A man says he worships Allah in order to attain knowledge; what is the ruling on that?

The questioner : A man says he worships Allah in order to attain knowledge; what is the ruling on that? And what do you say about this?

The Shaykh : A man says he worships Allah in order to attain knowledge because Allah says: and so on? We say, yes, this is a good intention. The evidence for this is that Allah encourages righteous deeds and that He established the legal punishments for the perpetrator of evil. For example, a fornicator may refrain from fornication out of fear of Allah, but his fear of the punishment also influences his refraining, and there is no harm in that. Did he not intend the Face of Allah? Knowledge itself is an act of worship.