A General Look At Rites

Worship Is a Permanent Human Need

Rites enjoy an important role in Islam. Their injunctions represent an important part of jurisprudence and worshipping conduct which formulates a noticeable phenomenon in the daily life of the religious person.

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 their application and utilization is affected by the circumstances pertaining to civil progress in man's life, such as the system of deals and contracts.

For example, 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 stone mill used to pray, fast and perform the pilgrimage.

It is true, however, that in the civil aspect of getting prepared for a rite may differ from this and that; for this travels to his pilgrimage in a plane, while that used to travel within a camel caravan; when this covers his body - while praying - with clothes manufactured by the machine, that covers his body with clothes he hand-sewed them. 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 up by the con- tinuous growth of man's control over nature and his means of living.

This means that Islamic shad `ah (Jurispru- dence) has not prescribed prayer, fast, pilgrimage and other Islamic rites temporarily, or as a juridical formula limited to conditions it lived in its early epochs of history; rather, it enjoined these rites on man while he uses the 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 conclusion that the system of rites treats a permanent need in the life of man, with whom it is created, remaining the same in his own entity in spite of the continu- ous progress in his life-style. This is so because the application of a fixed prescription requires a fixed need. Hence, this question comes up:

Is really there 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 formulas 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 the 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 distant tomorrow's, for we certainly find man continuously getting further - in the method, nature of problems and factors of progress of his life - from the circumstances of the tribal society wherein appeared the conclud- ing jurisprudence, his pagan problems, worries and limited asnir' ations.

Such continuous dist- ance forces a basic change in all of his needs, worries and requirements, and in the end in the method of treating and organizing these needs. Therefore, how can rites - in their own par- ticular juristic system - perform a real role on this field which is contemporary to man's life- span, in spite of the vast progress in means and methods of living? If rites such as prayers, ablution, ceremonial washing 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, . . . well, these same goals are achieved by modern man through the very nature of his civilized life and the norm of social living. So, these rites are no more 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, for the social progress in means and tools, in the plough changing in man's hand to a steam or electrical machine; rather, all this imposes a change in the relationship between man and nature and in any material form it takes ... Anything repre- senting the relationship between man and nature such as agriculture which represents the relation- ship between the land farmer, progresses ma- terialistically in form and function accordingly. As for rites, these really do not form a relationship between man and nature so that they might be affected` by such a progress.

They form, instead, a relationship between man and his Lord. Such a relationship possesses a spiritual role controlling the relationship bet- ween man and his brother man. In both cases, however, we find that humanity, historically, lives a certain number of fixed needs faced equally by the man of the age of oil 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 solution, call- ed "rites", is still alive in its objectives until today, becoming an essential condition for man to overcome his problems and succeed in pract- ising 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:-

The need to be linked to the Absolute;
The need for subjectivity in purpose and self-denial;
The need for inner feeling of respon- sibility to guarantee execution.

These are the details of such outlines:

1. THE NEED TO BE LINKED TO THE ABSOLUTE

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 by the relationship between man and his Lord for this man 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 timely needs or limited problems, losing its significance at the end of the stage limiting such needs and prob- lems?

Second: What is the role practised by rites as regarding that relationship and the extent of its significance as a practical dedication to the relation between man and God? What follows is a summary of the necessary explanation concerning both questions:-