General Media

Ritual must arise from the spirit

Submitted by naghma on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 15:37

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I The Pioneer | Oct. 4, 1998 | Page 5

All religions, through rituals and ceremonies, give a definite form to the act of worship. Islam, too, has specific rites but emphasises the spirit in which these are carried out. It does not conceive of divine worship as a dichotomous proposition divided into two equal parts, of form and spirit. Form is an external manifestation of the spirit — the vital and indispensable element of every sincere religious act, of which the former is a mere ancillary.