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A General Look at Rites

Author:Ayatullah MuhammadBaqir as-Sadr

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Table of Contents

Foreword 4

Worship is A Permanent Human Need 5

1. THE NEED TO BE LINKED TO THE ABSOLUTE 7

The Link Between the Absolute is A Two-Edged Problem 8

Belief in God is the Remedy 10

Rites are Practical Expression 12

2. SUBJECTIVITY OF PURPOSE AND SELF-DENIAL 14

3. The Inner Feeling of Responsibilities 17

General Outlooks of Rites 19

The Unseen in Explaining Rites 20

Inclusion in Worship 22

Worship and Senses 24

The Social Aspect of Worship 26

Foreword

Rites are considered among the matters of worship whose depths cannot be fathomed by humans, nor their philosophy be completely comprehended nor the purpose behind their legislationunderstood. . ! Rather, the believer must perform them as means of submitting and seeking nearness to Allah, toWhom belong Might and Majesty.

Man has achieved tremendous scientific advancement. This has caused the new genera-tion to be inquisitive about the logic and aims from such parrot worship.

The renowned Muslim scholar as-Sayyid MuhammadBaqir as-Sadr has answered this question in this invaluable booklet A General Look at Rites.

We have already given a brief introduction of the author in the foreword of his other book namely The Revealer, the Mess-enger and the Message in its English translation. We praise the Almighty Allah Who be- stowed on us the success of translating and publishing this book. We pray to Him to help us continuously in accomplishing our aims in the service of His cause. He is the Supreme Master, the Supreme Helper.

World OrganizationFor Islamic Services

(Board of Writing,Translation and Publication)

2/4/1399

1/3/1979

Tehran - IRAN.

Worship is A Permanent Human Need

Rites enjoy an important role in Islam. Their injunctions represent an important part of jurisprudence and worshippingconduct 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 valuebeen 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 whileploughing 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 thecontinu -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 theconclud -ing jurisprudence, his pagan problems, worries and limitedasnir '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 thisfield 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 hisbehaviour , 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 , theserites 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 Anythingrepre -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 theymight 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 thissort, 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 inpract -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:-

1) The need tobe linked to the Absolute;

2) The need for subjectivity in purpose and self-denial;

3) The need for inner feeling ofrespon -sibility to guarantee execution.

These are the details of such outlines:

1. THE NEED TOBE 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 andprob -lems ?

Second: What is the rolepractised 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:-

The LinkBetween the Absolute is A Two-Edged 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 went beyond these formulas,infiltrat -ing into the depth and essence of the problem, we would find, through many of such different daily formulas, one mainly essential and fixed problem with two edges or contrasting poles wherefrom mankind suffers during his civilized advancement along history.

It is from one angle expressing this problem: the problem of loss and non-entity, thus expressing the negative side of the problem. And from another angle, it expresses the problem of extreme in entity and belonging by c:olinecting the relative facts to which man belongs to an Absolute; thus express-i ng 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 "idolatory " and shirk (believing in one or many partners with God), as also an obviousexpres -sion of it. The continuous struggle of Islam against atheism and shirk is, in its civilized reality, a struggle against both problems in their historical dimensions.

Both problems meet into one essential point, and that is: deterring man's movement to advance from a continuously good imaginative creativity, for the problem of loss means to man that he is a being in continuous loss, not belong-ing to an Absolute, to Whom he can support himself in his hard march of a long range, deriving from His Absolutism and Encompass-ment help, sustenance and clear vision of the goal, joining through that Absolute his own movement to the universe, to the whole exist-ence , to eternity and perpetuity,

defining his own relationship to Him and his position in the inclusive cosmic framework, for 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 without being able to affect them. There is noaccom -plishment or productivity in the great march of man along history without a connection to and promulgation with an Absolute in an objective march.

But this same connection, on the other hand, directs the other side of the problem, that of extreme entity, by changing the "rela tive " to "absolute", a problem which faces man continuously.For man weaves his loyalty to a case so that such loyalty provides him with the ability to move and continue marching.

But such loyalty freezes gradually and gets stripped off 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 worship-ped 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 itscapa - cities to develop and create,paralysing man from performing his naturally open role in the march:

Associate not with Allah any other god, lest you sit despised, neglected. (Qur'an, 17:22)

This is atrue fact applicable to all "gods" mankind madealong history, albeit if they were made during theidolatory stage of worship or its succeeding stage. From the stage of tribe to that of science, we find a series ofgods which deterred mankind who worshipped them, treat-ing them as an "absolute," from making any accurate progress . .

Indeed, from the tribe to which man sub- mitted his alliance, considering it as an actual need dictated by his particular living circum- stances, he went to the extreme, changing it to an "absolute," without being able to see any- thing except through them. Hence, they became an obstacle in his way to progress.

