Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 69
69 eral kinds, but I shall here confine myself only to such as relate to worship, that is to say, the principal object of which is to signify man’s own relationship to God and which do not directly concern other men. Islam places such commands under five categories: (1) S al a t , or prayer; (2) Dhikr , or remembrance of God; (3) Fasts; (4) Pilgrimage to Mecca; and (5) Sacrifices. Broadly speaking, all religions enjoin such acts of worship, though there are differences relating to the manner in which they are to be performed. As against this, there is the modern tendency to condemn them as mere useless ceremonies on the ground that God could never have meant to confine man within mere formali- ties. The result is that external acts of worship are now not so common as they used to be, and the followers of other religions are progressively renouncing them. But while Islam, on the one hand, continues to reveal new aspects of its teachings suited to the requirements of every age, it possesses, on the other, the characteristic that the teachings laid down by it in the words of the Holy Quran are unalterable and fixed like a rock which the beating waters can never move from its place. Like nature it is capable of yielding new treasures, but like nature again its laws are immutable for they have been framed by a Being Who knows the hidden and the future and Who has based them on truth and wisdom. There is no doubt that the heart is the seat of the emotions and that if the heart is corrupt and void of