Rites enjoy an important role in Islam. Their injunctions
represent an important part of jurisprudence and a worshiping
conduct which formulates a noticeable phenomenon in the daily
life of the pious.
The system of rites in Islamic jurisprudence represents one
of its static facets which cannot be affected by the general
trend of life or the circumstances of civil progress in man's
life except by a small portion, contrary to other judicial aspects
which are flexible and dynamic. The method of application and
utilization of these judicial aspects is affected by the circumstances
pertaining to civil progress in man's life, such as the system
of deals and contracts.
In the sphere of worship, the man of the age of electricity
and space prays, fasts, and performs the pilgrimage just as his
ancestor from the age of the stone mill used to pray. fast. and
perform the pilgrimage .
It is true, however, that in the civil aspect of getting prepared
to perform a rite. this person may differ from that: for this
travels to his place of pilgrimage in a plane, while that used
to travel with a camel caravan. And when this covers his body-while
saying his prayers or during other occasions-with clothes manufactured
by machines, that covered his body with clothes he hand-sewed.
But the general formula of worship, as well as its method and
legislation, is the same. The necessity of its application has
never suffered any change, nor has its legislating value been
affected or shaken by the continuous growth of man's control
over nature and his own means of living.
This means that Islamic Sharia (Jurisprudence) has not prescribed
prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and other Islamic rites temporarily,
or as a juridical formula limited to conditions such Sharia lived
in its early epochs of history. Rather, it enjoined these rites
on man while he uses atomic energy to mobilize the engine, just
as it has enjoined them on man while ploughing his field with
a hand plough.
Thus do we derive the deduction that the system of rites deals
with the permanent needs in the life of man, for whom they are
created, and which remain the same in spite of the continuous
progress in man's life-style. This is so because the application
of a fixed prescription requires a fixed need. Hence, this question
comes up:
Is there really a fixed need in the life of man ever since
jurisprudence started its cultivating role, remaining as such
until today, so that we may interpret-in the light of its stability-the
stability of the formulae whereby jurisprudence has treated and
satisfied this same need, so that in the end we can explain the
stability of worship in its positive role in man's life?
It may seem, at first look, that to suggest such a fixed need
of this sort is not acceptable, that it does not coincide with
the reality of man's life when we compare today's man with the
man of the future. We certainly find man getting continuously
further-in the method, nature of problems, and factors of progress
of his own life-from the circumstances of the tribal society,
his pagan problems, worries, limited aspirations, and the method
of treating and organizing these needs, wherein appeared the
concluding jurisprudence. Therefore, how can rites-in their own
particular juristic system-perform a real role in this field
which is contemporary to man's life-span, inspite of the vast
progress in means and methods of living? If rites such as prayers,
ablution, ceremonial washing (ghusul), and fasting had been useful
during some stage in the life of the bedouin man- taking part
in cultivating his behaviour; his practical commitment to clean
his body and keep it from excessive eating and drinking- these
same goals, by the same token, are achieved by modern man through
the very nature of his civilized life and the norms of social
living. So, it would seem that these rites are no longer a necessary
need as they used to be once upon a time, nor have they retained
a role in building man's civilization or solving his sophisticated
problems !
But this theory is wrong. The social progress in means and
tools- for example, in the plough changing in man's hand to a
steam or electric machine-imposes a change in man's relationship
to nature and to whatever material forms it takes. Take agriculture,
for example, which represents a relationship between the land
and the farmer; it develops materially in form and context according
to the norm of development described above.
As regarding worship, the latter is not a relationship between
man and nature, so that it would be affected by such sort of
development or progress. Rather, it is a relationship between
man and his Lord. This relationship has a spiritual role which
directs man's relationship to his brother man. In both cases.
However, we find that humanity historically, lives with a certain
number of fixed needs faced equally by the man of the age of
oil (i.e:, animal oil used for lighting) as well as that of the
age of electricity. The system of rites in Islam is the fixed
solution for the fixed needs of this sort, and for problems whose
nature is not sequential; instead, they are problems which face
man during his individual, social and cultural build-up. Such
a solution, called "rites," is still alive in its objectives
until today, becoming an essential condition for man to overcome
his problems and succeed in practicing his civilized vocations.
In order to clearly know all this, we have to point out some
fixed lines of needs and problems in man's life, and the role
rites play in satisfying such needs and overcoming such problems.
These lines are as follows:
1) the need to be linked to the Absolute
2) the need for subjectivity in purpose and self-denial
3) the need for inner feeling of responsibility to guarantee
execution
The system of rites is a way to organize the practical aspect
of the relationship between man and his Lord; therefore, it cannot
separate his evaluation from that of this very relationship and
of its role in man's life. From here, both of these questions
are inter- related:
First: What is the value achieved through the relationship
between man and his lord in his civilized march? And is it a
fixed value treating a fixed need in this march, or is it a sequential
one linked to temporal needs or limited problems, losing its
significance at the end of the stage limiting such needs and
problems?
