Around the world, people are much less likely to be embarrassed about confession to regular worship than in our cynical secular west nations. But they see that secular west in the movies and on their TV, so I thought it quite nice to set this modern face of Scotland in the context of its spiritual history.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim - In the Name of God the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

[Quran, from the chapter called Jonah, vv. 104-107]

Say: O men, if you are in doubt concerning my religion, I serve not those you serve apart from God, but I serve the One God, who will gather you to Him in death, and I am commanded to be of the believers.

Set your face towards the true religion. Be a man of pure faith, and not one of those who worship idols; and do not call, apart from God, on that which neither profits you nor hurts you, for if you do, then you will surely be among the evildoers.

And if God touches you with misfortune, none can take it away but He; and if He desires any good for you, none can turn away His favour. He causes it to fall upon whoever He wills of His servants.

He is the All-forgiving, the All-compassionate.

In the distant past, when Glasgow was little more than a village, the cathedral would have towered over the buildings that clustered around it, a constant reminder to people of the importance of God in their lives. Generations of craftsmen worked towards its completion, employing their skills to the best of their ability, for the glory of God, and to beautify the place dedicated to Him. Now, when those builders, and the houses in which they lived have all turned into dust, the cathedral still remains to show what was important in their lives.

But the cathedral no longer dominates the city centre. It is dwarfed by the shiny office blocks that we build in modern times, the new cathedrals to making money and multi-national businesses. When later generations look at the monuments we leave, what will they understand us to have worshipped. Will they look at old advertisements for curious things, and wonder why man seemed to find them so important. What if they look at pictures of teenagers in their rooms, the walls filled with images of their movie idols, will they see it as worship no different to the idol-worship of other times? The end result would certainly be just as unsatisfactory to the worshipper. God is the only One who gives satisfaction to the worshipper.

Of course, as a muslim my understanding of worship needs to be much broader than what takes place in the mosque. More than just the ritual prayers, for me worship also means that my life should be lived in the service of God. I must try to live as a slave to the Will of my Creator. Like the cathedral craftsman, I try to do my work the best I can, because I am not doing it for my employer but for my Maker. Always trying to do things better than before brings patience and takes away boredom. Children will play the same game repeatedly without tiring, constantly trying to improve some skill that may have no practical use at all.

A muslim can even worship by playing games, as anything that is not forbidden can be done for the service of God. Making an effort does not have to be a hardship, and can even be enjoyable. In a sport, only one team can win the cup, but the rest can still enjoy the striving, and they grow stronger from their struggle to succeed. Out of hardship comes ease says the Qur'an, then repeats Out of hardship comes ease. We may learn from our mistakes, and improve ourselves to be able to serve God better, but our service can not increase God in any way at all. The ease is for ourselves. It is a strange truth of our Creation that selfless actions result in benefit to ourselves. We live for God and learn to face Him on the Day of Judgement, and who better to be judged by than the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

"Judgement rests with God alone; He has commanded that you shall not serve anyone but Him. That is the right religion; but most men know it not." [12.40] "Say: "My prayer, my sacrifice, my living, my dying - all belongs to God, the Lord of all Being. No associate has He."" [6.162/3]