Worship is the reason for our creation
Allah is merciful to us and would not let us fall into condusion. He gives us the best guidance. He tells us all we need to know in order to live a happy life. Most importantly, He tells us what is our true goal in life and the reason that this world is created.
He (swt) says: "I have only created jinns and humans to worship Me. I do not need from them to provide for Me, and I do not need from them to feed Me. Allah is surely the One Who gives providence, and He is the Mighty and Strong." The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 51, Verses 56-58
This means we must obey Allah(swt) and worship Him. This is the reason for which we have been created. Allah does not need any food or help from us. He is the One who gives food and help. He gave us everything that we have, He wants us to be good so as to deserve His rewards. This must be our main goal in life. All other goals should be secondary and supportive for this great goal.
Allah sends the guidance
Allah(swt) created everything, and He knows best about His creation. He says:
"Should not He who created things know? He is the most Kind and Aware (of everything)." The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 67, Verse 14 Allah (swt) knows exactly what is useful for us and what is harmful. Only He can give us the guidance that we need in our lives. So, how can we live without His guidance? How can we live without worshipping Him?
Defining Worship
Worship is to obey Allah completely, love Him completely, respect Him completely, do what He loves, and keep away from what He hates.
Prayer is an act of worship.
Fasting is an act of worship.
Zakah is an act of worship.
Hajj is an act of worship.
Fighting evil is an act of worship.
Learning Islam is an act of worship.
Saying good words is an act of worship.
Avoiding bad words is an act of worship.
Dua (or Supplication) is an act of worship.
Doing any good deed in order to please Allah is an act of worship. Also, avoiding a bad deed in order to please Allah is an act of worship.
Why should we worship Allah?
We must worship Allah for many reasons. In this section, we mention the most important of these reasons.
1) Allah is our true benefactor
Allah (swt) gave us all what we have. So, He is our only true Benefactor. We cannot list all of his favours on us. Allah (swt) says :
"And if you try to list Allah's favours, you will never be able to count them all." The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 14, Verse 34
Allah(swt) gave us eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, hearts for understanding, hands for holding, feet for walking, and many other favours within our bodies. He gave us parents, brothers, relatives, and friends to love. He gave us good food and drink, air to breathe, water to cool and clean us, animals and cars to ride, and many, many other things. All of these favours - all things that we enjoy and like, are created by Allah (swt) , as He says: "Any favour that you have is from Allah. And if you get into a hardship, you turn to Him crying for help." The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 16, Verse 53
We should be more thankful and grateful to Allah(swt). We should express our gratitude to him by words and actions. We should worship Him with complete love and obedience.
2) Allah has the supreme qualities
Allah is generous beyond limits. He gives without being afraid of losing what He has. Similarly, He is mighty beyond limits, wise beyond limits, merciful beyond limits, and so on. No one else has any of Allah's great qualities. When we understand Allah has the greatest qualities, we find ourselves forced to admire him with the greatest admiration, respect him with the greatest respect, obey him with the fullest obedience, and worship him with the truest worship. Allah(swt) alone deserves to be our God.
3) True Worship produces Taqwaa
Worshipping Allah brings Taqwaa into our hearts. Allah(swt) says:
"O people, worship your Lord who created you and those before you and those before you. With this, you may have Taqwaa". The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 2, Verse 21 Taqwaa is the most important treasure. It makes us always remember that Allah is watching us. It softens our hearts and souls. It makes us love doing good deeds and hate sinning. So, we need to worship Allah in order to have this great treasure.
4) Every Messenger called to worshipping Allah
Allah(swt) sent many Messengers through the time to guide the people. All of those messengers called to the same thing: Worshipping Allah alone. Allah(swt) says: "We have surely sent into every nation a messenger telling it, "Worship Allah and avoid false gods." The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 16, Verse 36
Allah(swt) also says:
"There is no messenger that we have sent before you but we have revealed to him, "There is no (true) God except me. So worship Me" The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 21, Verse 25
So, when we worship Allah we become attached to Allah's messenger and their true followers, and we feel that we are part of the good people who worshipped Allah through the times. We surely would want to worship Allah in order to be attached to those good people.
5) Worshipping Allah is good for us
By worshipping Allah, we should be doing ourselves the greatest favour. As we said earlier, Allah created us to worship Him. He ordered us to worship Him so as to follow the true guidance that He sent to us. If we follow this guidance, we will be happy in this life and the next.
