ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Study in the Philosophy of Islamic Rites The Inner Feeling of Responsibility 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 supervision 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.

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, materializes through practicing rites. For worship is the duty imposed by the Unseen, and by this we mean that checking it externally is impossible.

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 can not 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.