Why Do We Worship? - Shaykh Mustafa Abu Rayyan

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ وَلَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَى النَّاسِ كَافَّةً بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا فَبَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ وَتَرَكَنَا عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ الْبَيْضَاءِ لَيْلُهَا كَنَهَارِهَا لَا يَزِيغُ عَنْهَا إِلَّا هَالِكٌ فَصَلَوَاتُ اللَّهِ وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ وَمَنِ اهْتَدَى بِهَدْيِهِ وَاسْتَنَّ بِسُنَّتِهِ وَدَعَا بِدَعْوَتِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

أَحِبَّتِي فِي اللَّهِ — أُوصِيكُمْ وَنَفْسِي بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ مُحْسِنُونَ

My beloved brothers and sisters, I start by praising Allah and sending blessings and salutations upon our beloved Messenger Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salam. Before I continue, I would like to ask my brothers and sisters to make space for the people at the back — if you can provide some space, please do so, insha'Allah.

Why Are We Here? Our Purpose of Existence

Allah created us for a purpose, and I have often repeated this, but it is important that we remind ourselves of our objective. Why are we here? Why are we here? Allah in the ayah tells us to remind each other:

Remind, for indeed reminding is beneficial to the believers. Out of all the things Allah could remind us with — we need to pray more, give more charity — Allah chose to remind us of our purpose, our reason for existence:

And I have not created jinn or mankind except to single Me out in worship. This is your purpose. This is your objective. This is why we are here today for Jumu'ah. This is why we are going to be fasting in Ramadan. This is why we give charity whenever there is a cause that we need to support. This is why we prayed Fajr this morning. This is why we do all of these acts of worship — it is because Allah created us for that single reason.

What Does Worship Mean?

Our intention is to worship Allah. But what does worship mean? What does ibadah mean? You are an abd — a servant — for Allah. Allah mentions in the Quran often: اعْبُدُونِي — worship Me. Worship is to have the utmost humility in front of Allah and the utmost love — the epitome of love for Allah. When you have those two combined — كَمَالُ الذُّلِّ وَكَمَالُ الْمَحَبَّةِ — then you are truly worshipping Allah. So there could not be an ounce of arrogance, and your objective has to be very, very clear: I am worshipping my Creator. I am glorifying my Creator.

How Our Intentions Can Become Corrupted

What am I trying to convey here today? Often, our intentions can be corrupted. The reason we are praying can be corrupted. An example would be someone who is praying because they know it would be odd not to pray — because there are people watching. So the only reason they stood up and prayed their salah is because everyone else is doing it. Their intention has been corrupted because they are doing it for other people. Or the one who beautifies their prayer because someone is watching. You normally read just the Mu'awwidhatain and قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ and these short surahs, but all of a sudden you make your prayer longer and more beautiful because someone is looking at you. This is called riya' — showing off — and it is not allowed.

That is one way that your intention can be corrupted. But today I want to speak about a completely different way that our objective and our intentions can potentially be corrupted — and that is when you forget the reason you are doing the ibadah.

Example One: Walking to the Masjid

Let's say there is someone who went to his local GP and was told: "Listen, you need to walk more, exercise more. You can't run, you can't go to the gym — at least go and walk more." And let's say the GP was a Muslim and said: "Do you have a masjid you can go to? Yes? So why don't you, instead of driving, walk to the masjid — and that way you can get your steps in, your 5,000 steps or your 3,000 steps — and that will make you healthier."

Now this person, who usually used to drive to the masjid, is now walking to the masjid. Why is he walking to the masjid? Because he wants to get his steps in. Is he walking to the masjid because he wants every step Allah to reward him for? Is that his objective? The Prophet said: whoever walks to the masjid, every step they take Allah removes their sin, and every step they take Allah raises their rank. That intention isn't there. The person is walking to the masjid — an act of worship — but the intention has been replaced with something dunya-related. It can happen to all of us and we need to be very, very careful when we are thinking about our acts of worship.

Example Two: Fasting for Health

Imagine Ramadan is close and you need to get rid of some of your weight, or you need to get healthier — why don't you fast? Fasting is a way to get healthier. So now you start fasting, but your intention is again to get healthier. Allah did not mention health when He was talking about fasting. Allah did not mention health when He was talking about prayer. But a lot of us, when we sometimes explain these acts of worship, we replace the original objective with material, dunya-related points — that may be true, may not be true. Of course walking is good for your health, and of course eating less is good for your health — no one is doubting that. But that's not why we fast.

Why do we fast? One would say: we fast to sympathize and to see how the poor don't have food, and this will encourage us to give more. Allah didn't say that. Allah didn't say that we fast so that we can remember the poor — we said that. Now, is there something wrong with thinking about the poor and giving? No, there's nothing wrong with that. But that's not why we fast. That's not what Allah told us. That's not the purpose. That's not the objective. So when your intention isn't what Allah intended fasting for, then there is something wrong — there is some corruption entering into your ibadah.

Example Three: Jumu'ah as a Social Gathering

Now you have people who will say: "The reason we are here for Jumu'ah is — it's a social gathering. The wisdom behind it is that we come together, we see each other, we get to know each other, and when we get to know each other our children will get to know each other, and we make familial bonds, and we get to meet each other, and some of us will marry others and we will become friends and we will help each other — and you may need a plumber and he comes to the masjid — so the jama'ah is meant to be a place to connect." Allah did not say that.