Second: What is the role played by rites as regarding that
relationship and what is the extent of its significance as a
practical dedication to the relationship between man and God?
What follows is a summary of the necessary explanation concerning
both questions:
The Link Between The Absolute Is A Two-Fold Problem
The observer, scrutinizing the different acts of the stage-story
of man in history, may find out that the problems are different
and the worries diversified in their given daily formulas. But
if we go beyond these formulas, infiltrating into the depth and
essence of the problem, we will find one main essential and fixed
problem with two edges or contrasting poles wherefrom mankind
suffers during his civilized advancement along history. Looking
from one angle, the problem is loss and nonentity which is the
negative side of the problem. And from another angle, the problem
is extreme in entity and belonging. This is expressed by connecting
the relative facts to which man belongs to an Absolute, thus
expressing the positive side of the same problem. The Concluding
Jurisprudence (of Islam) has given the name "atheism"
to the first problem, which it expresses very obviously, and
the name "idolatry" and Shirk (believing in one or
many partners with God) as also an obvious expression of it.
The continuous struggle of Islam against atheism and Shirk is,
in its civilized reality, a struggle against both sides of the
problem in their historical dimensions.
Both angles of the problem meet into one essential point,
and that is: deterring man's advancing movement from a continuously
good imaginative creativity. The problem of loss means to man
that he is a being in continuous loss, not belonging to an Absolute,
to Whom he can support himself in his long and hard march, deriving
help from His Absolutism and Encompassment, sustenance, and a
clear vision of the goal and joining, through that Absolute,
his own movement to the universe, to the whole existence, to
eternity and perpetuity, defining his own relationship to Him
and his position in the inclusive cosmic framework. The movement
at loss without the aid of an Absolute is but a random movement
like that of a feather in the wind, the phenomena around it affect
it while it is unable to affect them. There is no accomplishment
or productivity in the great march of man along history without
a connection to and promulgation with an Absolute in an objective
march.
This same connection, on the other hand, directs the other
side of the problem, that of extreme entity, by changing the
"relative" to an "absolute," a problem which
faces man continuously. Man weaves his loyalty to a case so that
such loyalty freezes gradually and gets stripped of its relative
circumstances within which he was accurate, and the human mind
will derive out of it an "absolute" without an end,
without a limit to responding to its demands. In religious terminology,
such an "absolute" eventually changes to a"god"
worshipped instead of a need that requires fulfillment. When
the "relative" changes to an "absolute,"
to a "god" of this sort, it becomes a factor in encircling
man's movement, freezing its capacities to develop and create,
paralyzing man from performing his naturally open role in the
march:
Do not worship another "god" beside God else you
should become forsaken. (Quran XVII:22)
This is a true fact applicable to all "gods" mankind
made along history, albeit if they were made during the idolatry
stage of worship or its succeeding stages. From the stage of
tribe to that of science, we find a series of "gods"
which mankind treated as an "absolute" and which deterred
mankind, who worshipped them, from making any accurate progress.
Indeed, from the tribe to which man submitted his alliance,
considering it as an actual need dictated by his particular living
circumstances, he went then to the extreme, changing it to an
"absolute," without being able to see anything except
through them. Hence, they became an obstacle in his way for advancement.
It was to science that modern man deservedly granted alliance,
as it paved for him the way to control nature. But he sometimes
exaggerated such an alliance, turning it to an absolute alliance,
with which he was infatuated, an "absolute" to worship,
offering it the rites of obeisance and loyalty, rejecting for
its own sake all ideals and facts which can never be measured
by meters or seen by microscopes.
Accordingly, every limited and relative thing, if man wove
out of it, at a certain stage, an absolute to which he thus relates
himself, becomes at a stage of intellectual maturity a shackle
on the mind that made it, because of its being limited and relative.
Hence, man's march has to have an Absolute.
And He has to be a real Absolute capable of absorbing the
human march, directing it to the right path no matter how much
advancement it achieves or how far it extends on its lengthy
line, wiping out all "gods" that encircle the march
and deter it.
Thus can the problem be solved in both of its poles. Such
a remedy is shown by what Divine Jurisprudence has presented
man on earth: The Belief in God as the Absolute to Whom limited
man can tie his own march without causing him any contradiction
along his long path.
Belief in God, then, treats the negative aspect of the problem,
refusing loss, atheism and non-entity, for it places man in a
position of responsibility: to whose movement and management
the whole cosmos is related. Man becomes the vicegerent of God
on earth. Vicegerency implies responsibility, and a reward man
receives according to his conduct, between God and resurrection,
infinitude and eternity, while he moves within such a sphere
of responsible and purposeful movement.
