Why Allah Created Humans: The Worship Struggle

Allah subhanahu wa tala tells us in the closing verses of he says subhanahu wa'ta'ala that which translates to and I have not created the gin kind and the humankind except so that they may worship me so that they may worship me. Allah is referring to himself. You notice here that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala oftent times throughout the Quran will refer to himself in the plural. He will refer to himself in the plural which is referred to in grammar in English as the royal we. So for instance,.

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Subhan, that he will refer to himself as we. And this is the royal we. The royal we meaning it's out of exaltation. He is exalting himself. It doesn't literally mean In the plural sense, it is a a type of exaltation. And in this verse, he did not use that. And this is important for us to look for when we read the Quran. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala refers to himself, whether he refers to himself in the singular or in the plural, it is based on what is being communicated in the statement. So here Allah is speaking about he is speaking about worship and so he says I I have not created the jin kind and humankind he didn't say we why because worship is worship of Allah alone without any partners otherwise it is not considered worship and so he articulates the condition of worship worship is that it is predicated oned. If a person worships Allah and worships another along with Allah in any worship then this will invalidate their worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Just like if a person makes wudoo to make salah and then breaks his salah breaks his woo during salah it will invalidate his salah because there is no such thing as salah without wudoo and there is no such thing as worship without and so Allah tells us here in this verse.

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He says, "I have created not the ginankind and the humankind except so that they may worship me." Meaning me alone without any partners. Here's the question that really should come to your mind when you think about this. When you think about this verse, when we look at the worship of the human being, if you ask the average person, and we were speaking about this two nights ago, we were to continue this topic last night, but we had our event, so we're continuing it tonight. Couple nights ago we were discussing the issue of what is worship? Allah says that he has created us for the function of worship. What is worship? And so if you ask this question to the average person, you will get not a definition of worship but you will get examples of types of worship. So you say for instance what is worship? A person will say well you know making salah giving zakah fasting Ramadan making hajj. Is that the epitome of worship? No. These are types of worship. But this is not the definition of worship. Worship is a general term used in the Quran to speak about anything that Allah loves of action or speech of actions or speech or beliefs. All of this is considered worship. And worship is very broad in its meaning. And it is possible for a person from his moment of consciousness until the end of his life to spend his life in worship. Not necessarily to spend his life making per se or giving zak or fasting. Rather, these are types of worship. But if you look at the human being and you compare the human being who was created for worship and then you com compare that with the amount of worship that we do, it seems we don't have a lot of worship to contribute. I mean think about it. You have what bare minimum five prayers a day. Those five prayers could be what? Collectively, maybe 25 minutes if we put them all together. Maybe 25 minutes, maybe 20 minutes. What about fasting? You have 12 months in a year. You have to fast only 29 of them or 28 of them. And there are a number of things that could occur that will exempt you from fasting completely. What about zak? Zak is not obligatory upon every person. It's only obligatory upon the wealthy. What about Hajj? Once in your lifetime, even if you live to be a thousand years old, you only have to make Hajj one time. But we were created from war for for the purpose of worship. Being that we were created for worship, it seems not a lot of worship is expected of us. That's what it seems like. Because when you couple that with how much of our time we spend sleeping completely in unconscious, how much of our time we spend in adolescence, how much of our time we spend in old age, how much of our time we spend going about trying to survive in this world, trying to get shelter and and secure shelter and and income and so forth for ourselves. the amount of worship seems very minuscule and then when you compare that to the angels and their worship this is a very interesting point because even the angels didn't all understand when they were told about the creation of Adam Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to the angels I am going to create the successor in the earth. They said they said their response, their question, are you going to create a creature in the earth that is going to spread mischief and spill blood, innocent blood on that earth? Meanwhile, we already exist and we sing your praises and we glorify you and we purify ourselves for you. Meaning that the angels are already worshiping Allah. Listen to this narration. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam said.

