Building the earth and work as worship

عمارة الأرض والعمل عبادة

Sha'rawi holds that Islam is not only rites. Every activity in life that serves the human vice-regency on earth and its building is part of it, and prayer, zakat, fasting and the pilgrimage are pillars on which this work rests. He answers those who confine religion to ritual worship 1 2.

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Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
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Worship and the pillars

Summary

Sha'rawi holds that Islam covers every activity in life that fulfils the human vice-regency on earth and its building, and that the pillars are a foundation that is not enough by itself 1.

Pillars and building

He says prayer, fasting, zakat and the pilgrimage are the pillars on which Islam is built, and that one cannot make Islam nothing but these pillars, just as a foundation alone is not a house 1.

Time and work

He notes that prayer takes an hour a day, zakat a day a year, fasting a month, and the pilgrimage one time in a life. He asks what a person does with the rest of his time, and answers that bread needs knowledge, movement and energy, so work becomes worship 1 2.

Idleness

He rebukes those who say they are created only to worship and do not work. A person should not take the fruit of another's work without effort, and doing a task well is part of good worship 2.

Not yet checked

The view he rejects is not attributed to a named author and has not been checked. No academic or non-Sunni view has been checked.

People and things also explored

The ruling on one who abandons prayer· Ada' (performance of an obligation within its time)· Adhan (the call to prayer: its ruling, wording, conditions, recommended features and the muezzin)· Bone (adhm): purity, use and retaliation· The adornment of desires and the goods of this world· The people of the bench (ahl al-suffa)· The earth made a place of prayer and purity· Spending in the way of God (infaq)

Sources

  1. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1089
  2. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1090
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Building the earth and work as worship”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/imarat-al-ard/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Related

The ruling on one who abandons prayer

Al-Sallabi quotes Ali: whoever does not pray is an unbeliever. He then reports from al-Nawawi the dispute over one who neglects prayer while believing it obligatory: the majority (Malik, al-Shafi'i) hold him a sinner to be asked to repent, others hold him an unbeliever, a view ascribed to Ali; Abu Hanifa and the Kufans hold him not an unbeliever but to be disciplined.