Why We Worship

Why We Worship

Sheikh Abdulrahman Chao

Opening and Praise

The Opening Verses

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared. And do not die except as Muslims.

O you who have believed, fear your Lord, Who created you from one soul, and He created from it a wife, and He spread from them many men and women. And fear Allah, whom you ask about, and the wombs. Indeed, Allah has been a watcher over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say a firm word, that He may amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has won a great triumph.

The Core Problem: Teaching What Without Why

Brothers and sisters, I want to talk to you today about something that has been on my mind for a very long time. And I'm sure that any parent, whether they're in this masjid, or anywhere else around the world, they also have this question on their mind. In fact, I get a lot of emails, phone calls, and just people wherever I go, they ask me this one question. And they say, Sheikh, my son is 15, or my daughter is about to go into college, or whatever it is. And I do not know why my son or daughter does not pray. I tell them to go pray. I tell them to do this. I tell my daughter to put on the hijab. I tell them to go to the masjid. But they don't listen. What am I supposed to do?

And the question is, brothers and sisters, you see this question now, that parents are asking me, why is it that my child, my son, my daughter, doesn't go to the masjid, doesn't pray, doesn't put the hijab, whatever it is. You see now the parents asking why. But when they were teaching their kids, when their

kids were babies, and when their kids were growing up, they never taught their kids why they should worship Allah. They only taught kids of what to do and how to do it. That's it.

The Pattern of Teaching Without Understanding

So we as parents, we as elders, we have this habit of teaching our kids and the youngsters of what to say when you see your elders. How to dress, what to do and what not to do. So we like to teach the kids. We want our kids to learn how to read the Quran. We want to teach our kids of how they can pray. We want to teach our daughters of how to put on the hijab, and what to wear and what to say.

Do you see this problem here? That we have been teaching our kids this entire time of what to do and how to do. But rarely are we taught why. Rarely are we taught why we do it. And this is something throughout the life of a parent. A child is always told by the parents, it's time to go to school. They're always telling them what to do. And whenever the kid asks them, why do we have to go to school? Why do I have to do this? And why do I have to take out the trash? Or whatever it is.

You see parents getting very upset, very angry, very emotional. Some of them don't know how to give the answer of why they have to take out the trash. They just know that when the trash is full, they just go to take it out, and how to take it out. That's it. But if the parents are going to be upset at explaining why they need to do these small things in life, how do you expect our kids of the future to care about what and how they're doing, if you've never told them of why they're doing it in the first place? Real talk.

The Real Question We Must Answer

And so we always hear the complaints. I've taken my kids to the Sunday school. I've taken them to the imam. I've taught them how to pray. But why are they not doing it? And I think the question brothers and sisters is that we as parents need to first know why do we worship Allah. We need to stop focusing on what we're worshipping and how we're worshipping and what exactly we're doing and focus first with our kids on why we worship Allah (عز وجل)

Some of us here, we are able to get to this answer of why we worship Allah. (نحن نحوم حول هذا السؤال). We're always buzzing around this question. And sometimes we're going to know the answer, a glimpse of the answer, whenever we see a brother or a sister who reverts to Islam.

The Insight from New Muslims

And whenever you ask them, why did you choose Islam? You're going to get the same answer across the board. They will say, I have been studying, I have been reading, I have been thinking, I have been analyzing, I have been pondering, and I've convinced that Islam is the right religion. And when all the Muslims see this, they get all happy and they're like, mashallah takbir.

But after that, they don't think about the significance and the impact that that statement, this new revert or this new convert has. No one thinks about it after that. It's just like, mashallah, alhamdulillah. Allah guided him to Islam, give him a Quran, give him a prayer book, and then that's it. Sometimes you even have brothers and sisters who have already reverted to Islam for like five years. For like five years, six years. And they already learned how to pray, and they learned how to fast, and they learned how to do all these things. And you have like Muslims in the masjid like totally oblivious, and they're like, brother, are you new here? Do you want to learn how to make wudu?

The Divine Perspective on Worship

So the question is, if Allah has said in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, a hadith Qudsi, if Allah has already informed us that He does not need our ibadah, that His kingdom is not going to increase if we worship Him. Nor will it decrease if we don't worship Him. Then the question gets bigger and bigger. If Allah doesn't need us to worship Him, then why does Allah require us to worship Him?

Now a lot of times you have people who might have studied a little bit of the ilm, who might have studied a little bit of the Islamic knowledge. And they will easily answer this question by saying, Allah says in the Quran:

We have not created humans and jinn except that they worship Allah.

And they will just say, because Allah said so. But there is a reason why. And asking why is not wrong. Because how is it possible that Allah expects you? How is it that Allah will expect you to do all of these things? And how can you expect yourself to do all of these things if you don't understand why you're doing it in the first place?

The Hadith Qudsi About Human Actions

The Prophet ﷺ, when he continues in this hadith that he says, that Allah says, that if all my servants were to come to one place and they were to never associate any partners with Allah (عز وجل) and that they were to be the best, and that it was manifested in one person (أتقى رجل) the most pious person, and he was doing everything perfect, that would not increase Allah in anything. And if everybody on earth was to disobey Allah, that would not decrease Allah in anything.

So we come back to the question, why? And I'm going to try to give you a few logical answers, (بإذن الله تعالى) And these answers should have already been memorized in your head before you decided to have children. And so if you don't know them, now is the time to know these answers. It's prime time for you to understand yourself as a parent.

لماذا أعبد الله ؟ وكي تشرح لإبنك ولبنتك ولماذا أنت تعبدين الله ولماذا أنت تعبد الله؟

So that you can explain to your kids, why you worship Allah, why they should worship Allah.

First Answer: We Are In Need of Allah

The first point, brothers and sisters, is that, we are in need of Allah. That when Allah doesn't need any of our ibadah, we are the ones who are in need of Allah.

(نحن محتاجون إلى الله عز وجل. نحن فقراء إلى الله عز وجل)

We are all in need of Allah. We are all nothing without Allah (عز وجل)

The Analogy of Protecting Children

And we have a lot of teenagers today, and even adults, when you ask them, worship Allah, go to the masjid. They will say, why do I have to do it? I'm free, I have free choice, I have free will, why do I have to do it?

But I'm going to give you a very simple example. If you see your child going forward, and let's say you have a hot stove, and they want to go and touch the flame. Are you going to say, oh, freedom of choice, yes, yes. Go ahead, touch the flame. (يلا مضيتك). Stretch your hand out and go stick your hand into the stove and see what happens.

Is anyone going to say, oh, you have deprived your child of liberty. No one is going to say that. But everyone is going to say (لمصلحته ولمصلحتها). It is because it is for that child's benefit. Because if they were to touch it, their hand would be hurting a lot. And because the child doesn't understand his or her (مصلحة). Because they don't understand what is good for them.

The Long-term Perspective

You are there to teach your children what is good, and what is bad for them. You tell your kids to go to school, because you know that in the long run, that in 15-20 years, that if they don't get an education and get a good job, they're going to be in a difficult position. So those results are very close.

But when Jannah and Jahannam are in the next life, when the results of our (اعمال) are not seen until fully disclosed to us on the Day of Judgment, brothers and sisters, we have to take it even more seriously.

Human Nature and Motivation

Because we as humans, brothers and sisters, are a type of creation that won't do anything for free. Humans won't do anything for nothing. Even those who help others for no charge, right? (في سبيل الله) There is something in return. It is because they want Allah's pleasure. It is because they love Allah. It's

because it gives them meaning to their life. Nobody would do anything just for nothing. No one would do something for nothing.

The Example of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

Look at the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. A few months ago, we talked about the treaty of Hudaybiyyah. And we talked about how Allah revealed to Muhammad ﷺ:

That Allah has forgiven your sins, past, present and future.

Now the question is then, why did the Prophet ﷺ still worship Allah? Why did he still stand up for salah until his feet crack? And the Prophet ﷺ in one narration he says:

(Bukhari 4837)

Shall I not be a thankful slave?

The Blessings We Should Be Grateful For

Look what Allah has given you. Allah has given you life. Allah has given you eyesight, hearing, good health, wealth, children. If someone was to give you a million dollars, wouldn't you feel indebted to that person? But why is it when Allah gives us things that cannot have a price tag on it, that we forget about thanking Allah (عز وجل)? Why?

The Angels' Constant Worship

You know in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, that there are certain angels, ever since day one that they are created, they are already in a state of ibadah. And when the day of judgment comes, the angels will raise their heads up from sajdah and from ruku' and they will say, O Allah, we have not worshipped you the way how you deserve to be worshipped. And they are worshipping 24 hours, 7 days a week, for thousands and thousands of years.

The Scholar's Wise Response

To give you an idea of why we need to worship Allah, and why it is in our best interest, is a man came to a scholar one time and he said, Ya Shaykh, why is it that I have to worship Allah? Can't I just do whatever I want to do? I have free choice, I can do whatever I want.

The scholar replied to this person and he said, Yes, you can do whatever you want, that's true, you have free choice. It is your choice if you don't want to worship Allah, it is your choice if you don't want to pray 5 times a day, it is your choice if you don't want to fast and do any of the ibadah. But if you