al-Ubudiyya
- Author died
- 728 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktab al-Islāmī
al-Ubudiyya (Servitude) is a theological treatise written by the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE), expounding the Islamic concept of worship (ʿibāda) and servitude (ʿubūdiyya) to God .
Background and Composition
The treatise originated as a detailed legal and theological response to an inquiry regarding Quran 2:21: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ ("O mankind, worship your Lord") . The questioner posed five distinct inquiries:
- What is worship?
- What are its branches?
- Does the totality of the religion enter into it?
- What is the true reality of servitude?
- Is servitude the highest spiritual station in this world and the hereafter, or is there a station above it?
Ibn Taymiyya authored the epistle to provide an exhaustive exposition answering these questions .
Content and Themes
Definition and Scope of Worship
Ibn Taymiyya opens the work by defining worship (al-ʿibāda) as "a comprehensive term for everything that God loves and is pleased with, of inward and outward sayings and actions" . He illustrates outward acts with examples such as ritual prayer, zakat, fasting, pilgrimage, truthful speech, fulfilling trusts, honoring parents, maintaining kinship ties, keeping covenants, enjoining good and forbidding evil, jihad against disbelievers and hypocrites, kindness toward neighbors, orphans, the poor, travelers, and dependents (both humans and beasts), supplication, remembrance of God, and Quranic recitation . Inward acts of worship include love for God and His Messenger, fear of God, turning to Him in repentance (ināba), sincere devotion, patience with His rulings, gratitude for His blessings, contentment with His decree, trust in Him (tawakkul), hope for His mercy, and apprehension of His punishment .
Categories of Servitude
The work delineates two fundamental categories of servitude:
- Compulsory servitude (al-ʿubūdiyya al-iḍṭirāriyya): The universal subjugation of all created beings—believers and disbelievers alike, angels, humans, animals, and inanimate objects—under God's lordship (rubūbiyya), creative power, and cosmic will (al-irāda al-kawniyya) . Acknowledgment of this reality alone does not secure salvation in the hereafter .
- Voluntary servitude (al-ʿubūdiyya al-ikhtiyāriyya): The voluntary obedience and worship rendered specifically to God's divinity (ilāhiyya) through adherence to His revealed law (al-sharʿ) and divine commands by choice and intent .
Reality and Station of Servitude
Ibn Taymiyya establishes that true worship consists of two inseparable pillars: utmost humility (kamāl al-dhull) combined with utmost love (kamāl al-maḥabba) directed exclusively to God . Subservience without love is not worship, nor is love without submission and obedience .
He argues that servitude is the highest rank achievable by creation, noting that God described His most honored creations—the prophets and angels—as servants in their most elevated states, such as the Prophet Muhammad during the Night Journey (al-Isrāʾ) and the reception of revelation . Human perfection lies in perfecting servitude to God; whoever assumes that a creature can transcend servitude is profoundly misguided .
Critique of Deviations and Servitude to Creation
A major portion of the text is dedicated to critiquing mystical and antinomian positions:
- Cosmic reality versus religious command: Ibn Taymiyya critiques Sufis who fixate solely on witnessing the cosmic reality (al-ḥaqīqa al-kawniyya)—the realization that everything happens by God's predestination—to the neglect of the religious reality (al-ḥaqīqa al-dīniyya), which requires following divine commands and prohibitions . He observes that even Iblis and the denizens of Hell acknowledged God's cosmic lordship .
- Mystical annihilation (fanāʾ): The text categorizes the term fanāʾ, distinguishing sound forms (such as annihilating one's will regarding anything displeasing to God in favor of His commands) from invalid interpretations that claim the dissolution of religious obligations or ontological unity .
- Inner servitude: Ibn Taymiyya stresses that true freedom is the freedom of the heart, while true bondage is the bondage of the heart . He discusses how individuals who direct their ultimate devotion, reliance, and love to worldly pursuits become enslaved by them, referencing the prophetic tradition: تعس عبد الدرهم تعس عبد الخميصة ("Wretched is the servant of the dirham, wretched is the servant of the garment") .
Transmission and Commentaries
Al-Ubudiyya has been widely circulated as an independent treatise and published within compiled anthologies of Ibn Taymiyya's works . It was critically edited by Muhammad Zuhayr al-Shawish and published by al-Maktab al-Islami in Beirut .
The text has been the subject of dedicated scholarly commentaries, including the printed work al-Tuḥfa al-Bahiyya fī Sharḥ Risālat al-ʿUbūdiyya by Muhammad ibn Khalifa al-Tamimi as well as extensive lecture series, such as the 24-lesson commentary delivered by Abd al-Rahim ibn Samayil al-Sulami .
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