Week 1

 

January 18, 2006

IDSA at UTD

 

Topic: “And (tell them that) I have not created the invisible beings and men to any end other than that they may (know and) worship Me.” [Qur'an 51:56]

 

Summary: Worship is an all inclusive term for all that God loves of external and internal sayings and actions of a person.

 

"You alone we worship and to You alone we turn for help. Guide us to the straight path." [1:5, 6]

 

Say: "Behold, my prayer, and [all] my acts of worship, and my living and my dying are for God [alone], the Sustainer of all the worlds, in whose divinity none has a share: for thus have I been bidden-and I shall [always] be foremost among those who surrender themselves unto Him." [6:162-163]

 

"It is not righteousness that you turn your faces toward the East or the West, but righteous is he who believes in Allah and the Last Day and the Angels and the Book and the Prophets, and gives his beloved money to his relatives and the orphans and the needy and for the ransoming of captives and who observes prayer and pays the poor-due; and those who fulfill their promises when they have made one, and the patient in poverty and affliction and the steadfast in time of war; it is those who have proved truthful and it is those who are the God-fearing." [2:177]

 

"For Allah, He is my Lord and your Lord: so worship ye Him: this is a Straight Way." [43:64]

 

“And those saved from the covetousness of their own souls,- they are the ones that achieve prosperity.” [59:9]

 

The Prophet said: "Whoever finds himself at the nightfall tired of his work, God will forgive his sins."

 

He said: "Seeking knowledge for one hour is better than praying for seventy years."

 

The Prophet told us: "Receiving your friend with a smile is a type of charity, helping a person to load his animal is a charity and putting some water in your neighbor's bucket is a charity."

 

 

Ritual Acts of Worship:

 

1. Daily Prayer: "Successful indeed are the believers who are humble in their prayers." (23:1-2)

 

2. Charity: "Believe in Allah and His messenger and spend of that over which He made you trustees." (57:7)

 

3. Fasting: "O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may gain piety." [2:183]

 

4. Pilgrimage: “Hence, pilgrimage unto the Temple is a duty owed to God by all people who are able to undertake it. And as for those who deny the truth - verily, God does not stand in need of anything in all the worlds.” [3:97]

 

5. Pledge: “I testify that there is no deity but Allah, and Muhammad is His servant and His messenger.”