Defining Worship
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, some of you defined worship by saying: what is commanded by the Shari'ah, without being based on customary practice or rational necessity.
Answer:
Yes, this is correct. This is the definition: what is commanded by the Shari'ah. This means that worship is based on divine revelation (taqwiyyah). What is commanded by the Shari'ah, without any rational necessity. The intellect has no role in it. What the intellect approves of does not become worship unless the Shari'ah indicates it. And customary practice, which is not a divine command but rather the habits of people, what people and societies are accustomed to, is only taken from the Book and the Sunnah. It is not taken from customs and traditions, nor from intellects, but only from revelation. The definition is correct.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Honorable Shaykh, some of you defined worship by saying: what is commanded by the Shari'ah, without being based on customary practice or rational necessity.
Answer:
Yes, this is correct. This is the definition: what is commanded by the Shari'ah. This means that worship is based on divine revelation (taqwiyyah). What is commanded by the Shari'ah, without any rational necessity. The intellect has no role in it. What the intellect approves of does not become worship unless the Shari'ah indicates it. And customary practice, which is not a divine command but rather the habits of people, what people and societies are accustomed to, is only taken from the Book and the Sunnah. It is not taken from customs and traditions, nor from intellects, but only from revelation. The definition is correct.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
شرح نونية ابن القيم [37] — alfawzan.live (39:29)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.