The meaning of ´Ibadah (worship)

Although it has different definitions according to the shariah all these definitions mean the same thing. Some of the definitions of the term made by the ulama are as follows: a) Something that is instructed (commanded) by the Shariah; even if it is the opposite of custom or to the general understanding. b) Everything which Allah The Almighty is content with and which He The Most High loves. For example the prayer, zakah, hajj, being truthful, not breaching the trust, being kind towards to parents, not cutting the relationship off with the relatives, loyalty to contracts, commanding good, forbidding from bad, making Jihaad against kuffar and munafiqun, being kind towards the neighbours, orphans, poor, needy ones, slaves and animals, dhikr, reciting the Qur’an, loving Allah Almighty and His messenger (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), to be afraid of Allah The Great, directing oneself towards Allah The Glorious, being sincere in the deen, making deen solely to Allah Almighty, being thankful to Allah The Most High for the blessings and showing content to the qadha (jurisdiction) of Allah, Tawakkul (trust and relied on) in Allah The Most Great, expecting the grace of Allah The Almighty and to be afraid from His punishment and acts like such would be taken in consideration under the term ibadah. c) Bowing down completely, which itself will necessitate feeling true love towards the one who is bowed to. Slave means the one who bows in complete to his beloved Allah The Most High. The amount of love towards his Rabb, is the amount of obedience he would have. The slave loving his Lord will necessitate bowing down before Him. It is because the meaning of loving Allah is; bowing down and understanding inability of ones own against His Lord with complete and infinite love. Ibn Qayyim (ra) says: “Ibadah is tawhid of love. Therefore the heart and the other organs must bow down to Allah Almighty as a result. The poet expressed in such a way: Love is to be in agreement with the loved one. To accept by heart things which (even) he does not like. Concordance with it is submitting to his instructions. The goal (is), to gain the consent of Allah.' As seen, Ibn Qayyim (ra) described the term ibadah as tawhid of love and ‘ilm as total submission by the limbs. Anyone who loves something and bows to it will become, with his heart, a slave of that object. Or else love without reverence and bowing down or reverence without love can not be (called as) ibadah. Love and reverence (khushu) are the two basic conditions of ibadah. If an individual submits to his Lord while angry at Him; he won’t be a slave of Him or have performed ibadah to Him. If someone loves someone, as if he loves his children or his friend, but he does not bow down to it then he also would not be considered of performing ibadah to him or he won’t become a slave of it. In this regard it is not sufficient to perform ibadah to Allah The Most High without loving Him. On the contrary, one must place the love for Allah The Almighty over everything. The love for Allah The Most Great must be in the heart over the love for all other (types of) love. It is because as nobody has earned the right to really be bowed to except Allah The Glorious, no one has earned the right to be loved (except Allah). Tawhid in the ibadah is allocating all kinds of ibadah which had been prescribed by the shariah to Allah The most High. Ibn Abbas (ra) said: “The meaning of all statements in the Qur’an in the reference to ibadah is tawhid. And this is the call that, all the messengers have called upon and the mushrik (society) kept away from accepting it.” Ibadah is more general than tawhid when it is taken hand alone. It is because although every muwahhid is an abid (slave), not every abid is a muwahhid. Ibrahim (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Do you then see whom ye have been worshipping, You and your fathers before you? Verily they are all enemies to me; except the Lord and Cherisher of the Worlds.” (Shuara 26:75-77) “I do indeed clear myself of what ye worship: (I worship) only Him Who made me, and He will certainly guide me.” (Zuhruf 43:26-27) If one pays attention carefully, will see that Ibrahim (peace and blessings be upon him) kept distant His Lord from the idols which they worshiped. As also seen in the ayah, the Mushrik people pray to Allah The Glorious; at the same time they associate partners to Allah Almighty. The meaning of the Ayah: “Nor will ye worship that which I worship.” (Kafirun 109:3 and 5) is: “You will not make ibadah in the way I make ibadah. You will only make ibadah in the way that you wish.” There is fine wisdom behind the fact that the radd (refusal) here is used in the future form and in different way. The actual goal here is to show that RasulAllah (peace and blessings be upon him) had never had tie -in no time and no where- with the idols of the mushrik. Now in order to inform this reality with absolute wording we see that the inconsistent verb that shows occurring and renewal later is used in the same refusal with the subject tense. This shows continuity. The use of two different tenses shows these following truths: First; “how can you request such a thing from me, because you know that I will never commit shirk.” Secondly; in this ayah as if the following is (to be) said: “I will perform an act under no circumstances such as ibadah to something different except Allah The Great and this (committing shirk) will never become a characteristics (attribute) for me.” As seen both were used around the actual point, to emphasize it. For the (when mentioning the) kuffar, not the verb, but the subject (ism-i fail), which indicates its stability and its characteristic (attribute) is used, it is to be stressed around the following: “The steady characteristic of those, which worship Allah Almighty alone is not expected from you; (it is because) you do not have such characteristic. This is to be seen only with those, who performs the ibadah simply to Allah Almighty and those who do not associate partners to Him The Glorious. As long as you worship other than Allah you will not be accounted as worshippers of Allah. Even if these people, from time to time, perform ibadah to Allah The Most High; this will not change the truth. It is because while performing ibadah to Allah The Almighty the mushrik will associate partners to Allah. Likewise the Ashab-ul Kahf said: “When ye turn away from them and the things they worship other than Allah…" (Kahf 18/16) Meaning you left the fake gods of the rejecter kuffar and mushrik and turned to Allah. “…We only serve them in order that they may bring us nearer to Allah…” (Zumar 39/3) As seen above, the mushrik directs worship to other objects besides Allah Almighty. As such act is seen from the mushrik this act had not been taken as an act of rejection. Meaning this characteristic has not been forbidden as they are not like such when they reject and perform shirk to Allah Almighty. Only when they leave other fake gods that they worship aside completely and turn to Allah totally then they will earn this attribute (slave of Allah). The servant, who performs ibadah solely to Allah Almighty, as he does not compliment anyone other than Allah he also will not befriend those who compliment other than Allah and he under no circumstance commits shirk in the ibadah to Allah The Most Great. The individual who associates partners to Allah Almighty in the ibadah will never have the characteristic of worshipper of Allah The Most Great. This issue is the basis of the surat al-kafirun which is one of two surat al-ikhlas in the Qur’an. Therefore this surah is, as also mentioned in the ahadith, equal to a quarter of the Qur’an. Only those, who Allah Almighty gave the ability for understanding and comprehension, can understand this. The praise and the gratitude are entitled to Allah The Most Glorious.