To science, to which modern mandeserv -edly granted alliance, for it paved for him the way to control nature . ., but he sometimes exaggerated such an alliance, turning it to an absolute alliance, trespassing his limits while being infatuated by it. Thus, man derived out of science, with which he was infatuated, an "absolute" to worship, offering it the rites of obeisance and loyalty, refusing for its own sake all ideals and facts which can never be measured bymetres 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 anAbso - lute .. !!!

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 itspoles ... !

Belief in God is the Remedy

Such a remedy is shown by what Divine Jurisprudence has presented man on earth: The Belief in God as the Absolute toWhom 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 manage-ment is the whole cosmos related, becoming the vicegerent of God on earth.Vicegerency implies responsibility, and the latter puts man between two poles: one Deputy beforeWhom man bears responsibility, and a reward he receives accord-ing to his conduct, between God andresurrec -tion , infinitude and eternity, while he moves within such a sphere a responsible and purpose-ful movement.

Belief in God treats the positive aspect 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 problemis created by changing the limited and relative to an "absolute" through intellectual exertion and by stripping the relative off 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 off- spring 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 inter-ests . ! For God, the Praised, the High, is an Absolute without limits, onewhose 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' thouman ! Verily thou art ever toiling on towards thy Lord - painfully toiling, - but thoushalt meet Him! (Qur'an, 84:6) He grantsthis 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, alljustice and all wealth. In other words, the human march is a continuously successive struggle against all sorts of ignorance, incapacity,oppression andpov -erty .

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 own souls: for Allah is free of all needs from all creation. (Qur'an, 29:6) . . He, then, that receives guidancebene - fits his own soul: but he that strays injures his own soul (Qur'an, 39:41)

Contrariwise, whimsical absolutes and false gods cannot absorb the march with all itsaspir -ations , 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 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 and waging a continuous war and endless struggle against all sorts ofidolatory and artificial worship. Thus, man will be emancipated from the mirage of these falseabsolutes which stood as an obstacle in his way 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 Allah (ever) with him (Qur'an, 24:39)

. . Are many lords differing among them- selves better, or Allah the One, Supreme and Irresistible? If not Him, ye worship nothing butnames which ye have named, ye and your fathers, for which Allah hath sent down no authority: . (Qur'an, 12:39-40)

. . Such is Allah your Lord: to Him be- longs all Dominion.And those whom ye invoke besides Him have not the least power. (Qur'an, 35:13)

If we consider the mainslogan heaven put forward in this respect: "There is no god but Allah," we will find out that it joined in it the linking of 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 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 positive link to "There is no god but Allah" are but two faces for one fact, the factwhich 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 explode all its creative energies, emancipating it from each and every false and obstructing "absolute" . .

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 - thatescap -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 correctbehaviour 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, thebehaviour 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 thepoor. . !

From this point, Faith in God, the deep feeling of aspiring towards the unknown and the attachment to the Absolute, have all to have somedirection 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 feelingmay 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 promulgate - They are, thus, a continuousconfirma -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 bydeclaring 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 thisrejection ... !

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" ofKisra 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, artificialabso - lutes 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 andcontinu -ously fixing it; and such a practical expression is none but worship! Therefore, worship is a fixedneed ... !

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 thesei 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 andendeavour depends the achievement of that interest.

TheOther : interests whose gains go to those other than the direct worker or group he belongs to. In this second kind are included all sorts oflabour 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 andendeavours 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 oflabour 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 oncamel-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 whosowed them . ! It is necessary, then, to raise every individual to perform a portion of hislabour and effort not merely for his own self and its personal materialistic interests, so that he will be capable ofcontri -buting with self-denial, of aiming at a purely "objective" goal . ! Rites perform a large role in thisupbring -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 actsdeserv -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, andtbc 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 istotally sufficient ,indepen - dent of His servants. Since the True Absolute God is above any limit, specification, notrelat -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 thejurisdic path of God is men-tioned , it can be taken to mean exactlyall mankind's path. Islam has made God's Path one of the avenues to spendzakat , 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 ofendeavour , 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 inzakat ; 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 trainingpractised by man through differentrites for the objective purpose, for giving and contributing, for working for a higher goal in all different fields of humanendeavour .

On this basis can you find the vast differ-ence between a person who grew up on makingendeavours to please God, brought up tolabour 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 purelycommer -cial deed, for the inner logic ofpersonal'motifs , which push him to discover a medicine for a dangerous disease, may equally push him to discover means ofdestructign if he finds a market that buys them! A deedis 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.

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 bean 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 throughpractising rites. For worship is the duty imposed by the Unseen, and bythis we mean that checking it externally isimposs -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 fromWhose knowledge nothing escapes . .

The only possibleassurity on this level is the inner feeling ofresponsi -bility .This means that the person whoprac -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 thepredictment 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 mangets used to behave accord-ing to it. Through the medium of such feeling can we find the goodcitizen. 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 itis often recommended to perform optional rites secretly, rather than publicly. There even arerites 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 feelinggets 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.

General Outlooks of 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 of these rites; here are some of these general outlooks: