A Critical Study of Ayatollah Sobhani’s Views on the Nature of Worship

The identification of the term ‘Ibadeh’ (worship) has a long history in the writings of philologists. The sect of ‘Wahhabism’, by its misunderstanding of the meaning of worship, has excommunicated the Muslims. In contrast, Ayatulah Sobhani, in most of his works, has presented an analysis of worship, which is closer to the reality of Sharieh (Islamic Law). The present paper aim to examine critically the definition of worship proposed by Ayatullah Sobhani. He believes that worship has two constitutive elements: internal and external. Its internal element is the worshiper’s ‘Khuzu’ (humility) and ‘Tathalul’ (abjection), and its external element is classified into four groups: in the first group, ‘Uluhiyyeh’ (deity) is the base, and worship means the humility before Allah; in the second group, the base is‘Rububiyyah’ (lordship), and, worship is the state of humility in which a person believes in Âllah’s Lordship; in the third group, the base is ‘independence’, and, in the fourth group, the base is “Tafwiḍ” (resignation). In the third group, worship is the humility before God who is the creator and the independent being. In the fourth version, worship is humility before a being other than Allah, such as idols, stars, angels, prophets and God’s saints, to whom the affairs of the universe have been delegated. The authors define worship as expressing abjection and obedience before the Divine Lord, which not only is a conclusive definition, but it is also devoid of the defaults of Ayatullah Sobhani’s definition. The method adopted for the present study is a descriptive and analytic one.