The Ādi Granth is the central object of worship in all gurdwārās (Sikh temples) and is accorded the reverence paid a living Gurū. It is ritually opened in the morning and wrapped up and put away for the night. On special occasions continuous readings of it are held, which last from 2 to 15 days. On the birthdays of the Gurūs or anniversaries commemorating Sikh martyrs, the Granth is sometimes taken out in procession.

The first version of the book was compiled by the fifth Sikh Gurū, Arjun (Arjan), at Amritsar in AD 1604. He included his own hymns and those of his predecessors, the Gurūs Nānak, Aṅgad, Amar Dās, and Rām Dās, and a selection of devotional songs of both Hindu and Islāmic saints (notably the poet Kabīr). In AD 1704 the tenth and last Gurū, Gobind Singh, added the hymns of his predecessor, Gurū Tegh Bahādur (the sixth, seventh, and eighth Gurūs did not write hymns), and enjoined that after his own death the Granth would take the place of the Gurū. The book opens with the Mūl Mantra (basic prayer), which is a declaration of the nature of God as Truth, followed by the Japjī (Recital), the most important Sikh scripture, written by the founder of the Sikh religion, Gurū Nānak. The hymns are arranged according to the musical modes (ragas) in which they are to be sung. The language is mostly Punjabi or Hindi, interspersed with Marathi, Persian, and Arabic words.

After the death of Gurū Gobind Singh his hymns and other writings were compiled into a book known as the Dasam Granth (q.v.).