturing one’s body, and this torment is necessity of the very idea of worship, and more extreme this torture will be more purer your soul become. And due to this they innovated many ways of self torture seeking god’s pleasure, so one do not use to take bath for whole of his life, or the other will abandon cloths except what covers the essential parts and will remain in this condition during the freezing nights of winter or burning days of summer, and some other will stand in the sun for whole of his life maintaining a particular posture, or will abandon marital life going against the very nature of man. In India it was believed and practiced that god’s pleasure can be attained through life offerings, so they use to slaughter animals and bath the idol through it’s blood and the best of this offerings were that of humans, even up till recent past widows use to be burnt with the dead bodies of their husbands and this was believed as an act of obedience from the wife to her husband and a will of god.
choice if it don’t contain any sin in it”(narrated in sahih al-bukhari, book of ethics, chapter regarding what prophet said about making things easy and not making them difficult) we can also see the same spirit in a very beautiful principle given by the prophet-صلى الله عليه وسلم- “Verily Religion is Easy, and who so ever will make this religion difficult will not be able to cope up with the difficulties which he has created from his own self(not there in religion) so follow the majority(do not disagree), and bring people close to each other and give glad tidings to people”(narrated in sahih al-Bukhari,book of iman(faith), chapter verily religion is easy). So if easiness is the course of Islam than if any one who is following an extreme path and is making things difficult for himself and others than actually he is opposing the Islamic way and teachings. That’s is the reason the prophet of Islam- صلى الله عليه و سلم- stood in the way of hardliners and extremists and said “Beware, for verily extremist are destroyed, extremist are destroyed, extremist are destroyed”(narrated in sahih Muslim, book of knowledge, chapter: verily death is for the extremists, and narrated in Sunan Abu Dawood with a sahih sanad, book of sunnah, chapter obligation of following sunnah) and sayedna Abdullah ibne Abbas narrates that the Prophet- صلى الله عليه وسلم- said “Beware of extremism in the matter of religion for verily nations before you were destroyed because of their extremist attitude”(narrated in musnad imam Ahmad with a sahih sanad, vol#5, page298) Quran warns us of the same thing while saying “Say O people of Book! Donot be extremists in your religious affairs, trespassing beyond the truth, nor follow the vain desires of people who went wrong before you, who mislead many, and strayed(themselves) from the even way.”(al-Maidah:77) and the prophet further said “Don’t creat hardships for yourself for if you do so Allah will make things harder for you because of your ownself”(narrated in sunan Abu Dawood, Book of Etiquettes, chapter regarding Envy, it’s a sahih hadis).
This easiness is because Islam treat humans according to their very nature as Quran says “Humans are created weak”(an-Nisa:28) and this very nature is mentioned in a prophetic hadith as well “ Do what ever you can afford to do easily from acts because Allah never gets bored unless you your self gets bored”(narrated in sahih Muslim, book of prayer of travelers and it’s shortening, chapter merits of continuous prayer at night and others). If we just pounder a bit that why is this so emphases on easiness??? This is because humans by nature tend to incline towards hardships and physical, emotional and mental tortures when they think of closing their relationship with divine and It has happened as well that’s why to counter this very un-natural force full human behavior Islam has stressed upon this very point. To end just have a look at this verse and human nature of extremism and Allah’s respond to it “ Then, We sent after them, Our Messengers, and We sent Jesus son of Mary, and gave him the Injeel (Gospel). And We ordained in the hearts of those who followed him, compassion and mercy. But the Monasticism which they innovated for themselves, We did not prescribe for them, but (they sought it) only to please Allah therewith, but that they did not observe it with the right observance. So We gave those among them who believed, their (due) reward, but many of them are rebellious, disobedient to Allah."(al-Hadid:27).
