The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 101
CH. 11 HŪD PT. 11 4. And that "you forgiveness of your Lord, and وَأَنِ اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ ثُمَّ تُوبُوا إِلَيْهِ seek يُمَتِّعُكُمْ مَّتَاعًا حَسَنًا إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى then turn to Him. He will وَيُؤْتِ كُلَّ ذِي فَضْلٍ فَضْلَهُ وَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا goodly provide for you a provision until an appointed فَإِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ كَبِيرِ term. And He will grant His grace to every one possessed of merit. And if you turn away, "11:53, 62; 71:11. none but Allah, apparently show God to be selfish and standing in need of man's worship. Nothing can be farther from truth than such an idea. God needs no worship from man. On the contrary, it is man himself who needs the worship of God for his own moral and spiritual benefit (29:7 & 49:18), because worship does not consist merely in certain outward acts but extends to all those spiritual strivings which help to make man reflect in his person Divine attributes. In fact, as the Arabic word (worship) means full and total obedience and submission to God's will, it is clear that one who obeys God with thorough submissiveness and humility of heart and follows the will of his Creator fully and completely will not fail to imbibe Divine attributes and attain to the highest spiritual stature. This is something in which lies man's own good. God gains nothing from it. The mention in the Bible of man having been created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27) also points to the same great truth, i. e. that man has been created so that he may develop in himself the attributes of God. The 1309 words of the Bible must not, however, be taken literally, for God is free from all form. The injunction to worship God alone means that God should always be kept in view, because the complete picture of an object can be drawn only when that object is held constantly before the eye. Hence, worship means constant viewing of the attributes of God and the imprinting of them on the mind. It is clear that in so doing we benefit ourselves alone and do no good to God. A saying of the Holy Prophet also corroborates the above conception of worship. When asked What (worship) meant, he is reported to have replied that it meant that one should worship God as if one was actually seeing Him, i. e. that different attributes of God should stand embodied before the mind's eye (Bukhārī, ch. on Īmān). نذیر The Holy Prophet was a (Warner) in the sense that he cautioned and warned men to be on their guard against following evil ways and shunning good ones. And he was a (bearer of glad tidings)