Belief in God also treats the positive aspects of the problem-that
of the extreme in entity, forcing restrictions on man and curbing
his swift march-according to this manner:
First This aspect of the problem is created by changing the
limited and relative to an "absolute" through intellectual
exertion and by stripping the relative of its circumstances and
limitations. As for the Absolute provided by the belief in God,
this has never been the fabrication of a stage of the human intellect,
so that it may become, during the new stage of intellectual maturity,
limited to the mind that made it. Nor has it ever been the offspring
of a limited need of an individual or a group, so that its becoming
absolute may place it as a weapon in the hand of the individual
or group in order to guarantee its illegal interests. For God,
the Praised, the Sublime, is an Absolute without limits, one
whose fixed Attributes absorb all the supreme ideals of man,
His vicegerent on earth, of comprehension and knowledge, ability
and strength, justice and wealth. This means that the path leading
to Him is without a limit; hence, moving towards Him requires
the continuity and relative movement and a relative acceleration
of the limited (man) towards the Absolute (God) without a stop.
O thou man! Verily thou art ever toiling on towards thy Lord-
painfully toiling, but thou shalt meet Him ... (Quran, LXXXIV:6)
He grants this movement His own supreme ideals derived from
comprehension, knowledge, ability and justice, as well as other
qualities of that Absolute, towards Whom the march is directed.
The march towards the Absolute is all knowledge, all potential,
all justice and all wealth. In other words, the human march is
a continuously successive struggle against all sorts of ignorance,
incapacity, oppression and poverty.
As long as these are the very goals of the march related to
this Absolute, they are, then, not merely a dedication to God,
but also a continuous struggle for the sake of man, for his dignity,
for achieving such supreme ideals for him:
And if any strive (with might and main), they do so for their
souls: for God is free of all needs from all creation. (Quran.
XXIX:6)
He, then, that receives guidance benefits his own soul: but
he that strays injures his own soul. Nor art thou set over them
to dispose of their affairs. (Quran, XXXIX:41)
On the contrary, whimsical absolutes and false gods cannot
absorb the march with all its aspirations, for these manufactured
absolutes are the children of an incapable man's brain, or the
need of the poor man, or the oppression of the oppressor; therefore
they are jointly are linked to ignorance, incapacity and oppression.
They can never bless man's continuous struggle against them.
Second: Being linked to God Almighty as the Absolute Who absorbs
all of the aspirations of the human march means at the same time
rejecting all of those whimsical absolutes which used to cause
excessive entity. It also means waging a continuous war and an
endless struggle against all sorts of idolatry and artificial
worship. Thus, man will be emancipated from the mirage of these
false absolutes which stood as an obstacle in his path towards
God, falsifying his goal and encircling his march:
But the Unbelievers, their deeds are like a mirage in sandy
deserts, which the man parched with thirst mistakes for water;
until when he comes up to it, he finds it to be nothing: but
he finds God (ever) with him. (Quran, XXIV:38)
Are many lords differing among themselves better, or the One
God, Supreme and Irresistible? If not Him, ye worship nothing
but names which ye have named, ye and your fathers, for which
God hath sent down no authority. (Quran, XII: 39-40)
Such is God your Lord: to Him belongs all Dominion. And those
whom ye invoke besides Him have not the least power. (Quran,
XXXV:13)
If we consider the main slogan God put forward in this respect:
"There is no god but Allah," we will find out that
it links the human march to the True Absolute with the rejection
of every artificial absolute. The history of the march, in its
living actuality, came across the ages to emphasize the organic
link between this rejection and that strong and aware tie to
God Almighty. For as far as he goes away from the True God, man
sinks in the labyrinth of different gods and lords. Both rejection
and the positive link to "There is no god but Allah"
are but two faces for one fact: the fact which is indispensable
to the human march along its lengthy path. It is but the Truth
which is worthy of saving the march from loss, helping it exploit
all its creative energies, emancipating it from each and every
false and obstructing absolute.
Rites Are Practical Expressions
Just as man was born carrying in him all potentials of the
experience on life's stage, plus all seeds of its success, such
as awareness, activity and conditioning, so was he born tied
by nature to the Absolute. This is so because his relationship
with the Absolute is one of the requirements of his own success
whereby he overcomes the problems facing his civilized march,
as we have already seen, and there is no experience more sustaining
and inclusive, more meaningful, than this of Faith in man's life.
It has been a phenomenon attached to man since time immemorial
During all stages of history, such a social and continuous attachment
proves-through experience-that escaping towards the Absolute,
aspiring towards Him from beyond borders lived by man, is a genuine
inclination of man no matter how diversified the shapes of such
inclination are, how different its methods and degrees of awareness.
But Faith, as an instinct, is not enough to guarantee bringing
to reality an attachment to the Absolute in its correct form,
for that is linked to the Truth through the method of satisfying
such an instinct. The correct behaviour in satisfying it in a
manner parallel to all other instincts and inclinations, being
in harmony with it, is the only guarantee of the ultimate benefit
of man. Also, the behaviour according to or against an instinct
is the one that fosters the instinct, deepens, eliminates or
suffocates it. So do the seeds of mercy and compassion die within
man's self through the continuous and practical sympathizing
with the miserable, the wronged, and the poor.
