Hence, this question comes up: Is really there 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 the conclud- ing jurisprudence, his pagan problems, worries and limited asnir' 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 this field 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 his behaviour, 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, these rites 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 ...

Anything repre- 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 they might be affected` by such a progress.