ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Self-Recognition for Self-Improvement The Truth of Worship Worship has various meanings and applications which are different in scope: (1) Worship is an act which is done only to express servitude to Almighty Allah. Basically it does not bear any relationship with aught but Allah (SWT). Acts of worship include salat , sawm and Hajj .

(2) Worship applies to an act which is done with the intention of qurbah , even if it does not primarily bear the title of servitude and even if it is related to the servants of Allah. These include khums, zakat, jihad, al-amrbil-maruf and al-nahy anil-munkar . (3) Worship is done with the intention of qurbah , even if its correctness does not hinge on this intention. These include all acts which bring about the satisfaction of Allah (SWT).

If these are carried out with the intention of qurbah , it will be deemed worship in this sense. (4) Worship refers to obeying one who is independently regarded as wajibul-ita'ah , even if there is no intention of paying homage to him and expressing servitude to him. With lexical analysis and application of the rules of discourse, we might prefer some of these meanings or we might regard them as having ambiguity and as being applicable to all cases while maintaining difference in degree.

But obviously in this discussion, we do not intend to resolve issues related to discourse. In proving that worship is a means to reach qurbah with Allah (SWT), we do not rely on traditional proofs. On the contrary, through moral and rational preliminaries, we have reached results from which we found the terms qurbah and worship applicable to these acts. As a consequence, it is fitting to carry on the discussion along the same lines and to clarify the matter using issues which explicitly confirm.

Issues which have been proven so far and which can be used to resolve these matters are as below: (1) Man is a being who should reach ultimate perfection by his voluntary progress and development. Reaching his main goal depends on his free and conscious choice. (2) The natural and inherent powers, as well as the facilities placed at his disposal are means to reach ultimate perfection. None of them is futile in and foreign to the process of his development.

(3) Man's main goal is to reach qurbah with Allah (SWT). The essence of qurbah is to intuitively learn of one's existential attachment to and relationship with Allah (SWT).