From this point, Faith in God, the deep feeling of aspiring
towards the unknown and the attachment to the Absolute have all
to have some direction which determines the manner of satisfying
such feeling and the way to deepen it, fixing it in a way compatible
with all other genuine feelings of man.
Without a direction, such feeling may have a setback and may
be afflicted with various sorts of deviation, just like what
happened to the strayed religious feeling during most epochs
of history.
Without a deepened conduct, such feeling may become minimized,
and the attachment to the Absolute ceases to be an active reality
in man's life capable of exploiting good energies.
The religion which laid the slogan of "There is not god
but Allah," promulgating with it both rejection and affirmation,
is the Director.
Rites are factors which perform the role of deepening such
feeling, for they are but a practical expression and an expression
of the religious instinct; through it this instinct grows and
gets deepened in man's life.
We notice, too, that in accurate rites-being a practical expression
of the link to the Absolute-both affirmation and rejection promulgate.
They are, thus, a continuous confirmation from man to his link
with God Almighty and the rejection of any other "absolute"
of those false ones. When one starts his prayers by declaring
that "God is Great" (Allaho Akbar), he confirms this
rejection. And when he declares that God's Prophet is also His
Servant-Slave and Messenger, he confirms this rejection. And
when he abstains from enjoying the pleasures of life, abstaining
from enjoying even the necessities of life for the sake of God
(as in the case of fasting), defying the temptations and their
effects, he, too, confirms this rejection.
These rituals have succeeded in the practical sphere of brining
up generations of believers, at the hands of the Prophet (peace
be upon him) and his succeeding pious leaders, those whose prayers
embodied within their own selves the rejection of all evil powers
and their subjection, and the "absolutes" of Kisra
and Caesar got minimized before their march as did all "absolutes"
of man's whims.
In this light do we come to know that worship is a fixed necessity
in man's life and civilized march, for there can be no march
without an "absolute" to whom it is linked, deriving
from him its ideals. And there is no "absolute" that
can absorb the march along its lengthy path except the True Absolute
(God), the Glorified. Besides Him, artificial "absolutes"
definitely form, in one way or another, an absolute which curbs
the march's growth. Attachment to the True Absolute, then, is
a fixed need. And there can be no attachment to the True Absolute
without a practical expression of this attachment, confirming
it and continuously fixing it. Such a practical expression is
none but worship. Therefore, worship is a fixed need.
Subjectivity Of Purpose And Self-Denial
In each stage of the human civilization, and in each period
of man's life, people face numerous interests whose achievement
requires a quantitative action to some degree. No matter how
diversified the qualities of these interests are or the manner
of brining them to life from one age to another is, they can
still be divided into two sorts of interests:
One: interests whose materialistic gains and outcomes go to
the individual himself, on whose work and endeavour depends the
achievement of that interest;
Two: interests whose gain go to those other than the direct
worker or group he belongs to. In this second kind are included
all sorts of labour which aim at an even bigger goal than the
existence of the worker himself, for every big goal cannot be
usually achieved except through the collective efforts and endeavours
of a long period of time.
The first sort of interests guarantees the inner motive of
the individual: its availability and effort to secure it, for
as long as the worker is the one who reaps the fruits of the
interest and directly enjoys it, it is natural to find in him
the effort to secure it and the work for its sake.
As for the second kind of interests, here the motive to secure
these interests is not sufficient, for the interests here are
not only the active worker's; and often his share of labour and
hardship is greater than that of his share of the huge interest.
From here, man needs an upbringing of subjectivity of purpose
and self-denial in motive, i.e., that he must work for the sake
of others, the group. In other words, he has to work for a purpose
greater than his own existence and personal materialistic interest.
Such an upbringing is necessary for the man of the electricity
and atom age as it equally is for the man who used to fight with
the sword and travel on camel-back. They both confront the worries
of construction and of the great aims and situations which demand
self-denial and working for the sake of others, sowing the seeds
whose fruits may not be seen by the person who sowed them. It
is necessary, then, to raise every individual to perform a portion
of this labour and effort not merely for his own self and his
personal materialistic interests, so that he will be capable
of contributing with self-denial, of aiming at a purely "objective"
goal.
Rites perform a large role in this upbringing. These, as we
have already seen, are acts of man performed for the sake of
achieving the pleasure of Almighty God. Therefore, they are invalid
if the worshipper performs them just for his own personal interest.
They are improper if the purpose behind them is a personal glory,
public applause, or a dedication for his own ego, within his
circle and environment. In fact, they even become unlawful acts
deserving the punishment of the worshipper himself! All this
is for the sake of the worshipper who tries, through his worship,
an objective purpose, with all what this implies of truthfulness,
sincerity and he will totally dedicate his worship to Almighty
God alone.
