ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Hajj - The Islamic Pilgrimage The Purpose of the Acts of Worship The purpose of acts of worship is to draw man’s attention to the privilege he has in the universe.

That purpose is achieved by fully recognizing the Creator of the universe, having a spiritual journey towards Him, shedding off of all kinds of material pollutions from oneself, being illuminated with God’s light, and being absorbed in infinite joy as a result of affinity with God Who is Absolute Beauty and Infinite Perfection. This requires belittling the worldly pleasures against the pleasure of affinity with God hence being indifferent to fortune and misfortune in the world.

In this relation, the Holy Qur’an says: لِكَيْلا تَأْسَوْا على ما فَاتَكُمْ ولا تَفْرَحُوا ِبما آتاكم “So that you may not grieve for what has escaped you, nor be exultant at what He has given you… (57:23)” This is the virtue of being pious and detached from the world, which is the outcome of getting to know God and man’s full attention to a metaphysical world.

The Islamic piety is not against the principles of everyday life When the topic of piety and detachment of the world comes up and quotations from the Holy Qur’an or the Imams (as) are mentioned, a kind of misunderstanding is created in the minds of certain people. They will say to themselves that these two contradict each other. Islam—the perfect religion, while inviting people to be pious and detached from the world, has taken every aspect of human life into consideration.

It is against seclusion, irresponsibility to social undertakings, and indifference to the events happening in the human society. Islam equally blames the oppressors and the oppressed as the agents behind the spread of oppression and corruption. They are both entitled to punishment.

The Hoy Qur’an depicts the assembly of the two groups in hell: كُلَّما دَخَلَتْ أُمَّةٌ لَعَنَتْ أُخْتَها، حَتّى إِذا ادَّارَكُوا فِيها جَمِيعاً قَالَتْ أُخْراهُمْ لأُولاهُمْ رَبَّنا هَؤُلاءِ أَضَلُّونا فَآتِهِمْ عَذاباً ضِعْفاً مِنَ النَّارِ، قَالَ لِكُلٍّ ضِعْفٌ ولَكِنْ لا تَعْلَمون “Whenever a nation shall enter, it shall curse its sister, until when they have all come up with one another into it; the last of them shall say with regard to the foremost of them: our Lord!

These led us astray; therefore give them a double chastisement of the fire. He will say: every one shall have double but you do not know.

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