arely does one come across religious practices or belief systems that do not incorporate the three concepts of transcendence, human limitation and salvation. This descriptive mechanism has therefore passed the test of time and when analyzing the religious content of a ritual you may refer back to these ideas to qualify your conclusion. Such an analysis is essential when placing certain rituals beyond or before the line which separates religious rituals from others. We often take many regular practices, such as going to church or the mosque, celebrating Christmas or Eid, or even circumcision after birth, as being religious but do not give the same status to jogging everyday, watching a television show every week or celebrating a birthday every year. Justifying the religious position of the acts that we take for granted as being religious is essential in this exercise.
             I am a Muslim and in my religion one is required to pray five times a day. The five prayers have names: The day starts with Fajr which you can offer after sunrise for a specified period of time, after that the time for Zuhr starts around noon, Asar is in the afternoon, Maghrib is at sunset and Isha is at night. The exact times of the day change as the seasons pass with Fajr starting at its earliest in June and its latest in December. The prayers are of varying length but they all have the same essence; the main difference is the number of repetitions. The details and instructions of these prayers were set fourteen hundred years ago in the time of Prophet Muhammed (P.B.U.H) and have been followed by Muslims throughout history in the same manner ever since.
             Till now in my life, however, I have not been able to perform the daily prayers regularly. The reason is not difficulty as the required aspects of the prayers take about five minutes for each prayer which amounts to approximately twenty five minutes a day. Muslims regard the life after death as being a thousand times...