God's Path is purely one of the service of all humanity. Each
act performed for the sake of God is but an act for the sake
of God's servants, for God is totally sufficient, independent
of His servants. Since the True Absolute God is above any limit,
specification, not related to any group or biased to any particular
direction, His Path, then, practically equates that of ALL mankind's.
To work for God, and for God alone, is to work for people, for
the good of all the people. It is a psychological and spiritual
training that never ceases to function.
Whenever the jurisdic path of God is mentioned, it can be
taken to mean exactly all mankind's path. Islam has made God's
Path one of the avenues to spend Zakat, meaning thereby: to spend
for all humanity's good and benefit. It also urged to fight for
the Cause of God in defense of all the weak among humans, calling
it Jihad, i.e., "fighting for the Path of God;"
Those who believe (in God) fight in the cause of God, and
those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil: so fight ye
against the friends of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of
Satan. (Quran, IV: 76)
Besides, if we come to know that worship demands different
types of endeavour, as it sometimes imposes on man only some
physical exertion, as in prayer; and sometimes psychological,
as in fasting; and other times financial, as in Zakat; and yet
a fourth one an exertion on the level of self-sacrifice or danger,
as in Jihad. If we come to know all this, we will be able to
figure the depth and capacity of the spiritual and psychological
training practiced by man through different rites for the objective
purpose, for giving and contributing, for working for a higher
goal in all different fields of human endeavour.
On this basis can you find the vast difference between a person
who grew up on making endeavours to please God, brought up to
labour without waiting for a compensation on the working grounds.
and that who grew up always measuring a work according to the
extent he can achieve of his own personal interest, basing it
on the gain he gets from it, not comprehending-out of this measuring
and estimating-except the language of figures and market prices.
A person like this one can be none other than a merchant in his
own social practices, regardless of their field or type.
Considering upbringing on the objective purpose. Islam has
always tied the value of a work to its own impulses, separating
them from its results. The value of an act in Islam is not in
what results and gains it brings forth to the worker or to all
people; rather it is the motives behind it, their purity, objectivity
and self-denial. For example, the person who reaches the discovery
of a medicine for a dangerous disease, thereby saving the lives
of millions of patients. God does not evaluate his discovery
according to the size of its results and the number of those
patients it saves from death; rather He estimates it according
to the feelings and desires which formulate within the discoverer
the motive to make an effort to make that discovery. If he did
not make his effort except to get a privilege that enables him
to sell it and gain millions of dollars. This deed of his is
not considered by God to be equal except to any other purely
commercial deed, for the egoistic logic of the self-centered
motives, just as they push him to discover a medicine for a chronic
disease, may as well push him in the same degree to discover
means of destruction if he finds a market that buys them. A deed
is considered commendable and virtuous if the motives behind
it go beyond the ego: if it is for the sake of God and the servants
of God. According to the degrees of self denial and the participation
of God's servant in its making, a deed is elevated and highly
evaluated.
The Inner Feeling of Responsibility
If we observe humanity in any of its historical periods, we
will find it following a particular system of its life, a specific
manner in distributing rights and responsibilities among people,
and that according to the amount it acquires of securities for
its members to cling to this system and to its implementation,
it will be closer to stability and the achievement of the general
goals expected from that system.
This fact is equally true concerning the future, as well as
the past, for it is an established fact of man's civilized march
along its lengthy range.
Among the securities is that which is objective, such as penalties
enforced by the group to punish the individual who transgresses
beyond his limits. And among them is that which is inner, i.e.,
man's inner feeling of responsibility towards his social obligations,
towards whatever obligations the group demands of him, determining,
spontaneously, his own rights.
In order to be an actual fact in man's life, the inner feeling
of responsibility needs the belief in. a supervision from whose
knowledge not an atom's weight in earth or sky escapes and to
a practical application through which such a feeling grows, and
according to which the feeling of such an inclusive supervision
lays roots.
The supervision, for whose knowledge not even an atom's weight
escapes, is created in man's life as a result of his link with
the True Absolute, the all-Knowing, the Omnipotent, the One Whose
knowledge encompasses everything. This link with His self saves
man the need for such a supervision, thus enabling the creation
of an inner feeling of responsibility.
The practical application, through which this inner feeling
of responsibility grows, materializes through practicing rites.
For worship is the duty imposed by the Unseen, and by this we
mean that checking it externally is impossible. Any external
measures to enforce it can never be successful, for it stands
through the self's own purpose and the spiritual attachment to
work for God; this is a matter which can not be included in the
calculation of a subjective supervision from the outside, nor
can any legal measure guarantee that either. Rather, the only
capable supervision in this respect is the one resulting from
the attachment to the Absolute, the Unseen, the One from Whose
knowledge nothing escapes. The only possible assurity on this
level is the inner feeling of responsibility. This means that
the person who practices worship is performing a duty which differs
from any other social obligation or project when he borrows and
pays back, or when he contracts and adheres to the conditions.
