The Purpose of Worship

Worship is often approached as obligation, habit, or duty fulfilled. When this happens, its meaning thins, and the heart grows tired of what was meant to steady it. In The Purpose of Worship, this quiet reflection returns to an older understanding: worship as alignment rather than transaction, as return rather than reward. Drawing on the spiritual insights of Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, the book explores why worship can feel heavy or empty, and what that experience reveals about attention, intention, and the inner life. Rather than offering instruction or legal guidance, this reflection examines worship as a gradual reshaping of the heart. It considers the role of intention as direction rather than words, the way the body teaches the soul through repeated movement, and how worship slowly restores proportion to a life scattered by distraction. Written in calm, restrained prose, this book is not a manual or a sermon. It is a space for contemplation — an invitation to reconsider why worship exists at all, and how its quiet practice continues to shape humility, awareness, and return. This volume stands alone while forming part of The Islamic Reflections Series, a collection of meditative works inspired by The Alchemy of Happiness.