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Rituals - revisited

Started by Arman, December 01, 2014, 01:30:32 AM

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Arman

Salamun Alaikum.

Let me begin with a personal account with which many of you may be able to relate. When I was a school boy we had this unofficial rule at our home that every evening from 7:00 to 9:00 we have to sit in our study table and study. It does not matter whether we had homework or not ? or whether we are already prepared for the exams ? this was a study ritual we had to abide by (except for the period after exam before start of new class). I got so used to the ritual that I would feel sort of guilty if for some reason I missed the study (e.g. a guest coming in or a family party).

Was the 2 hours of study equally effective for me every day? Of course not. There were days my mind used to be so preoccupied with plans for upcoming holiday etc. that I would not concentrate on my studies at all. But on the retrospect if I am given an opportunity to re-live my childhood ? I would not change the ritual of evening studies. Those couple of hours of routine studies helped me immensely to achieve whatever academic success I had and shaped me as a person.

Am I correct to call those 2 hours of routine as a ?ritual?? Let?s now think for a while what is a ritual.  Based on dictionary definition a ?ritual (noun)? is:

Quote: a formal ceremony or series of acts that is always performed in the same way
: an act or series of acts done in a particular situation and in the same way each time

From "Ritual." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ritual>.

The above definition does allow calling the evening study routine a ritual. By the same token ? brushing tooth every day is a ritual ? so is routine practicing of song by a singer, routine cleansing of the house we live in or routine physical exercises performed by athletes (and increasingly by every health-conscious individual).

What do these rituals give us? They give us ? (1) discipline: that we do not miss-out of tasks which are important but perhaps may not always seem urgent; (2) convenience: they put virtuous practices as a part of our ?habit?, and last but not least (3) representation: they also serve as a communication to others. Everybody in the house knows that 7-9 pm is the study time of the school-boy so you better not disturb him at this time. We know that some colleagues of us go to the Gym every day during lunchtime. So, we do not bother him with other lunch plans.

Can rituals be misused? Of course. A student may go to his study table every evening to impress his parents but while at it if left unsupervised, he may choose to read a recreational novel instead of real study materials. I can go to gym routinely but make it an occasion of gossiping or ?dating? instead of physical exercise.

A ritual at personal level goes wrong when the ?original/proper intension? of the ritual somehow gets changed. That?s also true for social rituals ? but there the forces of corruption are even stronger.

We can think of exams and home works as rituals in academic space. But how often it is criticized that excessive obsession with exams and home works put the goal of seeking knowledge in the back-burner and make the students mere certificate seekers?

In a democracy, the periodic election, parliament, constitution etc.  are examples of political rituals. But how often do we see these institutions misused by autocratic regimes to grab and hold power?

The bottom line is any ritual can be corrupted if it deviates from its true intension ? and in the social space there are active vested groups who benefit from corrupting rituals to serve their own benefits.


Let?s now take these ideas about rituals and take them to religious rituals. Indeed most religions usually claim that their rituals are not mindless practices offered to a deity ? they serve a higher purpose. They help the individual to attain piety of soul and a refined conscience. But in practice ? more often than not the purpose of the ritual gets distorted / corrupted and they do become mindless activities performed to express one?s alliance with a particular religious ideology in hope of the pleasure of a particular deity.

The reason of this corruption is not very difficult to guess. The clergies who are supposed to be the teachers of the religious rituals often find it in their own interest to repackage the ritual as a ?service to the deity? than a ?self-development practice?. Because, if they can establish a ?deity? that demands blind adherence to a specific form of ritual and if they can convince a critical mass of people to have faith in that deity ? it secures them politically and financially. The corruption has become so commonplace that many people have now started to think that ?worshiping a deity? is supposed to be the ?original / intended? purpose of religious rituals.

Unfortunately that is the state of every major religion of the world including the religion of ?Islam? (term used in conventional sense).

