Ta'abbud (obedience to a command as worship)

Ta'abbud, in Sha'rawi's account, is to carry out a legal command because God commanded it, not because of a visible worldly reason that must be found first. ¹

Sha'rawi says the believer prays five times a day without asking why five, and that zakat, fasting and the pilgrimage are performed the same way, in obedience to God. ¹ He reads the change of qibla as a test of obedience: turning east or west takes the same effort, and what distinguishes obedience is that the command comes from God. ^{1 2}

Sha'rawi holds that sanctity belongs to God's command concerning a place, not to the place in itself. He gives the prostration of the angels to Adam: they bowed to God's command, not to Adam's person. The Ka'ba is God's house by God's choice, while every mosque is God's house by the choice of those who build it. ¹

This is Sha'rawi's view alone, from these pages. The usul scholars' positions on whether rulings have reasons, the academic view and other views are not yet entered, because their sources have not been read and cited.