An Obvious, Dangerous Distortion Overlooked by Most People

An Obvious, Dangerous Distortion Overlooked by Most People

By Professor Umar ibn Ahmad al-Malibari (d. 1335/1420), may God have mercy on him. [1]

One who worships the Messenger is unquestionably an unbeliever, while one who obeys him is unquestionably a Muslim. Does anyone doubt this? Certainly not. Yet people say, “Worship means obedience.” On their account, then, someone worshipping the Messenger would be a Muslim. We seek God’s refuge from hearts going astray. They wanted to enter politics and seize power, so considered the means. Satan whispered that the easiest means was to interpret worship as obedience. “There is no deity but God” would then mean “None is to be obeyed but God”, and “Worship none but God” would mean “Obey God’s commands and no one else’s”. This implies that whoever obeys anyone other than God is an unbeliever. Although it encompasses every obedience, they focused on obedience to civil rulers, saying those who obey such rulers worship them and are unbelieving polytheists. They imagined that once people understood [2] this, they would prepare to devote their efforts to establishing divine government. Thus they became rigidly committed to interpreting worship as obedience, clinging to it with their molars.

They offered proofs, all mirages. Foremost was Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah’s statement that worship is a comprehensive term for everything God loves and approves in outward and inward words and deeds… [3]

I say: Shaykh al-Islam did not say worship means obedience. What he said certainly does not define worship’s general meaning. Who could doubt the invalidity of saying, “Worship of Christ is a comprehensive term for everything Christ loves and approves,” or “Worship of an idol is a comprehensive term for everything the idol loves and approves,” and so forth? Rather, he explained worship specifically of God in a complete manner encompassing active worship, such as prayer, pilgrimage, and zakat; worship through abstention, such as avoiding fornication, usury, and other prohibitions; worship of the heart, such as contentment with decree and destiny, reliance, patience, humility, love of God and His Messenger, fear, and hope; and inward worship through refraining from pride, envy, and other prohibited states of the heart. Clearly, had he intended to explain worship’s meaning generally, whether commanded or prohibited, he would have offered a different account. He gave this account in connection with {People, worship your Lord who created you… Do not set up equals to God} [al-Baqarah: 21-22]. Undoubtedly it would have been more appropriate to explain worship’s general meaning, which must be devoted exclusively to God and may not be directed to others. I wonder why his attention did not turn to it! [4] God knows best.

They also cited the Qur’an’s statement that Christians {took their rabbis and monks as lords besides God} [al-Tawbah: 31], together with the authentic hadith explaining that they obeyed religious scholars even in permitting what God forbade and forbidding what He permitted. The Messenger explicitly called that obedience their worship. [5]

I say: This does not define worship’s meaning. It judges that Christians’ obedience to their religious scholars was worship, just as saying prostration is worship does not mean worship means prostration. Saying Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his son was worship does not mean worship means sacrificing one’s son or preparing to do so. Saying bowing is worship does not mean worship means bowing, and so forth.

The hadith’s phrase, “That was their worship,” loses its meaning if worship is interpreted as obedience. ‘That’ unquestionably refers to obedience, while ‘their worship’ would mean their obedience. The sentence would become: ‘That obedience was their obedience.’ Subject and predicate would be identical, which is incorrect; they must differ.

It is worth observing that Christians also obeyed their kings and rulers. When God said {They took their rabbis and monks}, He did not add ‘and their kings’. Why? These people claim obedience to kings and rulers constitutes worship of them and cite this verse, though it mentions no kings. How is that a proof? I say it is unsound: claim and evidence do not correspond. There is a clear difference between obeying religious scholars and obeying rulers. The former springs from hope and fear concerning the unseen and includes supplication, hence is worship; obedience to kings is not like this and is not worship.

Who does not know that the rightful object of worship is unquestionably one, while those obeyed are many? How, people, can you equate worship and obedience?

Who does not know that God prohibited worshipping others but commanded obeying others? Does the difference not become clear to you?

