Section Three: Worship in Islam:

Worship covers a large area in the everyday life of the Muslim, for it is the purpose for which Allah (SWT) sent all the Messengers. “And verily We have raised in every nation a Messenger, (proclaiming): ‘Serve Allah and shun false gods.’” (XVI: 36) Nay, it is the end for which Allah (SWT) has created both jinns and humans. “I did not create the jinns and the humans but to worship Me alone.” (LI: 56)

Sub-section One: the meaning of worship:

Worship has two meanings in Islam:

1.     A special meaning covering rites, deeds and acts of obedience that Allah (SWT) has enjoined, such as prayer, zakat, pilgrimage, etc. as specified by Shari’ah (Islamic Law).

2.     A general meaning that covers any righteous beneficial deed, even if concerning worldly affairs, if it is done to please Allah and in compliance with the Ordinances of Allah. It covers even ordinary permissible practices if one intends to do what Allah likes. In this sense, the individual is in a continuous state of worshipping since he intends by his deeds to gain the pleasure of Allah and do what Allah likes and since his deed are done sincerely for the sake of Allah.”[1] Allah (SWT) says: “Say: ‘Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds.” (VI: 162)

Worship in the first sense is of two types:

1.     Worship that is obligatory and with specific features and conditions.

2.     Extra acts of worship that may be like the obligatory ones or different from them,[2] on condition that they should be permissible and not innovated.

The obligatory or recommended rites of worship, such as the prayer that is repeated five times during one day and one night are to the soul like the meals of food to the body. They keep the believer in constant contact with Allah (SWT) and protect him against being drowned in the distractions and preoccupations of everyday life.[3]

Sub-section two: man is in need of worship:

Allah (SWT) has created man in need of Him and his need for Him is represented by his need to worship Him, for no success or prosperity in this life or in the Hereafter can be achieved except through such worship, as humans are in need of their Creator and Lord, while He is not in need of any of His creatures. 

Worships in Islam are characterized by moderation, neither too much not too little. Islam does not demand that its follower devote his life to worshipping and retreat from life completely, as Christians did. The Christian program of worship is based on spiritualities and monasticism that forbid its followers from marrying, repress the instincts and prevent all types of adornment and good provisions, considering all that as impurity and the work of Satan. Christians exaggerated in worship and distorted its form and its purpose till it turned into deformed monasticism.[4]

In contrast, Jews were too materialistic, ignoring the need of man for the spiritual nutrition. “In their scriptures you read nothing but what concerns mundane affairs; an individual would not worship Allah save to obtain a temporal advantage or to avoid a temporal punishment. Materialistic and temporal values became the pivot of life.[5]