Worship in Islam |  Not Limited to Prayer and Zikr
Channel: Rezwan Mahbub
Date: 2018-11-19

We  are Muslim because the world around us forces us to believe that - there must be a creator. The most logical religion among all is Islam which has a miraculous and unaltered book of God, where Allah SWT has informed us that l the sole purpose of our creation is nothing but to Worship Him. 
So the most common questions that might pop in our minds are: How can we worship him full time without arranging for our living? how can we earn and take care of our family. And are we wasting our time from the actual purpose of our life, if we spent the most of our time in worldly affairs.
The concept of Worship in Islam is not just limited to prayer, fasting, Hajj, zakat, reciting Quran and zikr etc. It actually includes all permissible righteous deeds. 
A particular deed may seem to be good but not permissible by our lord. For example, fasting is good, right, but it is not allowed on the Eid days. So, the concept of following the permissibilities and restrictions always keeps Allah SWT in our minds in our activities and thought process and we remain in a constant state of worship full time, thus fulfilling our purpose of life.
The word Worship encompasses much broader view, It includes all other explicit and implicit actions that Allah loves and likes, for example: taking care and maintaining own family, being patient, being charitable, maintaining honesty, fulfilling trusts, being dutiful to parents, joining ties of relatives, promoting goodness, making tawbah, encouraging others to do good deeds and discouraging them from doing evil. Dealing with others proves that Islam discourages individualism. Surah Asr teaches us that, we can't just follow the religion by your own but we have an obligation to convey it to the others.
In addition to all the above, comes: loving Allah and His messengers, fearing and being thankful to Allah for His infinite blessings, accepting His decree, depending on Him, aspiring for His mercy and fearing His punishment. Most importantly, being conscious that we all are in fact returning back to Allah and believing on the day of resurrection. All of these are examples for acts of worship to Allah. 
Thus leading a life abide by the rules permissible by our lord trying to please him and abstaining from forbidden activities makes us in a state of constant worship to Allah (which is the ultimate purpose of our creation and existence).
This way Islam bestows the quality of “worship” on any action that seeks the satisfaction of Allah and which are not forbidden. Hence the farmer, the manufacturer, the trader, the doctor, the engineer, the teacher and the student - if their job role is permissible in Islam- they are all in a state of worship while performing their duties for gaining proper sustenance for their family.
Thus, worship can never take you away and separate us from aspects of our life and the duties towards our family, relatives and neighbors.
The above ayat establishes that, only prayer/zikr/zakah is not sufficient enough to be righteous in Islam, we have an obligation to take care of the social aspects as well.