Who does not know that worshipping the Messenger makes one an unbeliever while obeying him makes one a Muslim? How could your hearts permit interpreting worship as obedience?

No: worship and obedience are different. God grants success.

We may mention some dangerous consequences of this distortion:

(1) Declaring Muslims unbelievers without authority from God or His Messenger. Government regulations not contradicting God’s revelation may be accepted and rulers obeyed in them. These distorters declare everyone obeying laws an unbeliever, without distinguishing worldly from religious matters. God says: {God presents Pharaoh’s wife as an example for believers, when she said: My Lord, build me a house with You in Paradise, save me from Pharaoh and his deeds, and save me from the wrongdoing people (11)} [al-Tahrim]. Undoubtedly Pharaoh’s wife lived obeying her husband’s commands and his government’s laws. Yet God made her an example for believers. Praise be to God for this ease and relief.

(2) I debated one of these distorters, explaining that interpreting worship as obedience is a great error and clear distortion. He replied: “Not every obedience is intended, only absolute obedience: once a command is issued, the recipient may never disobey, discuss its evidence, or express a contrary opinion. This blind, absolute obedience is worship permissible only towards the Lord of the worlds.” I asked: What do you say of someone obeying God’s Messenger in this manner? He replied: “He is an unbelieving polytheist.” God forbid!

Who does not know that testifying “Muhammad is God’s Messenger” entails absolute obedience to the Messenger? God says: {No believing man or woman, when God and His Messenger decide a matter, has any choice in it} [al-Ahzab: 36], and: {No, by your Lord, they do not believe until they make you judge their disputes, then find no inward resistance to your decision and submit completely (65)} [al-Nisa]. Through exaggeration and severity, these distorters made faith’s condition into unbelief. God forbid!

(3) Everyone knows the Messenger’s statement in the Farewell Pilgrimage sermon: “Satan has despaired of being worshipped in this land of yours.” [6] One of them translated the sermon into Malayalam, rendering this sentence to mean: “Satan understood that no one would obey him at Arafah.” Readers would understand the Messenger as announcing that no sins would occur at Arafah, since every sin arises from obeying Satan. Reality contradicts this, making it a denial of the truthful and trusted Messenger. No Muslim can bear this.

Thus interpreting worship as obedience became a cause of contradicting the Messenger. God forbid!

(4) After distorting the testimony of faith, they distorted verses commanding worship of God and prohibiting worship of others. For example, they explained {Worship none but God} [Hud: 26] as “Obey God’s rulings and not anyone else’s.” This makes obeying others’ commands association, a novelty unknown to Muslims.

I warn these distorters lest God’s words apply to them: {Those who wronged substituted a statement other than what they had been told} [al-Baqarah: 59]. They were commanded first and foremost to single out God in worship, but replaced that with singling Him out in sovereignty first and foremost.

After altering the declaration and verses of God’s oneness, they invented a momentous novelty unknown to Muslims: claiming prayer, fasting, zakat, and pilgrimage were prescribed merely to train people to establish divine government and administer its affairs, and so forth.

I say this is tremendous loss in this world and the Hereafter. Whoever prays, fasts, gives zakat, and performs pilgrimage with that aim gains none of it in this world and no divine reward in the Hereafter. Deeds are only according to intentions. After explaining this subject, the founder of this party [7] announced: “No predecessor has mentioned this truth!” How great is the loss of people who changed God’s religion and introduced something beyond their capacity, becoming their own enemies like those committing suicide. I ask generous God to grant success to us and them. There is no power or strength except through God.

