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Part Two of the Answer:
An Introduction and a Directive from God

So, what God do Muslims worship?

Here now is a second part of the answer to that question. And it comes from God Almighty himself, right at the beginning of his discourse to humans in the Qur’an.

It is actually God’s own introduction of himself to the world – to his creation, in the Qur’an – and a clear and ringing command from him to them as to what God they must all worship.

Here is how God introduces himself to the world in the first Aayah of the opening chapter of the Qur’an:

Al-Hamdu Lillahi Rabbil ‘Aalameen.
Arrahmaanir Raheem.
(Surah Al-Faatihah).

Paraphrase:

All praise is due to the master of the worlds.
The most merciful!
The most beneficent and compassionate! (1:1, 2)

And then later on in Surah Al-Baqarah the Qur’an points out that God Almighty is the only God that there is and, therefore, he is the only one that everyone must serve and worship:

Wa Ilahukum Ilahun Wahindun La Ilaha
Illa Huwar Rahmanur Rahim (Al-Baqarah).

Paraphrase:

And your God is one God.
There is no God besides him.
The most merciful!
The most beneficent and compassionate (2:163)!

Elsewhere, the Qur’an tells every one of us – tells every human being – what God we must all worship:

Ya Ayyuhannaas U’budoo Rabbakamulladhee
Khlaqakum Walladheena Min Qablikum…

Paraphrase:

Oh people!
Worship your master –
The one who created you
And created those before you (2:21).

The one who spread the earth under you
And raised the sky above,
And sent down water from the sky
And provided food for you from fruits!

So do not then
Knowingly associate partners with God! (2:22)

Where will we find a better introduction of God?

And where will we find a clearer directive to the members of the human race as a whole as to what God they must all worship?

Part Three of the Answer:
Surah Al-Ikhlas

So, what God do Muslims worship then?

Right here – in Surah Al-Ikhlas, chapter 112 of the Qur’an – is the third part of the answer to that question. The entire Surah is dedicated to answering the question: What God do Muslims worship?

Though short in terms of the number of words it uses, this Surah is so profound and so complete in meaning that Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, called it a third of the Qur’an.

Let us read the translation of Surah Al-Ikhlas given below and then let each one of us ask ourselves:

What God would or should any of us worship if not the one
the Qur’an describes so majestically in Surah Al-Ikhlas?

Let us thereafter go ahead and freely choose the God each one of us is most persuaded to worship. For that is the right given to us by God Almighty himself, in the Qur’an: the right to believe in and freely worship the God of our choice.

What more is there to say?

Surah Al-Ikhlas – An English Rendering

So, what God do Muslims worship?

Here is the third part of the answer to that question:

Surah Al-Ikhlas:

(1)

Say:
He,
Allah,
Is one!

(2)

Allah,
The most sublime, perfect and independent –
The one who is in need of nothing from anyone,
But to whom all must turn for the fulfillment of their needs!

(3)

He gave birth to no one.
Nor did anyone give birth to him.

(4)

Nor is there anyone in any way equal to him.

Part Four of the Answer:
God of All Beautiful Names

So, what God do the Muslims worship?

The answer could be endless. But here is the fourth and, for the time being, the final part of the answer to that question:

Muslims worship God Almighty to whom
all beautiful names belong!

Once again, this part of the answer, like the other three parts above, also comes directly from the pages of the Qur’an.

And here is how the Qur’an puts it:

Qulid-‘Ullaha Awid-Ur-Rahmaan.
Ayyam-Maa Tadu-‘oo Falahul
Asmaa-ul Husnaa (Surah Al-Israa’).

Paraphrase:

Say:

Call Allah,
Or call Ar-Rahman,
The most merciful one!
No matter what or whom you call,
To him belong all the beautiful names (17:110).

So that is the God Muslims worship.

And always have for centuries and millennia.

And they do so because there is – and there can be – no other God but him: the maker and master of the worlds.

As the Qur’an puts it:

Fa-Dhaalikumullahu Rabbukumul Haqq.
Fa-Ma-Dha Ba’dal Haqqi Illad-Dalaal (Yunus).

Paraphrase:

So, that indeed is your true and real master.
And what recourse is there after truth,
but going astray and getting lost (10:32)?

And again, in the earlier part of the same Surah, the Qur’an puts it this way:

Dhaalikumullahu Rabbukum Fa’budoohu
(Yunus).

Paraphrase:

That indeed is your master.
So serve and worship him (10:3).

That then is the God Muslims worship. And always have.

How much more clear or precise can it get?

Isn’t it time we all asked ourselves what God it is that we worship?

And why?

END

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