Praise be to God! There is no other god except God.
When searching the Quran for verses, containing all three English words, “Worship” “God” “alone” in any order, the result produces 30 verses. God willing, I will look at the first 10 verses, then describe something I got from the verse, and for some verses, a life event that relates to it. But before, I continue let me emphasize that the word for worship in Arabic, also means “serve”, so I will translate it as “serve” in cases when it has to do with non-religious aspects of serving God, and I will translate it as “worship” in cases when it has to do with religious aspects of worshiping God.
Verse 2:138 tells us to worship God alone by believing that God’s system is the best.
There are many times I tackle a project or task, then map out a path to help me achieve the end goal. I will begin working, get stuck, take breaks and get back to work again. There are times I am unable to complete the task and get frustrated and angry. Did I start off the project seeking God’s permission and guidance? (1:5) Am I being patient while working hard? (42:43, 90:4) If I miss those steps, I am not using God’s system and therefore not using the best system. There were other times in my life when I was working on a project and just asked God to help me. To this day, I could not describe how I did it or how to repeat it. God’s system is truly the best!
Verse 2:172 tells us to serve God alone by eating from good things and be thankful to God.
Am I saying, “In the name of God,” then recklessly devouring my food? God help me to slow down, and be thankful for the good food God has provided to me, during each bite.
Verse 3:51 tells us that worshiping God alone is the right path.
If the choice to complete a task is presented to someone as, “You can do it this way, which is the wrong way, or you can do it this way, which is the right way,” most reasonable people will choose to do it the right way. Why then do we not to choose to worship God alone all the time? Worshiping God alone is the right path.
Verse 4:36 tells us to worship and serve God alone by not associating anything with God, regarding specified people, and not being an arrogant show off.
Doing opposite of these commands are driven from submitting to the ego. There are times when I am playing with my grandkids and need to be more careful. We will do a talent show in our living room and after all the grandkids go, I sometimes take a turn. Because I am the announcer, when I am done, I will brag that my performance was superb and I won the, “Golden Crown.” Although we are having fun, I am teaching my grandkids to be arrogant showoffs. God willing, now that I am more conscious of this, when announcing our living room talent shows, I can use this opportunity to be humble, and teach the grandkids not to be arrogant showoffs.
Verse 6:102 tells us to worship God alone by believing that God is the creator of all things and in control of all things.
In sports sometimes people are judged according to the degrees of difficulty. If they are doing one flip and someone is doing two flips, although they both performed the stunt perfectly, the one doing two flips will win. May God help me, but one of the hardest degrees of difficulty for me, is accepting God is in control of all things at all times. There are times someone cuts me off in traffic, someone is cursing or using profane hand jesters, I’ll lose or just can’t find something, or something breaks in my house that needs to be fixed. When any of these things happen to me, I have to find the positive aspect of the situation and accept that God is in control at all times.
Verse 6:162 tells us to worship God alone by devoting our Contact Prayer, our worship practices, our life, and our death to Him.
There are other verse that tell us to worship God alone by devoting Contact Prayer, worship practices and our lives, the part that stuck out to me in this verse is death. God help me submit that even my death belongs to You, and make my death pleasing to You!
Verse 7:70 tells us to worship God alone, even if we have to abandon what our parents worshiped.
For most of us whose parents were not submitters, we fully understand the difficulty of this task and for us whose parents are submitters, it could mean abandoning times or situations you witnessed your parents forgetting God. Growing up in a Catholic household in America, being Muslim was portrayed as being a crazy terrorist. Through the grace of God, God made me question their beliefs and ways and guided me to the truth.
Verse 10:104 tells us to worship God alone also because He is the One who will terminate our lives.
Some people may think that they are able to terminate lives, but it is really God that is doing it. Everyone and everything has an appointed term and God controls that appointment. You may think that you are increasing your life span because you got a vaccine shot, but you are not. You may think you are decreasing your life span because you take chances while you are driving, but you are not. God will terminate our lives according to His predetermined time, and hopefully we used that time to worship and please God alone!
Verse 16:51 tells us to serve God alone by reverencing God.
Not just think about God, but taking time to reverence God. It is a blessing to reflect on God’s attributes, seeing, and knowing that God does not need us in any way. When I am sitting in my office working, God help me to not just thank and think about God, but being extremely thankful that God created me with eyes to see, a brain to think, hands to type, then truly reverence God!
Verse 16:52 tells us to worship God alone by devoting our religion to Him alone.
In summary, May God strengthen us all to worship and serve Him alone believing God’s system is the best, eating from good things and being thankful to God, following the right paths, not associating anything with God, regarding specified people, and not being an arrogant show off, believing God is the creator of all things and in control of all things, devoting Contact Prayers, worship practices, life, and death, abandoning what our parents worshipped, and believing in God’s retribution, believing God is the One who will terminates lives, reverencing God, and devoting our religion to Him alone.
By: Robert Szilagyi