Now, what is the optimum solution of this situation? When politicians misuse the democratic rituals (election etc.) do we eliminate those rituals or seek a solution within system? A father who finds out that his son reads novel while sitting at the study table, should he eliminate the evening study rituals - OR, perhaps try to motivate the son to the actual purpose of this ritual and its benefits? Killing the ritual will not solve anything ? rather it will pave the way for greater chaos.

For ages rituals have helped humans to develop themselves. Academic rituals helped them develop academically ? physical rituals (exercise) helped them develop physically and spiritual rituals helped them develop spiritually. Like other personal rituals religious rituals can be easily seen to have those 3 virtues: (1) discipline: that we do not miss-out on spiritual exercises which are important but perhaps may not always seem as urgent as dietary / physical exercise rituals; (2) convenience: it puts virtuous practices as a part of our ?habit?, and last but not least (3) representation: it also serves as a communication to others ? we do not bother a practicing muslim to have lunch on a Ramadan day. Imagine if we had no religious fasting, and we voluntarily chose on our own to skip food and drink for a day to practice self-control - how much explaining we would need to those who would doubt out sanity :)

Because of such obvious benefits, every time societies tried to look beyond ?pointless religious rituals? they ended up reinventing rituals of their own. A good test case is the Sikhism which started off as a religion strictly against any form of ritual (see http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Sikhism_and_Ritualism) ended up having strictest rituals ? in dress code and naming conventions. Even some of the modern atheists are recognizing the necessities / virtues of rituals performed with appropriate intentions and promoting rituals within atheist theology (see www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_atheism_2_0).

If we cut out the spiritual rituals religions get downgraded from being a choice of lifestyle to a set of ?theological and philosophical theory?. A ?theological and philosophical theory? is a good fuel for academic debate and attractive pastime for the intellectually active ? but a theory alone cannot give an individual the strength to remain spiritually and morally alert, a theory alone cannot reach to every nook and corner of the society ? from children to the elderly, from the least educated to the scholar to make them concerned about morality and conformity, a theory alone cannot hold a society together on moral ground. That is why, when it comes to rituals I believe we should strive to reset the emphasis on substance over form - not to eliminate it altogether. It is the deviation from true purpose of ritual which is the problem ? not the ritual itself. A correct diagnosis of the disease is critical - before we jump into the operation table with our surgical knives to cut the rituals out of spirituality.

I know this post is likely to draw immediate criticism from some of you who have taken a strong position against all form of religious rituals ? because a contrary view is likely to hurt your ego. But perhaps after you overcome your knee-jerk reaction you?ll give this issue a second thought. Perhaps taking the teeth out is not the only solution for toothache.

May Allah guide us all to the straight route.

Regards,
Arman
Indeed I have faced my face to the One who farmed the heavens and the earth in precision; and I do not happen to be among the ones associating partners (with Him).

Taro Hiroshi

Peace Armanaziz,

I think you imake some good points (about the importance of Rituals) in your post. In my view, the message of the Quran is not anti-rituals. And I agree with the notion that rituals can be good for us. For example, I think reading/studying the Quran on a daily basis, is a good/beneficent ritual. And I think this ritual (if done correctly) can lead to personal growth.

Personally, I try to read/study the quran on a daily basis.

drfazl



An independent, shirk free, live and truthful Soul is blossomed into progressively beautiful and splendid liveliness by the day; for such of them each day is more and more beautiful than the day before; each night fall is more glorious than the night before by Allah, the Most Appreciative. Rituals are very much necessary for the mechanical minds that follow only the masses as guides; there is no other way for them.
Quran reading is useless unless we decisively stick to righteousness in our lives, at least to an extent possible. Based on such status Allah Guides, in such a way  [url="http://foolproofcure.net/index.aspx"]http://foolproofcure.net/index.aspx[/url]   that we do not transgress after receiving His Mercy.

