Minute with a Muslim #352 – Higher Level of Worship

I was talking with someone the other day, and we were talking about

why it's important, why faith is important to people.

And I was kind of explaining how belief in eternal consequences from a perfect God is the strongest motivation that people will have to act justly and to act, right.

So, you know, I always give the example of speeding, and the road, and you've got a speed limit 35 miles an hour, 40 miles an hour? How many people follow the speed limit?

How many people drive a little bit over that? Right? Most people, I think, I think probably most people drive over that. Why?

Why did they do it?

Right? Well, the consequences are very, very temporary.

And the one imposing the consequences, it's not perfect. So you don't know where the policeman is, maybe he's there, maybe he's not. And so if he's not there, he's not going to see you. And so you can speed and you can get away with it. And so you'll do it. Right. If the police were perfect, they had 100% ability to,

you know, keep track and detect every single person on every single road. And some new technology that the road itself was able to kind of

identify this person sped here at this point, and you know, that nobody would speak. Right, actually, I saw this change in Saudi Arabia, because they, once I when I left Medina for the summer, and then I came back in the fall, and they had changed the laws and made it really, really strict, as to running red lights and speeding and these sorts of things. They installed cameras everywhere to take pictures of your license plates. And it was like a change overnight, people were very, very different in how they and how they drove.

So this is the strongest motivation, well, then the person that I was talking to came back and said, but that's not good. People are just trying to get

treats in paradise, or they're just trying to avoid the punishment. Like there has to be something that's more sacred, to motivation than that. And I said, You're right, you're right, there is a higher level of motivation. Because that lower level of motivation, even if it produces the results that we need to live in a just society, the end of the day, it's transactional, right? You're worshipping Allah, for his gender, you want whatever you want the endless fruit or the you know, whatever it is you want in Paradise, he was to be reunited with some of your, you know, deceased relatives or something like this.

It's transactional, you're worshiping a law in order to get something in return. Or you're avoiding something, to avoid something in return. Right? You don't want the fire, you don't want the punishment, etc.

There's a higher level of motivation in that there's a higher level of worship than that when you worship Allah subhanaw taala, not out of anything that you're gonna get from it. But just out of love for Allah, and who he is, right? Registering Allah subhanaw taala is the Most Beneficent, he's the most merciful, he's the most loving, He's the most generous.

And everything that you choose to do or choose not to do. If the motivation is just out of pure love and respect and awe for Allah, then that's a way higher motivation. And that's a way more rewardable. And, yeah, and an advanced, we can say, level of spirituality.

But how many people can get through to that level? And so we have both levels. I guess what I was trying to say to the person I was speaking to that we have both levels for a reason. The transactional sort of worship is there. It's there as like a base level of worship for most people. But if we're trying to live to our full potential we're trying to crack through to become a leader. And that's where that's what it looks like. It looks like worshiping a lot. Without even thinking for a second about what you're gonna get out of it.