A General Look At Rites

The Social Aspect of Worship

Essentially, worship represents the relation- ship between man and his Lord. It provides this relationship with elements of survival and stabil ity. But this has been formulated in the Islamic j urisprudence 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, segrega- tion and the establishment of social relations among those who practise that ritual. For example, jihad requires those fighting worship- pers of 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 in spite of this, they are linked in this way or the other to congregation, in order to bring forth a mix- ture between man's relation with his Lord and his own relation with his brethren men.

Among prayers' rituals is the congrega- tion 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 practising the rituals.

The tenet of pilgrimage has definite timings and places, and each participant in it has to practise it within those timings and places; hence, such participation evolves as a great social activity!

Even the tenet of fasting, which by nature is a purely individual act, is tied to the fitr Feast, as the social facet of this tenet, uniting its participants in their ecstasy of vanquishing their desires and inclinations!

While siding by man's relation with his Lord, the tenet of zakat creates spontaneously a relation between him and his patron to whom he pays it, or to the poor man, or to the charitable project channelled directly by zakat.

So do we observe that the social relation is found in this way or the other side by side with the relation between the worshipper and his Lord in performing one ritualistic practice of a social role in man's life, and it cannot be considered successful except when it becomes a dynamic force properly directing whatever social relations it faces.

The social aspect of worship reaches its zenith through whatever slogans worship puts forth on the social stage as spiritual symbol to the nation's unity, feeling of genuinity and distinction. The qiblah or haram House, is but a slogan put forth by Islamic jurisprudence through its legislation of worship and prayers.

Such a slogan has not been taken as merely a religious dimension, but it also has its social dimension as the symbol of this nation's unity and genuinity. Therefore, when this jurispru- dence legislated for them their new qiblah, Muslims faced a great deal of harassment from the mongers, as the Holy Qur'an states, for those mongers realized the social implication of this jurisprudence, and that it was a phenom- enon which endowed the nation its personality, making it an even nation:

Thus have We made of you an ummah justly balanced, that ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Apostle a witness over yourselves; and We appointed the qiblah to which thou wast used, only to test those who followed the Apostle from those who would turn on their heels (from the Faith). Indeed it was (a change) mo- mentous, except to those guided by Allah. And never would Allah make your faith of no effect. Allah is to all people most surely full of kindness, most Merciful.

We see the turning of thy face (for guid- ance) to the heavens: now shall We turn thee to a qiblah that shall please thee. Turn then thy face in the direction of the sacred Mosque: wherever ye are, turn your faces in that direction . . . (Qur'an, 2:143- 144) These are just few remarks on rites in Islamic jurisprudence.

In addition to all this, there are other general important lines representing the role of rites in man's life and their social character i stics as we have discussed above, the roles and detailed particulars of each rite. For each rite brought forth by Islamic jurisprudence there are effects, characteristics and hues of output for the worshipper, and for man's civilized march as a whole. There is no room here to deal with that in detail. Therefore, we leave the roles, detailed particulars and the exposition of axioms and benefits implied in the instructions of the legislator concerning each of these Islamic rites to another level of discourse. We have already given some of our students permission to cover that.

From God do we derive assistance, and Him do we implore not to deprive us of the honour of worshipping Him, praying Him to reckon us and His pleased servants, to forgive us through His Mercy and Bounty; verily, His Mercy has encompassed all things:

Why should I not worship Him Who has created me, and to Him do ye return?! (Qur'an, 36:22) This book has been finished on Jamadi al-awwal 2, 1396 Hijri.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds; prayers and salutations be upon Muhammad and all those purely-guided ones among his progeny.