When he borrows money from others and he returns it to the debtor,
he performs a duty which lies within the range of social supervision's
monitoring; hence, his estimation of the predictment of social
reaction dictates to him the decision to do so.
The ritual duty, towards the Unknown, is one whose inner implication
none knows except God, the Praised, the Omnipotent, for it is
the result of the inner feeling of responsibility. Through religious
practices, such an inner feeling grows, and man gets used to
behaving according to it. Through the medium of such feeling
can we find the good citizen. It is not sufficient for good citizenship
that a person is anxious to perform the legal rights of others
only because of his apprehension of the social reaction towards
him should he be reluctant to do so. Rather, good citizenship
is achieved by the man who does not relax his own inner feeling
of responsibility.
In Islam, we notice that it is often recommended to perform
optional rites secretly, rather than publicly. There are even
rites which are secretive by nature such as fasting, for it is
an inner curb which cannot be checked externally. There are rites
for which a secretive environment is chosen, avoiding the public
stage, such as the nightly Nafl optional prayers whose performance
requires after midnight time. All this is for the sake of deepening
the aspect of worshipping the Unseen, linking it more and more
to the inner feeling of responsibility. Thus, this feeling gets
deepened through the practice of rites, and man gets used to
behaving on its basis, forming a strong guarantee for the good
individual's discharge of his duties and obligations.
General Outlook At Rites:
If we cast a general look at the rites we have observed in
this book, comparing them with each other, we can then derive
some general outlooks at these rites. Here are some of these
general outlooks. The Unseen In Explaining Rites
We came to know previously the important role worship plays
in man's life and that it expresses a fixed need in his civilized
march.
From another aspect: if we scrutinize and analyze the particulars,
in the light of advanced science, to be acquainted with the pieces
of wisdom and secrets which Islamic jurisprudence expresses in
this regard and which modern science has been able to discover.
This wonderful agreement between the outcomes of modern science
and many particulars of Islamic jurisprudence, and whatever rules
and regulations it decided, expresses a dazzling support for
the position of this jurisprudence, deeply emphasizing its being
God-inspired.
In spite of all this, however, we quite often face unseen
points in worship, i.e., a group of details whose secret cannot
be comprehended by the person practicing worship, nor can he
interpret them materialistically; for why must sunset prayer
be three prostrations while the noon-time prayer more than that?
And why should each rekaa include bowing down once instead of
twice, two prostrations instead of one? Other questions of this
sort can also be put forth.
We call such as aspect of worship which cannot be interpreted,
"unseen." We find this aspect, in one manner or another,
in most rites brought forth by the Islamic jurisprudence. From
here, we can consider obscurity in the meaning we have already
mentioned as a general phenomenon in rites and one of their common
characteristics .
This obscurity is linked to the rites and to their imposed
role jointly, for the role of rites, as we have already come
to know, is to emphasize the attachment to the Absolute and deepen
that practically. The bigger the element of submission and yielding
in a worship is, the stronger its effect in deepening the link
between the worshipper and his Lord. If the deed practiced by
the worshipper is understood at all its dimensions, clear in
its wisdom and benefit in all details, the element of submission
and yielding gets minimized, and it will be dominated by motives
of interest and benefit, no more a worship of God as much as
it is a deed of benefit practiced by the worshipper so that he
might derive advantage out of it, benefiting of its results.
Just as the spirit of obedience and attachment in the soldier
grows, getting deepened through military training, by giving
him orders and requiring him to perform them with obedience and
without discussion, so does the feeling of the worshipping person
grow and get deepened in its attachment to his Lord through requiring
him to practice these rites in their unseen aspects with submission
and yielding. For submission and yielding require the assumption
of the existence of an unseen aspect and the attempt not to question
this unseen aspect of worship. Demanding its interpretation and
limitation of interest means stripping worship of its reality-as
a practical expression of submission and obedience- and measuring
it by measurements of benefit and interest like any other deed.
We notice that this obscurity is almost ineffective in rites
representing a great general interest, one that conflicts with
the personal interest of the worshipper, as is the case with
Jihad which represents a great general interest which contrasts
the desire of the person performing it to preserve his life and
blood, and also in the case of Zakat which represents a great
interest which contrasts the strong desire of the person paying
it to preserve his wealth and property. The issue of Jihad is
very well understood by the person performing it, and the issue
of Zakat is generally understood by the person who pays it; neither
Jihad nor Zakat thus loses any element of submission and obedience
(to God), for the difficulty of sacrificing life and property
is what makes man's acceptance of a worship-for which he sacrifices
both life and property-is indeed a great deal of submission and
obedience. Add to this the fact that Jihad and Zakat and similar
rites are not meant to be merely aspects of upbringing just for
the individual, but also for the achievement of social benefits
secured thereby. Accordingly, we observe that obscurity is highlighted
more and more in rites dominated by the educating aspect of the
individual, such as prayer and fasting.
