Abdal Hakim Murad - The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology

226 William C. Chittick
the eye that sees shortcomings; and to witness your good traits as
coming from the divine determination.’’ 26
One of the earliest books to offer a systematic analysis of the moral
imperative was Observing the Rights of God (al-Ri‘aya li-h _
uquq Allah)
by al-H _
arith al-Muh _
asibı (d.857). The basic question he addressed was
how people can live up to their human responsibility ‘‘to worship God
and associate nothing with Him’’. Although the book says relatively
little about ‘‘worship’’ and ‘‘servanthood’’ per se, it provides a thorough
analysis of the worshipping soul.
Observing the Rights of God is divided into nine parts. The first
describes the key moral and spiritual dimensions of worship, and the
somewhat longer second part explains the nature of hypocrisy and the
ways to overcome it. The next two parts deal with the importance of
proper companions and knowing one’s own defects. The next four
chapters provide long analyses of the major obstacles to proper worship:
self-satisfaction (‘ujb), pride (kibr), delusion (ghurur), and envy (h _
asad).
In a short final section, the author describes how the aspirant should
keep his mind vigilantly upon God.
Muh _
asibı’s text begins not with a discussion of worship itself,
but with an analysis of taqwa, a qur’anic term that translators
have rendered into English with words such as piety, dutifulness,
godfearing, and righteousness. Its fundamental importance is made
clear in verses like 49:13: ‘‘Surely the noblest of you in God’s sight is
the one with the most taqwa.’’ The word combines the senses of fear,
caution and self-protection, and it comes up constantly in discussions
of worship. In his commentary on 2:21, ‘‘O people, worship your
Lord’’, Sulamı can say, ‘‘Make the worship of your Lord sincere by not
taking any partner with Him. Then unity and sincerity will take you
to taqwa.’’ 27
Muh _
asibı definestaqwa as ‘‘being wary of shirk, of every lesser sin
prohibited by God, and of neglecting anything necessary made incumbent
by God’’. 28 Having reminded his readers of the many qur’anic
verses that command believers to have taqwa, hetellsthem,‘‘Taqwa is
the first waystation of the worshippers, and through it they will reach
the highest waystation.’’ 29 Hethenturnstoaquestionposedbythe
person for whom he wrote the book: ‘‘What is it that you command me
to begin with?’’ He answers:
That you know that you are a servant and a vassal and that you have
no deliverance except through taqwa before your Master and Patron.
Only then will you not perish.
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