A General Look At Rites

Rites Are Practical Expression

Just as man was born carrying in him all potentials of the experience on life's stage, plus all seeds 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 attach- ment proves - through experience - that escap- ing 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 and the manner of utilizing it, just like the case of any other 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 exploding good energies. The religion which laid the slogan of "There is no 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 does this instinct grow and get 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 pro mulgate- They are, thus, a continuous confirma- tion 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, i.e., Allahu akbar," he confirms this rejection. And when he declares that His Prophet is also His Servant- slave and Messenger, he confirms this rejection.

And when he abstains from enjoying the plea- sures of life, abstaining from enjoying even the necessities of life for the sake of God, defying the temptations and their effects, he, too, confirms this rejection ... !

These rituals have succeeded in the practical sphere of bringing up generations of believers, at the hands of the Holy Prophet 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 limited 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 One. Besides Him, artificial abso- l utes definitely form, in this way or that, an absolute curbing the march's growth. Attach- ment to the True Absolute, then, is a fixed need; and rejecting artificial absolutes is also a fixed need; and there can be no attachment to the True Absolute without a practical expression of this attachment, confirming it and continu- ously fixing it; and such a practical expression is none but worship! Therefore, worship is a fixed need ... !

2. 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 in this degree or the other. No matter how diversified the qualities of these i nterests or the manner of bringing them to life from an age to another are, 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.

The Other: interests whose gains 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 motif 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 work for its sake.

As for the second kind of interests, here the motif 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 motif; i.e., that he must work for the sake of others, of the group! In other words, he has to work for a purpose greater than his own existence and personal materialistic inter- est.

Such 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 his labour and effort not merely for his own self and its personal materialistic interests, so that he will be capable of contri- buting with self-denial, of aiming at a purely "objective" goal . . . ! Rites perform a large role in this upbring- ing. These, as we have already seen, are acts of man performed for the sake of achieving the pleasure of the 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 personal glory, public applause, or a dedication for his own ego, within his circle and environment. In fact, they even become unlawful acts deserv- ing the punishment of the worshipper! All this is for the sake of the worshipper trying, through his worship, an objective purpose, with all what this implies of truthfulness, sincerity, and tbc worshipper will totally dedicate his worship to Almighty God with sincerity and truthfulness.

God's Path is purely a path of the service of all humanity, for each act performed for the sake of God is but an act for the sake of God's servants, for God is totally sufficient, indepen- dent of His servants. Since the True Absolute God is above any limit, specification, not relat- ed to any group or biased to any direction, His Path, then practically equates that of all man- kind's. To work for God, and for God alone, is to work for people, for the goal of all people. It is a psychological and spiritual training that never ceases to function.

Whenever the jurisdic path of God is men- tioned, 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 interest. It also urges 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 Allah, and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil: . . . (Qur'an, 4:76) 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 psycho- logical, as in fasting; and a third time financial, as in zakat; and 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 practised 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 differ- ence 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 comprehend- ing - 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 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 motifs behind it, their cleanliness, objectivity and self-denial.

The person who reaches the discovery of a medicine for a dangerous disease, saving thereby the lives of millions of patients, God does not evaluate his discovery according to the size of its results and the number of those it saves from death; rather, He estimates it according to the feelings and desires which formulate within the discoverer the motif to spend an effort to make that discovery.

If he did not spend 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 commer- cial deed, for the inner logic of personal'motifs, which push him to discover a medicine for a dangerous disease, may equally push him to discover means of destructign if he finds a market that buys them! A deed is considered commendable and virtuous if the motifs behind it go beyond the ego; if it is for the sake of God and the servants of God. According to the degree of its self-denial and the participation of God's servants in its making, a deed is elevated and highly evaluated.