Thus do we derive the conclusion that the unseen in worship
is strongly linked to its educating role in attaching the individual
to his Lord, deepening his relationship with his Lord.
When we observe the different Islamic rites, we find in them
an element of inclusion of all different aspects of life. Rites
have never been limited to specific norms of rituals, nor have
they been restricted to only needs which embody the manner of
glorifying God, the Praised, the High, like bowing, prostrating,
praying and invoking; rather, they have been extended to include
all sectors of human activity. Jihad, for example, is a rite.
It is a social activity. Zakat is a rite. It, too, is a social
activity, a financial one. Fasting is a rite. It is a nutritious
system. Both ablution and Ghusu1 (ceremonial washing) are norms
of worship. They are two ways of cleaning the body. This inclusion
of worship expresses a general trend of Islamic upbringing aiming
at linking man, in all his deeds and activities, with Almighty
God, converting each useful deed to worship, no matter what field
or type. In order to find a fixed basis for this trend, fixed
rites were distributed to the different fields of human activity,
preparing man to train himself on pouring the spirit of worship
over all his good activities, and the spirit of the mosque over
all places of his works: in the field, the factory, the shop
or the office, as long as his deed is a good one, for the sake
of God, the Glorified, the High.
In this respect, Islamic jurisprudence differs from two other
religious trends, one: a trend to separate worship from life;
and the other: a trend to limit life to a narrow frame of worship
as do monks and mystics.
As for the first trend, it separates worship from life, leaving
worship to be conducted at places made especially for it. It
requires man to be present in these places in order to pay God
His dues and worship Him, so much so that when he gets out of
them to different fields of life, he bids worship farewell, giving
himself up to the affairs of his life until he goes back again
to those holy places.
From here came Islamic jurisprudence to distribute the rites
on the different fields of life, urging the practice of ritual
rites in each good deed. It explains to man that the difference
between the mosque, which is God's house, and man's home is not
in the quality of building or slogan; rather, the mosque has
deserved to be God's house because it is the yard whereupon man
practices a deed that goes beyond his ego and wherefrom he aims
at a bigger goal than that dictated by the logic of limited materialistic
interests, and that this yard ought to extend to include all
life's stages. Each yard, whereupon man does a deed that goes
beyond his self, aiming thereby to achieve the pleasure of God
and all people, does, indeed, carry the mosque's spirit.
As for the second trend, which restricts life in a narrow
frame of worship, it tried to confine man to the mosque instead
of extending the meaning of the mosque to include all the yards
which witness a good deed of man.
This trend believes that man lives an inner conflict between
his soul and body, and that he cannot accomplish one of these
two duality of worship and different activities of life paralyze
worship and obstruct its constructive upbringing role to develop
man's motives and make the objective, enabling him to go beyond
his ego and narrow personal interests in various scopes of his
deeds. God, the Glorified and Praised, never insisted on being
worshipped for the sake of His own Person, since He is independent
of His worshippers, so that He would be satisfied with a worship
of this sort, nor did He ever put Himself as the goal and objective
of the human march, so that man may bow his head down to Him
within the scope of his worship, and that is it! Rather, He meant
such worship to build the good person who is capable of going
beyond his ego, participating in a bigger role in the march.
The exemplary achievement of this cannot be reached except when
the spirit of worship gradually extends to other activities of
life, for its extension-as we have already seen-means an extension
of objectivity of purpose and the inner feeling of responsible
behaviour, ability to go beyond the self to be in harmony with
man within this inclusive cosmic frame, with eternity, immortality
that both encompass him.
Except at the cost of the other. Therefore, in order for him
to spiritually grow and be elevated, he has to deprive his body
from the good things, shrinking his presence on life's stage
battling continuously against his desires and aspirations in
different fields of life, until he finally achieves victory over
all of them through long abstention and deprivation and the practice
of certain rituals.
Islamic jurisprudence rejects this trend, too, because it
wants rites for the sake of life. Life cannot be confiscated
for the sake of rites. At the same time, it tries hard to ensure
that a good man pours the spirit of worship over all of his behaviour
and activity. This must not be taken to imply that he has to
stop his different activities in life and confine himself between
the altar's walls; rather. it means that he converts all his
activities to rituals.
The mosque is but a base wherefrom a good man sets to conduct
his daily behaviour, but it is not limited to that behaviour
alone. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) has said to Abu Tharr
al-Ghifari: "If you are able to eat and drink for the sake
of none save God, then do so!"
Thus, worship serves life. Its upbringing and religious success
is determined by its extension, in meaning and spirit. to all
fields of life. Worship And The Senses
Man's perception is not merely by his senses, nor is it merely
an intellectual and non-material reasoning. It is a mixture of
reasoning plus material and non-material feeling. When worship
is required to perform its function in a way with which man interacts
perfectly, and whereby it harmonizes with his character, worship
is composed of a mind and senses; worship then must contain a
sensitive aspect and a non-material intellect, so that worship
will be compatible with the worshipper's personality, and the
worshipper, while performing his worship, lives his attachment
to the Absolute with all his existence.
