"The earlier texts

discuss worship and servanthood largely in terms of a moral imperative. Many later texts, especially from 'Ibn Arabi onwards, ground the moral imperative in what can be called an "ontological imperative". This perspective includes discussion of the Divine Being, the structure of the cosmos, and the reality of the human soul. In modern times, most well-known Muslim authors have continued to cling to the moral imperative, but they have lost touch with the ontological imperative. Indignantly denying "the death of God", they nonetheless go along with its implications by embracing the demise of metaphysics. Instead of standing on the solid ground of Being, they attempt to root the moral imperative in the shifting sands of empirical science, political ideology and critical theory.

 -William C. Chittick, "Worship" in The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology, edited by Tim Winter, p. 219.