Man of Faith

Not exactly hurt the ego, but because people erroneously attribute an Arabic word to some sort of physical ritual where one adores "God" on strict timing also invented out of an inference of Arabic words. I do not really care if one wishes to keep religious rituals, but when they kafar that while attributing it to "God" my ego becomes touched, and I despise religious inventions just as "God" does.
Otherwise ritual is the same as customs and traditions and well the old prostration sure is a customary ritual although not something which "God" ever "prescribed". I sense you abuse the word ritual to fit your agenda of defending an erroneous inference.
If you wish to sit at the table or kneel in your bedchamber 7 times per day reciting a prayer that is commendable, but it is still your personal devotion and not someone else's. And whence you make continuous prayers there is something called accepting what you yourself prayed and struggle to live up towards them. You do not take a step forward through mere wishful thinking.
Also not sure how you do the invented salat, if you recite chapter one several times as if "God" hears you better because of the many and repeated words. This kind of attempt of impressing and pleasing a god is a long lived Pagan ideology.
Do you read the chapter about "I do not serve what you serve and you do not serve what I serve"? Such as intended as an excuse towards people who have invented things about religion.
A disciplined schedule for something may be good, but one should also know that there is danger about rendering something of this world to occupy the mind.
Meditation such as the one I am often committed to can be regarded as a ritual,  but at least I do not call it salat or by some other invented label. I only do something because I am benefited from doing so and the kind of meditation strengthens the spirituality.
I also do not fill my ego but I tried to help you and stop you from diverting other people into the ritual delusion. But I also should remember that others have brains to think with and I am not really a guardian. If I work hard to translate and find the truth I am not doing so to fill my ego but rather I am very generous while I do not really benefit from something I already know. I am not here because I see to satisfy and ego for I work hard on "deleting" my ego completely, so I would be quite the hypocrite if I did otherwise.
In the religion you call Islam there are so many fabrications that one knowing could cry endlessly and further more due to the fact the true discourse is right in front of the eyes of people yet they perceive it not, because they have their minds clouded by what clerics and scholars have fabricated from the interpretation since the day Quran saw the light.
And yet people shake their heads at the truth when some man is spelling out the literal truth to them and consider him a deluded man who is lost in his own whims and desires regarding interpretation.
Have faith
Website reference: [url="http://iamthatiam.boards.net"]http://iamthatiam.boards.net[/url]

Man of Faith

Harmony with you brother Fazlur!

Or even tranquility:

tran?quil\ˈtraŋ-kwəl, ˈtran-\
adjective
1 a : free from agitation of mind or spirit <a tranquil self-assurance>
b : free from disturbance or turmoil <a tranquil scene>
2 : unvarying in aspect : steady, stable
synonyms see calm

Website reference: [url="http://iamthatiam.boards.net"]http://iamthatiam.boards.net[/url]

Shogunsami

Hi Arman , it's very thoughtful of you to share your views on a very debatable topic. I am sure your intention is very noble. But let me disagree on certain parts of your view. I will agree to your definition of the meaning of ritual. I see you have drawn similitude of student studying time and daily exercise as examples of ritual. I have a slight difference of opinion there. I dont think it's purely ritual by definition. Let's take some examples. An athlete indulging in various physical exercise is actually setting up a regime not a ritual. This is because the athlete do not do the same exercise over and over again. If one day he concentrate on his arms by curls or lifts, the next day he will be doing bench press for chest. Similarly a student is not studying the same text over and over again for years. Another example is a person who would like to read dedicating part of daily time to read books. This is not a ritual it's a hobby. The difference here is for the athlete, the student and the avid reader there is a defenition measurable purpose. For the athlete it could be winning a sport or building up his body, for the student it would be academic or certification, for the reader it is simply the pleasure of reading. Same thing goes for a yogi or a martial art expert they are simply practitioners of their craft and not indulging in ritual.   Another aspect I want to reiterate is on the point of benefits. It should be doable and measurable. If I am a hunter I can by daily exercise of target practice improve my aim. Here I am doing the same thing like a ritual but I gain some benefits overtime through constant practice. Suppose I want to shoot the moon and I practice daily. Do you think given the same circumstances I will be able to shoot at the moon how much ever I try? This is the problem with the current rituals. Since we both agree that current rituals is aimed at pleasing god ( which technically is a carry over from Greek paganism as the Greek gods derive their power from worship of the followers and they insist on formal ritualized worship failing which will attract the wrath of the gods), we need to see whether the rituals followed in islam now is like trying to shoot the moon. By the process of some exercise 5 times a day or fasting from dawn to dusk etc bring some changes at the spiritual level? Is the contentment one experience by following certain ritual spiritual or simply a delusion? Does following such rituals bring anything positive to its practitioner and the society in large? I do have doubts over such claim. The 'Muslim' who claims solace in 'namaz' , the Christian who finds peace in attending a mass and a Hindu who claims contentment in performing a Pooja,are all of them witnessing a spiritual awakening or just deluded in man made muddle? How true are these claims? My take is yes I agree with you we need discipline and spirituality. But is the current rituals even capable of delivering on such tall promises?