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He said that the heavens are almost buckling under the weight of the sheer amount of inhabitants. in the heavens. He said, "There is not a place in the heavens, the seven heavens, not a a space of four fingers except that it is occupied by an angel either standing or in or in sujud to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala." The prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam tells us about is essentially aa a house of Allah that is above the kaa that is on earth in the heavens for the angels the prophet tells us sallallahi wasallam that it has two doors one by which to enter and one by which to exit and that out of worship of Allah 70,000 thousand angels each day and night go through those doors and they cannot hope to ever get a second chance to do that until the day of judgment. That's how many angels there are. What What does he need you and I for? What is that for? He doesn't need the angels, but a creature created for worship at face value. It seems the human being is the lowest common denominator in that equation because the angels are described by Allah and the prophet sallall.aii wasallam to be creatures that we could not hope to compete with in their worship of Allah. So how can a human being be special? How what is our purpose? What kind of worship was Allah speaking of when he said this? It's not just the worship of and that makes the human being special. The human being has a type of worship that not even the angels experience. Not even the angels produce. What kind of worship is that? A lot of people think that the angels do not have free will. I'm sure 90% of us here have heard this before. That is not correct. There's nothing in the Quran and Sunnah that tells us that the angels are automatons that do not have free will. They have free will. They speak and they choose and they have things they like and things they don't prefer. They have free will and they have consciousness and they have intelligence. But what is different between the human being and the angel? The angel has free will and the angel has consciousness and the angel has freedom of choice but the angel does not have an instinct to disobey. That's the difference. The human being has an internal struggle. A struggle that never ends. From the moment you are born, as Shan is there at your mother's bedside and as soon as you come out of your mother's womb, he is there to poke his grimy finger into your belly. As the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam tells us and from that moment until you take your last gasp of breath you will fight that fight that's the difference between us and the angels the angels have free will but they have no inclination to disobey Allah they have no instinct no internal they are not created from the earth partially and from the heavens partially they are all light. That's where they come from. And Allah describes them. They do not disobey Allah in the least ever because they have no inclination whatever to disobey Allah. Not you and me. You and I, we have inclinations. We know what Allah wants and then we have what we want. We know with our mind what is correct and then we have these things called feelings that tell us the opposite that don't follow logic. We have as the prophet sallallah.aii Wasallam was given the choice on the night of Israel brought him a bowl of milk and a bowl of alcohol and he was allowed to choose and he chose the milk. That's the struggle. Those two options they symbolize the struggle of humanity. Do I choose what makes me feel good but goes against what I know to be right or wrong or do I choose what is wholesome even if it doesn't immediately make me feel good that's the choice that's what makes the human being special and for this reason Islam and we will end with this he said that of the wise men of Islam who have mentioned that the human being has the potential to be more virtuous than angels and has the potential to be more lowly than animals. Listen to this. He says the human being is a mixture between impulse and knowledge. Impulse and decree and divine re revelation. The angels they have no impulse. They have no desire to disobey Allah ever. And so they always choose what is correct. The animal doesn't have a choice. The animal doesn't have free will. They have impulses, nature, instincts that the animal follows. The human being has both. And so when the human being chooses to obey Allah in spite of his inclinations, he has done something that all the angels can't do together. And when the human being chooses to adhere to his impulses in spite of divine revelation, he is worse off than the animals because he has now squandered that freedom of choice, that free will and that divine revelation. That is the worship that Allah is speaking of here. That's what makes us special. And so when you are faced with a fork in the road, even if it seems trivial, and you think to yourself, what does Allah want from me here, and you have the angel telling you, come down this way, and then you look down the other fork in the road, and you see the devil there beckoning you, and you obey the angel in spite of the other path looking really nice, then you have done something that even angels are not capable of. And when you choose the opposite, you have squandered something that even the animals cannot stoop to. A loneliness that not even animals can stoop to. We ask Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala that he subhanahu wa ta'ala teach us from that which will benefit us and that he benefit us from that which he teaches us. Alhamdulillah.