Why worship God?

By Yaqeen Institute

One common question posed by skeptics of faith pertains to the wisdom behind God asking His creation to worship Him.

Why does God ask us to worship Him when He has no need for our worship?

How does God benefit from our prayers, supplications, and fasting?

These questions usually involve incorrect assumptions about the nature of God and where the benefits of worship lie.

Is this question flawed?

1. The Divine Being is incomprehensible.

Human understanding is limited and can not fully comprehend the divine. If we cannot fully comprehend God, then it becomes impossible to critique God.

IMAGINE: Imagine asking every person to learn everything abut the universe. It cannot be done because there is still so much we don’t know about the universe and can’t comprehend about infinity. Similarly, God is something more incomprehensible than even the seemingly infinite universe.

2. The Divine is inhuman

It is easy to assume that God asks for things for the same reason humans do. But God does not have human needs. How can the needs of a creator be the same as its creation?

3. The request for worship is not accompanied by need

God’s request for worship is not due to need, but out of wanting to benefit the people, as the act of worship can provide many positive outcomes for humanity.

IMAGINE: Imagine a doctor who asks a patient to open their mouth in order to provide medicine. The doctor does not benefit, but they request it because it will benefit the patient.

Why is worshiping God necessary and beneficial

1. Only God is worthy of worship

If we understand that God is perfect beyond comprehension and has granted countless blessings on us, from the clothes on our back to the beating of our hearts, then worship becomes the way of recognising this greatness.

2. Worship brings benefit to our daily lives

Worship allows people the inner peace and fills the spiritual void that is otherwise dangerously filled from the outer world - when one seeks to self-actualise through materialism and status.

3. Worship is liberating

Human beings are designed to invest their lives in serving a purpose. Being purposeful is an inescapable facet of our functionality and is hardwired into us. The purpose that we serve can be God, or it can be our carnal desires, egos or social pressures.

Worshiping the True God liberates one from being subjugated and shackled to inferior pursuits and instead empowers the individual by worshiping the One Who deserves worship. Surrendering one’s heart and limbs to the Creator represents the pinnacle of honour, while surrendering to the powerless and merciless creation is demeaning.

Embracing a lifestyle of worshiping God becomes the truest form of liberation.

4. God loves to hear from His creation

Prayer is a dialogue between servants and their Lord and God responds to those who seek Him by extending mercy and affection

‘If [my worshiper] remembers Me in private, then I will remember him in private…when he comes to Me walking, I will go to him running.’

5. Worship is the perfect exam question

The purpose of life is to test our virtue, and worshiping God in its various forms are the questions on that exam.

Though most exams must involve a degree of difficulty, the tranquility worship offers and its meaningful nature keeps the worshipers devoted. They taste its fruits in this life and are driven by them to pass the exam in its entirety.

To conclude, God loves to be worshiped and obeyed by His creation, not because of a need for validation or servitude, but because He loves to see the benefits we achieve from it.