Jafar

There's nothing wrong with rituals / life habits.

Of course with exception of certain type of rituals such as:
- Drug abuse
- Human sacrifice (and animal sacrifice ?)
- Suicide / self flagellation / other type of self harming rituals..

Having said that, the 'common' problem of the religious is the mindset of:
"My ritual is the best ritual"
"My ritual is the only acceptable ritual"
"Other who didn't do the ritual as we do is 'lesser' than us / convicted to hell"

Going to your example of "2 hour study / day" ritual.
There are many of those who didn't do such ritual as you and get a much better academic results than you.

Thus going to the same level of 'corruption' as the religious ritual.
It will be completely insane to declare that those who refused to do 2 hours a day of study shall/is:
- Guaranteed academic failure
- Deserved to be tortured until he/she agree to do the ritual

And the focus of attention shifted to the 'observance of 2 hours a day studying' ritual with detailed instruction on what should you do during the 2 hours of study.
- Recite a mantra before you grab the book
- What is the allowable color of the book cover
- Which direction should you face while reading the book
- Women during her period must not allowed to study
etc.. etc..

And then the 'true objective' of studying (which is to digest knowledge) became forgotten..


amin

All rituals are some kind of regular tasks that helped us once,  we had forgotten its usefulness.

Those rituals should have some meaning behind and at times can come as hindrance as the original usage might have lost due to migrations,  new inventions etc.. In this case one can view that as a form of  idol worshiping.

Most of us just follow what our parents and societies do and think thats good and easy instead of doing things in a different way,  there is both good and bad in following such practices. The best is use ones mind and have a balanced approach in following rituals.

In Islam,
Salat is a ritual, that takes our focus to the common goodness.

Zakat too a ritual of sharing food with the poor and the community we belong.

Fasting as a ritual that helps us in increasing our immunity and make us more fit, if done in a proper way.

Hajj as a ritual is a learning experience, we relax, we learn other cultures and thereby helps  improve ones society in multiple ways.  But Hajj need not be limited to a single place.



Man of Faith

Tranquility be with you Jafar,

Thanks for your input. But I think you forgot "God prescribes this ritual or you are a disbeliever", attributing a lie to what is "God" and dogmatically enforcing a ritual.

Have faith
Website reference: [url="http://iamthatiam.boards.net"]http://iamthatiam.boards.net[/url]

Arman

Salamun Alaikum.

Thanks for all of you for taking time on revisiting this topic. I will make some follow-up remarks on the comments of brother Jafar and brother Songusami.

Before I go into that let me quickly recap what I tried to conclude about religious rituals in my original post.

