Allah Subnaahahu wa ta'alaa tells us in the Holy Qur'an that he did not create mankind or the jinn except that they worship Him.

I guess this is what we've been created for, to worship God. When I first heard this, I was like "Hang about, our existence is only to worship God? That's it, no time off?" I had in my head the picture of being stuck on the prayer mat...indefinitely, and it was not a happy picture.

It was quite daunting actually, that the demand of the creator was that we should have no life and just be permanently in prostration upon the prayer mat. It seemed to me to be quite cruel.

I didn't realise at the time that I was being an stupid, but then in my defence, the nature of stupidity is such that the stupid person seldom realises that he is stupid. You see the root of my misconception was that I thought I knew what worship was...y'know being imprisoned upon the prayer mat.

So, what is worship?

We know that worship is praying salah, but the mere performance of salah is not worship, because you can be hankering after enjoyments whilst your head is in prostration. Thus salah is only worship when performed with absorbed awareness.

We know that charity is worship, but charity alone is not worship because you can make sure everyone knows just how pious you are! You can make sure your friends, family, colleagues and anyone else with ears knows about your generous donation. Thus charity is only worship when your left hand doesn't know what your right hand has given.

Fasting is worship, but is the staggering performance of not eating the act of worship? No, the Messenger of God SAW taught us, the one who doesn't abstain from bad words and actions while he fasts, God does need his hunger. Thus fasting is only worship when you are as diligent about what comes out of your mouth as you are about what goes in it.

Sacrifice in the days after Hajj is also worship, but is the killing of an animal the act of worship? No, we are taught that it is not the meat which reaches God but the piety of the person making the sacrifice.

Asking for help is worship, but you can ask teachers, doctors and the police for help. Thus asking for help alone is not the act of worship.

Love is worship, but love alone is not the act of worship as you can love that which God does not like for you. So what exactly is the act of worship?

I think that there is no act of worship. Worship isn't something you can just 'do'. Rather its the way you do something. Worship is the way you do your salah, the way you give Zakah, the way fast, its the way you sacrifice and ask for help and love. Worship is what you bring to your deeds that makes them "especially for God".

Prayer is the essence of worship, but prayer is not an act. A cricketer will hold his hands together to catch a cricket ball. They prayer then is not that we raise our hands but that we raise them like a hungry beggar, and that we show the emptiness of our state in the emptiness of our palms, and that we reach out for some help with our out-spread fingers.

Prayer isn't worship when you pray like you mean it, because we're all wannabes trying to pray like we mean it. Prayer is worship, when you pray like you need it. Because when you're desperate, small things become imbued with heavy significance. You do things for a very specific reason. You do things in very specific ways.

I guess my mental image of a life sentence on the prayer mat was wrong because if it was a life sentence on the prayer mat, then it wouldn't be worship. Worship is about doing things like you need God. I believe that this is why God created us, to do things like we need Him.

To love others like we need Him, to serve His creation like we need Him, to obey Him like we need Him, to live our lives like people who are needy and beggars for God, for His Mercies, for His Forgiveness, for His Attention, for His Beauty, for his Divine, Radiant Face which even illuminates the shadows of the heart.

Its not about the time you do on the prayer mat, its how the time is spent.