Part One: SEERAH (Biographical Sketch) CHAPTER

C:\Users\Admin\Dropbox\The Message - Material of Maulana\16. Books and Review\Apa's Books\Life And 38 kind Being, to whom we owe limitless blessings. So this expression of lowliness before Him is tinged with love. The concept of Ibadah entails that one should first realise his relation to God. The relation of man to God is the relation of the humblest creature to an extremely beloved Being. Man shivers in awe of God but, at the same time, he draws closer to Him in great expectations. For the fear of God is not of the kind produced by the sight of a fearful object. It is rather a feeling of extreme hope and extreme apprehension. It is a situation of love and fear in which man runs towards the very Being he fears, in the hope of receiving from Him His divine blessings. According to the Quran, the essence of worship is to be God-fearing. “O men, serve your Lord who has created you and those who have gone before you, so that you may guard yourselves against evil.’ (2:21) When a believer has developed this strong attachment to God, he reaches a state of deep realisation enabling him to experience the presence of God. The Prophet has been reported as saying: “Pray to God as if you are seeing Him.” (Mishkat, Chapter on Faith). According to this saying, the most sublime form of worship is that in which the worshipper is so lost in thoughts of God that he finds himself very close to Him. His apprehension of the divine presence should be as keen as if God were actually visible. This state of psychological proximity is the most sublime achievement of prayer. All rites of worship are aimed at arriving at that state. So the aim of our worship is to enter into a relationship with God “and” reach God. To find God thus in this life is the highest reality of religion. The Implication of worship What God desires of man, first and foremost, is that he display humility in His presence. It is this attitude which is called worship. But man has not been created in a vacuum. He has rather been placed in a world full of diverse circumstances. If the believer has truly surrendered his being before God,