Hence, this question comes up: Is there really a fixed need...

Hence, this question comes up: Is there really 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 formulae 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 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 the man of the future.

We certainly find man getting continuously further-in the method, nature of problems, and factors of progress of his own life-from the circumstances of the tribal society, his pagan problems, worries, limited aspirations, and the method of treating and organizing these needs, wherein appeared the concluding jurisprudence.

Therefore, how can rites-in their own particular juristic system-perform a real role in this field which is contemporary to man's life-span, inspite of the vast progress in means and methods of living?

If rites such as prayers, ablution, ceremonial washing (ghusul), and fasting had been useful during some stage in the life of the bedouin man- taking part in cultivating his behaviour; his practical commitment to clean his body and keep it from excessive eating and drinking- these same goals, by the same token, are achieved by modern man through the very nature of his civilized life and the norms of social living.

So, it would seem that these rites are no longer 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. The social progress in means and tools- for example, in the plough changing in man's hand to a steam or electric machine-imposes a change in man's relationship to nature and to whatever material forms it takes.

Take agriculture, for example, which represents a relationship between the land and the farmer; it develops materially in form and context according to the norm of development described above. As regarding worship, the latter is not a relationship between man and nature, so that it would be affected by such sort of development or progress. Rather, it is a relationship between man and his Lord. This relationship has a spiritual role which directs man's relationship to his brother man.