Ya AAibadiya allatheena amanoo inna ardee wasiAAatun fa-iyyaya faAAbudoon (surah Ankabut: 56)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(29:56) O My servants who believe, verily My earth is vast; so serve Me alone. *94

Yaa `ibaadiyal lazeena aamanooo inna ardee waasi `atun fa iyyaaya fa`budoon

*94) This is an allusion to the Hijrah, which implies this: if you feel that it is becoming difficult to worship God in Makkah, you may leave it and move to another place where you can live as the we servants of God, for God's earth is vast. You should serve Allah and not your nation and country." This shows that the real thing is not the nation and the home and the country but the worship of Allah If at some time the demands of the nation and country's love clash with the demands of Allah's worship, it is the time of trial for the believer's faith. The true believer will worship Allah and spurn the nation and the country and home. The false claimant to the Faith will abandon the Faith and remain clinging to his nation and his country and home. This verse is clearly indicative of the fact that a true worshipper of God can be a patriot but he cannot be a worshipper of the nation and the country. For him the worship of God is the dearest thing in life for the sake of which he will sacrifice everything else, but with never be prepared to sacrifice it for anything else.