What is the validity of this statement: "I do not worship Allah hoping for His reward or fearing His punishment, but because He is the one who deserves worship"?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: How valid is this statement: "I do not worship Allah hoping for His reward, nor fearing His punishment, but because He is the one who deserves worship"?
Answer:
No, he does not say "because He is the one who deserves worship"; that is from you. He says: "Because I love Him, because I love Allah, I worship Him because I love Him, I do not worship Him out of fear of His punishment, nor out of hope for His reward, because that is the worship of merchants, and I love Him, I worship Him only because I love Him." This is the way of the Sufis.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: How valid is this statement: "I do not worship Allah hoping for His reward, nor fearing His punishment, but because He is the one who deserves worship"?
Answer:
No, he does not say "because He is the one who deserves worship"; that is from you. He says: "Because I love Him, because I love Allah, I worship Him because I love Him, I do not worship Him out of fear of His punishment, nor out of hope for His reward, because that is the worship of merchants, and I love Him, I worship Him only because I love Him." This is the way of the Sufis.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [341 -858] ما صحة هذا القول أنا لا أعبد الله رجاء ثوابه ولا مخافة عقابه، بل لأنه هو المستحق للعبادة؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.