My hypothesis was that ? in most cases religious rituals originated as self-development exercise. Just like we perform fixed routines for our physical / academic improvement ? the religious rituals were meant to be fixed routines for our spiritual development. HOWEVER, in case of almost every religion a class of clergy emerged who found it in their benefit to repackage the ?self-development exercise? as a ?service to a deity?. This corruption helped them gain monopoly over the religion which could be exploited politically and economically. The corruption seems to have taken place at least in 3 forms:
1. Fanaticism: This is a direct implication of shifting the ?motive? of ritual from self-development to serving a deity. Instead of the ritual being mandatory because it is ?good for you? ? it became mandatory because ?if you do not do it you have to burn in hell? or even worse ?you?ll become an apostate and we?ll kill you!?
2. Over ritualization: The rituals became over-burdened with meaningless details followed with meticulous rigidity. This provided the clergy the much needed ?complexity? which would serve as a form of ?barrier to entry? in their trade.
3. Form over substance: The frequency, format, content became more important than the intension behind the ritual. This is a direct implication of shifting the ?motive? of ritual from self-development to serving a deity.

My recommendation was ? to fix the situation we do not need to ?kill? the rituals. Our goal should be to reconcile the true intension of the ritual and fight against the corruptions above.

Now let?s go to the comments of brother Jafar.

Quote from: Jafar on December 01, 2014, 11:07:56 AM
Having said that, the 'common' problem of the religious is the mindset of:
"My ritual is the best ritual"
"My ritual is the only acceptable ritual"
"Other who didn't do the ritual as we do is 'lesser' than us / convicted to hell"

This is the corruption of ?Fanaticism?. This is not a fault of the ritual, rather this is how rituals have been misinterpreted.

Quote from: Jafar on December 01, 2014, 11:07:56 AM
Going to your example of "2 hour study / day" ritual.
There are many of those who didn't do such ritual as you and get a much better academic results than you.
I find it a bit problematic to agree fully to this statement. It is not about me ? but, I would say some form of regular study is indispensable for academic success ? just like some form of routine practice is indispensable for a singer or an athlete. Of course that study period may be in the morning instead of evening or 1 hour instead of 2 hour ? but the need of fixed routine cannot be overruled.

Quote from: Jafar on December 01, 2014, 11:07:56 AM
Thus going to the same level of 'corruption' as the religious ritual.
It will be completely insane to declare that those who refused to do 2 hours a day of study shall/is:
- Guaranteed academic failure
- Deserved to be tortured until he/she agree to do the ritual
Yes, of course ? that?s the corruption I am also describing, but the solution is not to eliminate the study ritual ? the solution is to eliminate the misconceptions.

Quote from: Jafar on December 01, 2014, 11:07:56 AM
And the focus of attention shifted to the 'observance of 2 hours a day studying' ritual with detailed instruction on what should you do during the 2 hours of study.
- Recite a mantra before you grab the book
- What is the allowable color of the book cover
- Which direction should you face while reading the book
- Women during her period must not allowed to study
etc.. etc..

And then the 'true objective' of studying (which is to digest knowledge) became forgotten..

A father who suddenly finds out that his son reads novel at the study table may be tempted to further specify exactly what the kid needs to study - but sure after a level the overspecification could become too burdensome and defy the purpose of the study. That is what happened with the religious rituals. The corruption of ?Over ritualization? led to ?Form over substance?. This is not a fault of the ritual, rather this is how rituals have been misdirected.

So, in a nutshell, brother Jafar?s comments are revolving around the corruption of the rituals which I have also agreed. On this point we have no conflict of understanding.

Brother Songusami brings a different challenge to my proposition. He is suggesting that the academic / physical rituals are not comparable to religious rituals.

Quote from: Shogunsami on December 01, 2014, 09:26:07 AM
I see you have drawn similitude of student studying time and daily exercise as examples of ritual. I have a slight difference of opinion there. I dont think it's purely ritual by definition. Let's take some examples. An athlete indulging in various physical exercise is actually setting up a regime not a ritual. This is because the athlete do not do the same exercise over and over again. If one day he concentrate on his arms by curls or lifts, the next day he will be doing bench press for chest. Similarly a student is not studying the same text over and over again for years.

This is a good point, but, I would rather say the ?Over ritualization? corruption has often transformed the nature of rituals in such a way that they seem to be lacking the needed flexibility to provide any benefit to the practitioner.