From here, the intention, as well as the psychological contention
of worship, always represents its intellectual and non-material
aspect, for it links the worshipper to the True Absolute, the
Praised, the High. There are other aspects of worship whicl1
represent its material aspect:
The qibla towards whose direction each worshipper must direct
his face while praying;
The Haram, visited by both those who perform the pilgrimage
and those who do the Umrah, around which they both perform tawaf;
The Safa and Marwah, between which he runs; Jamratul Aqabah,
at which he casts stones;
The Mosque, which is a place especially made for adoration
wherein the worshipper practices his worship.
All these are things related to the senses and tied to worship:
there is no prayer without a qibla, nor tawaf without a Haram,
and so on, for the sake of satisfying the part related to the
senses in the worshipper and giving it its right and share of
worship.
This is the midway direction in organizing worship and coining
it according to man's instincts as well as his particular intellectual
and sensual makeup.
Two other directions face him: one of them goes to the extreme
in bringing man to his senses, if the expression is accurate
at all, treating him as if he had been a non-material intellect,
opposing all sensual expressions of his in worship's sphere.
As long as the True Absolute, the Praised One, has no limited
place or time, nor can He be represented by a statute; then H
is worship has to stand on such a premise, and in the manner
which enables the comparative thinking of man to address the
Absolute Truth.
Such a trend of thinking is not approved by Islamic jurisprudence,
for inspite of its concern about the intellectual aspects brought
forth by the Hadith: "An hour's contemplation is better
than a year's adoration." it also believes that pious worship,
no matter how deep, cannot totally fill man's self or occupy
his leisure, nor can it attach him to the Absolute Truth in all
his existence, for man has never been purely an intellect.
From this realistic and objective starting point rites in
Islam have been based on both intellectual and sensuous bases.
The person performing his prayers is practicing by his intention
an intellectual adoration, denying his Lord any limits, measurements.
Or the like. For when he starts his prayer with Allah o Akbar
(God is Great). while taking at the same time the holy Kaaba
as a divine slogan towards which he directs his feelings and
movements. he lives worship by both intellect and feeling, logic
and emotion non- materialistically as well as intellectually.
The other trend goes to the extreme in the part related to
the senses, changing the slogan to an identity, and the hint
to reality, causing the worship of the symbol to substitute what
the symbol really stands for, and the direction towards him instead
of the reality it points to; thus, the worshipping person sinks,
in one way or another, in shirk and paganism.
Such a trend totally annihilates the spirit of worship and
it stops its function as a tool linking man and his civilized
march to the True Absolute, converting it to a tool for linking
him to false absolutes, to symbols which changed-through false
intellectual stripping of the matter-to an absolute. Thus, false
worship becomes a veil between man and his Lord, instead of a
link between both of them.
Islam has rejected such a trend because Islam convicted paganism
in all its forms, smashing its idols and putting an end to all
false gods, refusing to take any limited object as a symbol for
the True Absolute, God, the Glorified, or as a personification
of Him. But it deeply distinguished between the meaning of the
idol which it crushed and that of the Qibla it brought, whose
meaning conveys nothing more than a particular geographic spot
to have been divinely favoured through linking it to prayers
for the sake of satisfying the worshipper's aspect related to
the senses. Paganism is really nothing but a deviated attempt
to satisfy such an aspect, and Islamic jurisprudence has been
able to correct it, providing a straight path in harmonizing
between the worship of God, as being dealing with the Absolute
Who has neither limit nor personification, and the need of man
who is composed of feeling and intellect to worship God by both
of his feeling and intellect!
Conclusion The Social Aspect of Worship
Essentially, worship represents the relationship between man
and his Lord. It provides this relationship with elements of
survival and stability. But this has been formulated in the Islamic
jurisprudence in a way which often made it an instrument for
the relationship between man and his brother man, and this is
what we call the social aspect of worship.
Some rituals force, by their nature, segregation and the establishment
of social relations among those who practice that ritual. For
example, Jihad requires those worshippers fighting for God to
establish among themselves such relations as would naturally
happen among the corps of a fighting army.
There are other rituals which do not necessarily enforce congregating,
but inspite of this, they are linked, in one way or another,
to congregation in order to bring forth a mixture between man's
relation with his Lord and his own relation with his brethren
men.
Among prayers' rituals is the congregation wherein the individual's
prayer becomes a group's worship, strengthening the ties among
the group, deepening the spiritual links among them through their
unity in practicing the rituals.
The tenet of pilgrimage has definite timings and places, and
each participant in it has to practice it within those timings
and places, hence, such participation evolves as a great social
activity.
