This religion wants to liberate man from being the servant of the I' ...

This religion wants to liberate man from being the servant of the I' , and from obeying human despots; a position result of purely serving Allah alone. This inference helps us to discover the meaning of servitude to Allah, and to comprehend its truth which is: To join the line of Divine Will and to have one's will coincide with Allah's.' Without this pure sincerity one's submission would only be a worship associated with other than Allah, as described by the Qur'an.

This kind of obedience is the most dangerous ailment that may afflict the thought, morals and conduct of a Muslim believer - it is the ailment of duality of the split personality and the loss of its unity and primal originality. When such a misfortune befalls man, he would worship Allah with insincere motives, as these motives would conflict with and sap conviction from his worship of Allah. 1- Jami Al-Sa'adat, Vol.2, P.400.

[ 9 ] Thus, the hypocrite who likes to be applauded for his doing good; saying his prayers or going on pilgrimage to Mecca, he is actually worshipping himself, and turning to glorify himself, while apparently he seems to be turning to Allah; that is, he worships both himself and Allah as partners simultaneously.

The man of letters who acquires knowledge for fame; the reformer who wages a campaign against corruption in order to become a guide and leader; the rich man who is charitable in order to have his name known among the people, and those who devotedly engage themselves in the love of this world, in collecting wealth, monopolizing interests, gratifying their lust in forbidden pleasure, neglecting to remember Allah, deviating from His love and worship, turning away from Him; all of these and their like cannot be regarded as have sincerely worshipped Him, as they have worshipped themselves, defied their own persons, and desired other than Allah.

Similar are those who claim that they believe in Allah and worship Him in their prayers, fasting and pilgrimage, but they disobey His commands concerning other deeds, in order to obtain the consent of other than Allah, for fear of mortals.