Although, I have tried to keep my post generic (not specific to any religion) the ?Islamic? salat ritual is often coming as an example. So let?s take a look at it. The core of the traditional salaat ritual is ?tilawat? (literally: pursuit) of verses of Qur?an. The ritual can be and should be used as a routine to learn, practice, recite and contemplate over the verses of Qur?an, so that we can take the ?best? lesson from them. Nobody asked any musalli to restrict himself to a handful of ?short and easy? suras in their ritual. Furthermore, the exact dua, darood etc. to be recited in the sitting position of the ritual have been ?over ritualized? by our so called imams. There is no reason one has to stick to such rigid prescriptions. That time can be used to meditate over duas/prayers that we find relevant for us. I personally believe and have experienced firsthand that such openness can transform the salaat ritual into useful self-development routine.

Quote from: Shogunsami on December 01, 2014, 09:26:07 AM
The difference here is for the athlete, the student and the avid reader there is a defenition measurable purpose. For the athlete it could be winning a sport or building up his body, for the student it would be academic or certification, for the reader it is simply the pleasure of reading. Same thing goes for a yogi or a martial art expert they are simply practitioners of their craft and not indulging in ritual.   Another aspect I want to reiterate is on the point of benefits. It should be doable and measurable. If I am a hunter I can by daily exercise of target practice improve my aim. Here I am doing the same thing like a ritual but I gain some benefits overtime through constant practice.

I agree that every ritual should have a goal/purpose. But I do not agree that such goal/purpose always has to be measurable. For example, if the goal of salat ritual is to help one refrain from adultery, barbarity and moral turpitude ? a person should be able to observe whether his salat ritual is actually helping him achieve this. If it is not, then he needs to revisit his ritual to see how it can be improved to make it more useful.

Quote from: Shogunsami on December 01, 2014, 09:26:07 AM
Suppose I want to shoot the moon and I practice daily. Do you think given the same circumstances I will be able to shoot at the moon how much ever I try? This is the problem with the current rituals. Since we both agree that current rituals is aimed at pleasing god (which technically is a carry-over from Greek paganism as the Greek gods derive their power from worship of the followers and they insist on formal ritualized worship failing which will attract the wrath of the gods), we need to see whether the rituals followed in islam now is like trying to shoot the moon.

Yes, I agree that among majority of the practitioners of religious ritual (across all major religions) the ?current aim? is to please a deity. That is an incorrect and corrupted aim. Once again the solution is to cure the corruption ? not eliminating the rituals.
A person who studies only with the aim of passing exams will look for shortcuts, suggestions and blind memorization of answers. Such practices do not help one to acquire knowledge. The solution is not to kill the exams - the solution is to enlighten the examinees that the exam is a means towards a goal (acquiring knowledge) - not an end in itself.

I seem to be giving out an incorrect signal that I am trying to flag myself as ?poster child of Islamic rituals?. That is not my goal. I am saying every community/religion has got its own sets of rituals because the rituals helped the communities. Rituals helped to take the teaching of the messengers from the bookshelf of the library to the heart of the pious. Rituals helped to take the commands of the messengers put in practice (in a controlled setting) ? making the practitioner better prepared to apply those lessons in real life. While I am happy with the rituals that I learned from my community because I find them useful ? I suggest everyone to take a second look at the rituals in their communities (even when they are from a different community). The whole world DOES NOT need to practice the same sets of rituals ? but some form of ritual is helpful for the spiritual wellbeing of mankind, just like physical exercises are useful for physical wellbeing.

Quote from: Man of Faith on December 01, 2014, 12:16:45 PM
"God prescribes this ritual or you are a disbeliever", attributing a lie to what is "God" and dogmatically enforcing a ritual.

Yes, God does not need our rituals - and hence God enforcing any ritual is out of question. We need the rituals for ourselves ? because, when performed with proper intensions they are good for us. And God commands us to do what is good for us.

May Allah guide us all to the straight route.

Regards,
Arman
Indeed I have faced my face to the One who farmed the heavens and the earth in precision; and I do not happen to be among the ones associating partners (with Him).