WHY WORSHIP RITES ARE INEFFECTIVE?

WHY WORSHIP RITES ARE INEFFECTIVE?

Why Worship Rites Are Ineffective This state of affairs is the real reason why your Salah, Sawm, Zakah and Hajj make no impact upon your lives. First, there are so few among you who perform these acts of worship. Due to the dissolution of Islamic Jama'ah everybody has become autonomous. Whether you fulfil your obligations or not, there is nobody to care. Nor do those who do apparently carry out their obligations do so in a proper manner.

They are not constant in attending the congrega- tional Prayer. People are selected to lead the Prayers in the mosques simply because they are fit for no other work: people who exist on the free bread doled out to mosques, who are uneducated, who lack moral calibre. How can congregations led by them turn you into the leaders of mankind? Similar is the situation regarding your Fasting, Almsgiving and Pilgrimages.

Despite all these facts, you may argue, there are nonetheless many Muslims who do discharge their religious duties conscientiously. Why does that make no difference? But, as I have said, when the parts of the clock have become unhinged and numerous foreign bodies have been inserted in it, it makes no difference if you wind it or not, clean it or not, lubricate it or not. From a distance it does look like a clock. An outside observer may say: This is Islam and you are Muslims. But what he cannot see is how badly its inside machinery has been tampered with.

. Our Deplorable Condition Brothers! You understand why it is so that you pray and fast and yet remain trampled under the heel of cruel tyrants. But, should I tell you something even more distressing? Although most of you no doubt regret this situation but, I would say, 999 people out of 1000 are not prepared to change their situation. They have no urge in their hearts to assemble the clock of Islam again properly. They are afraid that any such reconstruction would mean that their own favourite im- ported parts would be thrown out, and this they are not prepared to accept.

They are afraid that any tightening of various parts would mean that they will have to discipline themselves, and this they are not willing to undertake. Instead, they prefer that the clock remains a piece of decoration on the wall for people to be shown and told how wonderful Islam is, what miracles it can perform. Those who are supposed to love this clock more than others would like to wind it repeatedly and zealously and to clean it most laboriously; but they want to do nothing to reset its parts properly or tighten them, nor will they seek to get rid of the extraneous parts.

. I wish I could endorse your attitudes and behaviour, but I cannot say anything which I believe is wrong. I assure you that if, in addition to praying five times a day, you were to offer Tahadjud (pre-dawn), Ishraq (post-sunset) and Chasht (mid-morning) Prayers, read the Qur'an for hours every day, and observe, over and above Ramadan, extra fasts for five and a half months in the remaining eleven months, you would still achieve nothing. What is needed is to restore the original parts to the clock and fix them firmly. Then even the little necessary winding will make it work smoothly; and the minimal amount of required cleaning and lubrication will be needed

. Wa ma 'alayna illa 'l-balagh

There is no responsibility on us except conveying the truth

COURTESY: ABUL ALA MOUDOODI..