Reasons for worship

The following reasons persuade man to worship and serve God:

1. Greatness of God

When man sees the greatness and magnificence of God, he unconsciously feels humble and weak before Him, just as a person who regards himself insignificant before a distinguished person and scholar, also honors and respects him.

2. Feelings of dependence

Man’s nature is such that he feels humble before some one upon whom he is dependent. Our very existence depends upon the will of God and we need Him all the time. This feeling of need and deficiency urges man to worship God—for only He is the Ultimately Perfect and Independent. It is stated in some hadiths that if there were no death, poverty and sickness, some people would never humble themselves before God.

3. Awareness of blessings

Man loves to possess and enjoy blessings. Remembering the abundant blessings of God can be the strongest motive for worshipping Him. In the litanies {munajat} of the infallible Imams (‘a), the blessings of God, including those that are related to those prior to the birth of man, are initially mentioned, and in this way man shows his love to God and than he humbly presents his requests. God also says:

﴿ فَلْيَعْبُدُوا رَبَّ هَذَا الْبَيْتِ ٭ الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعٍ وَآمَنَهُم مِّنْ خَوْفٍ ﴾

“Let them worship the Lord of this House, who has fed them {and saved them} from hunger, and secured them from fear.”[10]

In another verse, man is asked to worship God who created him.

4. Human nature {fitrah}

Worship is an instinctive and integral part of human nature. Being innate, man sometimes treads the correct path and worships God. When misled, he is drawn to the worship of the sun, stones, wood, the cow, money, spouses, and taghuts.[11]

The prophets (‘a) have not come to instill the sense of worship in man. Rather, their mission is to guide this natural disposition in the right direction. ‘Ali (‘a) said:

فَبَعَثَ اللهُ مُحَمَّداً بِالْحَقّ لِيُخرِجَ عِبادَهُ مِنْ عِبادَةِ الأَوْثانِ إِلى عِبادَتِهِ.

“God thus sent down Muhammad in truth to stop His servants from idol-worship, and invite them to His worship.”[12]

Most of the Qur’anic verses related to worship invite people to the divine unity in worship {tawhid fi’l-‘ibadah} and not to the spirit of worship, because that spirit of worship already exists in man. It is like the desire for food which exists in every infant, but if it is not guided, he will eat mud instead of food and enjoy eating it!

Were it not for the leadership of the prophets (‘a), the direction of this instinct would be elsewhere, and instead of God, false and futile deities would be worshipped. Just as during the forty days of the absence of Hadhrat[13] Musa (Moses) (‘a), the people through the temptation of Samiri started worshipping the golden calf.