The Concept of 'Ibadah (Worship) According to Wahabism and Sunni School of Law

One of the key issues concerning devotional unity (al-tawhid al-'ibadi) is the definition of 'worship' ('ibadah). Wahabis have taken the literal meaning of 'ibadah into consideration while defining it. They have defined 'ibadah briefly as such: 'Ibadah means humility, humbleness and expression of abasement (tazallul). They have described the pagans in the early period of Islam as monotheists in terms of unity of lordship but since they sanctified and revered entities other than Allah, they were corrupted by their actions. Thus, Wahabis conclude that if a person appeals to someone other than Allah in the form of dua, invocation, beseeching, intercessions, etc. or respects someone other than Him, he becomes a polytheist and goes out of the pale of Islam. On the contrary, Sunni scholars rejecting this opinion has criticized the idea of the pagans of the early period of Islam being monotheists in terms of the tawhid of lordship. They consider the pagans to be corrupted with polytheism in both areas of worship and lordship due, mainly, to the verses of the Quran as well as historical reports and the concomitance between tawhid of lordship and tawhid of worship.
As well, prominent Sunni scholars have a different definition of 'Ibadah as compared to the one offered by Wahabism. They have said that worship is a combination of humbleness and humility in the form of prostration, bowing (ruku') and any other form of respect in addition to belief in God being the lord, creator, provider and having other attributes of perfection. In fact, it must be said that 'Ibadah in real sense is an apparent action together with belief in divinity and lordship of the 'worshipped'.