Now, what am I trying to tell you? Every act of worship will have dunya-related benefits, and that is from the wisdom of Allah. But that's not why you come. Because if it was only you who came to the Jumu'ah, you would still come. The point is to worship Allah. The point is to get closer to Allah. The point is to glorify Allah.

Example Four: The Sacrifice of the Sons of Adam

I'll give you another example. When we slaughter for the sake of Allah — the two sons of Adam, Qabil and Habil — they were told to make an act of worship, to sacrifice something for the sake of Allah, and fire would descend from the heavens and devour it. That would be proof that their act of worship was accepted — which is why for one of them it was accepted, and for the other it wasn't, and he became jealous and killed his brother, as the Quran tells us. Now, no one ate the meat — it was devoured by the fire. No one benefited materially from that. That doesn't matter, because it was an act of worship.

The slaughter is an act of worship. When we slaughter the udhiyah, it is a pure act of worship. After that, we distribute the meat to the poor — which is another act of worship. We don't slaughter it because we need to distribute it to the poor. Those two things are not connected in that way. Allah actually says in the Quran:

It is not the meat or the blood that reaches Allah — rather it is the piety from you. It is a pure act of worship — dedication to Allah, devotion to Allah.

Recalibrating Our Intentions

After we tell people Alhamdulillah, you should become Muslim — as Muslims our life has structure. In the morning we wake up with purpose. That's great. We wake up to worship Allah. We wake up in the morning to glorify Allah, because we love Allah, because we fear Allah's punishment. Make sure that your intentions always go back to Allah, and that you don't replace that with the material benefit that we can potentially gain from some of these acts of worship. This is extremely important — that we understand why we worship.

Allah says:

Fasting has been made obligatory upon you, as it was made obligatory upon those before you, so that you may attain taqwa — piety, a connection to your Lord, fear and hope: hope in His mercy and fear of His punishment. These are the meanings that we must instill in ourselves, and not make it into a material benefit. Because that is how the materialistic thinking that we have absorbed from a lot of liberal views has actually had an impact. Which is why every Ramadan you'll see those charts come out: "Fasting — you will gain discipline." "Fasting — you will become healthier." "Fasting — you will..." No! Fasting because Allah told us. Fasting because we hope in His mercy. Fasting because we want to enter Jannah through the gate called Rayyan.

If there was not a single health benefit, we would still fast — would we not? We would! And this is what it means to be a true worshipper of Allah. This is what it means to be a true worshipper — that we understand and recalibrate our intentions, because often these things can have an impact on your ibadah.

Going back to the example of the person walking to the masjid — is it possible that he can walk to the masjid hoping to perhaps lose some weight and get healthier, and also get the reward? Yes, it is possible. But your primary intention must always be connected to your Creator. Every act of worship is a relationship between you and Allah. And from that pure act of worship, sometimes you will get some benefits — Alhamdulillah, it is barakah upon barakah. But that's not the prime reason that we worship Allah. It's not an exchange where we want dunya benefits — that's not how it works.

I used to say that Hajj was an opportunity for scholars to meet — but that's not why you do Hajj. You don't go to Hajj to meet the scholars. Back then, people travelled from every corner of the world and it was an opportunity for people to come together and benefit from each other, for great scholars to meet each other. But that wasn't the purpose of Hajj. Don't ever allow your pure intentions of worship to be corrupted or changed, because that has a huge impact on the rewards that you will get from your acts of worship.

The Prayer: For the Remembrance of Allah

If your intention completely becomes a dunya-related issue — you hear sometimes that the movements in the prayer are good for your joints, up and down, this is healthy — imagine someone reduces the prayer to a glorified exercise. And you have some people who have said that. This is a huge, huge, huge problem, my brothers and sisters.

When Allah spoke about the prayer, He said to Prophet Musa:

Indeed, I am Allah. There is no god but Me, so worship Me and establish prayer for My remembrance. The purpose of the prayer? To mention Allah. To glorify Allah.

What Do We Tell Our Children About Fasting?

There was a teacher, and I conclude with this — I think the message, insha'Allah, has been delivered. There was a teacher who struggled and said: "How are we going to explain fasting to young children? Because we used to tell them that we fast because in this month, these 30 days, we remember the people in poverty who don't always get to have three meals a day. And we used to tell them we fast because it teaches us sabr and patience." And if we say now that these are not the prime objectives, then what do we say to them?

You say to them: We fast because Allah commanded us and we are His servants. We fast because we want Allah to reward us. We fast because we are in need of Allah's favour. If we don't fast — look at what the Prophet conveyed to us in a hadith qudsi — a divine narration — in which Allah said about His fasting servants:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1904; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1151 — Hadith Qudsi)

He leaves his food and his drink and his physical desires for My sake. For Allah's sake. That is what makes you a worshipper — when you do all of your acts of worship for Allah's sake.

Conclusion

So insha'Allah, my dearly beloved brothers and sisters, let us recalibrate and understand that all of these acts of worship may potentially have some dunya-related benefits — and we are not necessarily denying that — they are khair upon khair. But our prime objective is that we are worshippers of Allah.

I ask forgiveness for myself and for you, and for the sins of every person — so seek forgiveness of Him, for He is the Forgiving, the Merciful. Alhamdulillah, Lord of the worlds, and through Him we seek help for the affairs of this world and the religion.

Du'a — Closing Supplication

وَصَلَّى اللَّهُمَّ وَسَلِّمْ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ — وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ.