Did God create everything only so that we would worship Him?

God does not need our worship, we need it. In the Holy Qur’an worship means following God so closely that we take on His attributes, and that is an endless journey towards perfection.

The question carries weight. Why would God create a whole universe with the struggle for existence, death and suffering, only so that someone would one day worship Him? It sounds as if God needed admiration. But the verse that follows says the opposite. God wants no sustenance from people and nothing that would benefit Him.

The key lies in the words themselves. The Arabic word for servant, abd, describes someone who follows the instructions of his master and sets no will of his own against them. In Arabic the same root also describes a path that has been trodden so firmly by many steps that the footprints can be seen in it. Whoever follows in this way walks exactly in the footsteps of the one he follows.

Worship, ibada, therefore means more than saying prayers. It means following God so faithfully that we take on His attributes. God is merciful, so a person becomes more merciful. God is just, so a person becomes more just. Since God’s attributes have no limit, this journey has no end either. There is no moment at which one has to stand still.

Understood in this way, the purpose of creation is not a service to God but a gift to human beings. Since creation began, everything has been moving towards greater perfection. With human beings this movement becomes conscious. A person can now decide for himself whether to go further.

Prayer, too, gains its meaning in this light. It is a daily exercise in this direction. Whoever understands this no longer sees worship as a burden, but as the path on which a person grows.