The correct meaning:

Undoubtedly the best and clearest explanation of worship, deserving priority, is what is established from the Messenger, who received it from his Lord: {Then its explanation belongs to Us (19)} [al-Qiyamah]. He authentically said: “Supplication is worship.” [8] It is also reported that he said: “Supplication is the core of worship.” [9] Saying “O God, rescue me,” “O God, forgive me,” “O God, admit me to Paradise and protect me from the Fire,” or “O God, heal me and grant me well-being” is worship. Everything arising from hope and fear concerning the unseen and containing supplication is worship. Travelling to God’s House seeking nearness to Him is worship of God, just as travelling to saints’ graves seeking nearness to them is worship of them. Reciting the Qur’an seeking God’s countenance is worship of Him; reciting a mawlid seeking a saint’s pleasure is worship of that saint. Venerating the Kabah seeking God’s countenance is worship of God, just as venerating the cross seeking Christ’s countenance is worship of Christ. In all these, supplication is latent and motivates the act, making it worship. Ostentatious deeds, such as praying so people will see, are not worship, nor feeding the poor for people’s praise, because neither contains supplication to God. If prayer and feeding the poor seek deceased saints’ pleasure, both are worship of those saints. It is thus clear that supplication is the essence of the matter. This explains “Supplication is the core of worship.” God knows best. Praise be to God, and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and all his Companions. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.

Source:

Al-Bath al-Islami magazine, issue 9, volume 33, pp. 42-47, Jumada al-Thani 1409.

[1] See his biography in Shaykh Abd al-Haqq al-Turkmani’s study and critical edition of the author’s treatise The Meaning of “There Is No Deity but God”, with an appendix containing two further treatises on the same subject. It is available on the website of the Center for Studies in the Interpretation of Islam:

https://csiislam.org/single_version.php?id=37

[2] The printed text reads “were enabled to”; the reading supplied here, “understood”, is probably correct.

[3] Al-Ubudiyyah, al-Maktab al-Islami, Beirut, seventh edition, 1426, p. 44.

[4] His attention did indeed turn to it. After the first definition, concerning worship’s individual instances and types, he defined its essential nature in al-Ubudiyyah, p. 48: “Worship originally means humility too. A road is called subdued when feet have trodden it. But commanded worship includes humility and love, combining utmost humility before God with utmost love for Him.” He repeated this meaning throughout his writings: “The deity is the one worshipped, who deserves worship. He deserves it through attributes requiring that He be loved with utmost love and submitted to with utmost submission. Worship comprises utmost love with utmost humility.” See al-Fatawa al-Kubra, 5/227; Majmu al-Fatawa, 10/249, 8/378; Iqtida al-Sirat al-Mustaqim, 2/387; al-Nubuwwat, 1/285; Jami al-Rasail, 2/86, 196, 219; Jami al-Masail, 4/40, 6/188.

[5] Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (3352) and al-Tabarani in al-Mujam al-Kabir, 11/3773, no. 218. Graded good by Ibn Taymiyyah in al-Majmu, 7/67, and al-Albani in Sahih Sunan al-Tirmidhi (2471).

[6] Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (2159) and Ibn Majah (3055), from Sulayman ibn Amr ibn al-Ahwas, from his father. Muslim (2812) narrated from Jabir: “Satan has despaired of worshippers worshipping him in the Arabian Peninsula.”

[7] He means Abu al-Ala al-Mawdudi (d. 1979), founder of Jamaat-e-Islami in India and Pakistan and standard-bearer of the political interpretation of Islam. Al-Malibari named him explicitly in The Meaning of “There Is No Deity but God”.

[8] Narrated by Abu Dawud (1479), al-Tirmidhi (3207), al-Nasai in al-Kubra (11464), Ibn Majah (3828), and Ibn Hibban (890). Al-Nawawi said in al-Adhkar, p. 478, that its chain is sound; Ibn Hajar said in Fath al-Bari, 1/64, that it is good; al-Albani authenticated it in Sahih al-Targhib wa-l-Tarhib (1627).

[9] Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (3371) from Anas ibn Malik. Al-Tirmidhi said it is unusual through this route and known only through Ibn Lahiah. Al-Albani said in Ahkam al-Janaiz, p. 247: “Its chain contains Ibn Lahiah, weak because of poor memory, but its meaning is sound.”