A General Look At Rites

3. the Inner Feeling of Responsibilities ========================================

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 supervisor 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, for 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, ma- terializes through practising rites. For worship is the duty imposed by the Unseen, and by this we mean that checking it externally is imposs- ible.

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 cannot 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 responsi- bility. This means that the person who prac- tices worship is performing a duty - which differs from any other social obligation or pro- ject - when he borrows and pays back, or when he contracts and adheres to the conditions, when he borrows money from others and returns it to the debtor . . . , he performs a duty which lies within the range of social super- vision's monitoring; hence, his estimation, in another manner, of the predictment of social reaction - in case he backs up - dictates to the same person the decision to do it.

The ritual duty, towards the Unknown, is one whose inner implication none knows except God, the Praised One, the Omnipotent, for it is the result of the inner feeling of responsibility. Through religious practices, such an inner feel- ing grows, and man gets used to behave accord- ing 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 reluctant to perform the legal rights of others for fear of the social reaction towards such reluctance.

Rather, good citizenship is achieved by man who does not relax his own inner feeling of responsibility. Had the feeling of fear of social reaction towards reluctance been the basis of good citizenship in a good society, then the escape from such obligations is quite possible in many cases when, say, it is possible for the individual to hide his reluctance, or give a false interpretation of it, or protect himself from the social reaction in this manner or that. Then, there is no guarantee in all of these cases except the inner feeling of responsibility.

We notice that it is often recommended to perform optional rites secretly, rather than publicly. There even are 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 re- quires after mid-night 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 behave on its basis, form- ing a strong guarantee for the good individual's discharge of his duties and obligations.