As mentioned, Aqaed.com is officially working under the very auspices of Ayt. Sistani’s office and hence we cannot expect that this website rigorously promotes a concept that is against the viewpoint of Ayt. Sistani, Allah protect him. It would be too senseless to consider as such. Earlier, it was working under the auspices of Ayt. Khui.
This is a highly important website under Ayt. Sistani office as it is supposed to lead the Aqaed of Shia community and reply to doubts/ criticism of other faiths against Shias faith.
Aqaed.com has discussed Tatbir as halal in so much of details that at least 50 pages or more are dedicated on directly preaching tatbir. There are probably a 1000 references, evidences, reasonings provided in support of Tatbir as Halal not only according to all Shias but proving beyond doubt that tatbir should be Halal according to AhleSunnat too.
Discussing tatbir in Aqaed rather than limiting to Fiqh gives really high significance to Tatbir.
After all this, it is alarming that some dishonest liars have started websites where they are fabricating or misinterpreting fatwas of our Fuqaha and misleading our community. Such forged websites contain fatwas of our 20/ 40/ 70 mujtahideen in English/ Urdu/ Persian/ Arabic whose words or meanings are changed to show that they are, Nauzubillah, saying that tatbir is Haraam. Whereas, the truth is that all Shia Mujtahideen say tatbir is Halal in itself.
Hence, we need to apply some Ihtiyat at least where the matter affects the whole community like:
1. Ask for original Arabic/ Persian Fatwa. If your Marja is not giving Fatwa in English and there is no other way to confirm directly from Mujtahid about the English fatwa correctness then don’t rely on it but go further into enquiry.
2. Ask for cross-verifiable proofs where you already do not have any cross-verifiable proofs like websites/ books associated officially to the office of your Marja. Fatwas floating on unofficial websites or social media even if with stamps are editable ones and we need to be extra careful that people don’t give forged/ fabricated fatwas to us.
Tatbir is based on a Mutawatir concept, Ijma of all fuqaha like Namaz, Haj, AmrBilMaaroof, etc. that it is NOT HARAAM in itself. In such accepted rules, taqleed is not even necessary to accept that tatbir, Namaz, Haj are NOT haraam. All Muslims need to accept it even without taqleed or even if not a Shia.
Yes, our fuqaha have changed the rule for all of the above with change in Mauzoo (subject matter). When a matter goes to Unwaane Saanvi then the rule changes. Like, many people are quoting Fatwa of Ayt. Sistani “if Azadari includes damaging the body….”. Firstly, as explained earlier, this ‘damaging’ means killing/ losing body part and not damage in literal sense. Secondly, this ‘if’ is with almost entire shariat of Islam like Namaz, Roza, Haj, Zakaat, AmrBilMaaroof, Nahi, etc. IF it is Zarar then it is not allowed. This ways a Yazidi minded person who wants to Suspend the entire Shariat will start taking fatwas of all these action by showing unwaane saanvi of Zarar or tauheen of Mazhab and will keep getting fatwa of Haraam for all these Halal actions. One by one he can get fatwa of all these Namaz, Roza, Haj, etc. as Haraam in this ‘IF’ because actually the Mujtahid is not saying Namaz, Roza, Haj is Haraam rather he is saying killing yourself is Haraam. The Muqallid himself on his own responsibility is associating the unwaane saanvi of killing oneself with Namaz, Roza, Haj, Tatbir and making it Haraam due to dishonest determination of Mauzoo by him.
Example for better understanding:
Some person wants to remove his old mother from his house. But he also wants to show himself as a religious person and also have to overcome his own conscious to do this dirty act. Now he writes to his Marja “My mother wants to kill me so what should I do?”. If the reply is given by the Marja himself then he may add some akhlaqiat in it but still the crux of the reply will be like this “stay away from your mother”. The situation would be worse if the Marja himself is not replying rather his board is replying because then the board will be treating it more on the technical crux of it hence their reply would literally be like this “stay away from your mother”.
Now this dirty pseudo-religious man uses the name of the Marja and throws out his old mother from the house!!
Now those who do not understand the technicalities of fatwa will say that see the Marja asked this person to throw out his old mother from the house. This ways, the entire shariat can be turned upside-down. On one hand the ‘hukum/ rule’ is in the hands of Mujtahid but the ‘Mauzoo/ fact’ is in the hands of Muqallideen to determine.
Like Mujtahid says drinking alcohol is Haraam and drinking water is Halal. Now the Muqallid purposely drinks alcohol daily and says that ‘I think this (Mauzoo/ fact) is water’. It is not the scope of the Mujtahid to decide the fact here nor his responsibility. It is the Muqallid who is to be blamed for drinking alcohol daily while knowingly (mis)considering it as halal water.
The Muqallid can follow Yazid Lanatullah conveniently and change the entire Shariat for himself because Shariat is law in essence (which the Mujtahid defines) but when such law is applied wrongly on Mauzoo then the manifestations of the law would be terribly horrible.
Q: Why Marja does not decide the Mauzoo too so that we can follow religion properly?
Ans.: We can follow religion properly if the Mauzoo is decided by us:
1. There are a trillion Mauzoo across the globe which the Marja cannot possible do any research and decide.
2. The taqleed of Marja may spread to many decades if the Marja after him says that do taqleed of Mayyit. How can this Marja decide the Mauzoo which will come after say 30yrs. from now in some small village in a far off place. Hence, the Marja relies on the Mauzoo of the Muqallid and gives him a Fatwa based on the assumption of the Mauzoo. If that Mauzoo is actually existing or not is the honest decision of the Muqallid.
3. Marja is not an expert of Mauzoo. Rather Muqallideen are experts of Mauzoo. Like he is not a medical expert. So if the Mauzoo is of Zarar then doctor is the right person with better expertise and not the Mujtahid. The very proof that the Mujtahid uses in saying that he is an Islamic law (hukum) expert so people should do his taqleed on law then he uses it to say that doctor is the expert of Zarar determination so the Mujtahid should also accept the doctor/ Muqallid.
4. The Muqallid is directly in touch with the facts and knows better about them. The Muqallid knows better whether his mother really wants to kill him or not. How can the Mujtahid know it. Hence, he gives Fatwa on assumption of truth of the Muqallid in determining the fact, which may actually turn out to be false.
5. Marja sees the overall facts in front of him like saying Namaz, Haj, etc. are overall beneficial for Mankind. His personal opinion also would be that these are beneficial and the Mujtahid would propagate & promote these himself.
But on the other hand, a Muqallid may be in a specific situation where he will get killed even if he prays Namaz at his house. These specific instances, exceptions are not in the reach of the Marja and hence he does not decide on the fact.
Hence, he assumes the situation and gives his fatwa even if the fact is against his personal opinion.
ls read & spread the message.
Q. Can we do AmrBilMaaroof or NahiAnilMunkar where the other person is committing sin according to my Mujtahid or my determination of Mauzoo while he is correct according to his taqleed and according to his determination of facts?
Ans. Amr & Nahi are not applicable where the other person is correct according to his taqleed & his sincere determination of facts even if we may feel that he is committing a mistake in it.
Examples:
A. Difference in Taqleed:
Mr. Abid is in Taqleed of Ayt. Khui who says Eid if sighting of moon anywhere where night is overlapping. Mr. Basit is in Taqleed of Ayt. Sistani who says according to horizon. Now, if moon is sighted in Iran and not in Karachi and both stay in Karachi then Mr. Abid will celebrate Eid but Mr. Basit will fast. On the other hand, Mr. Abid cannot force Mr. Basit to break his fast as Mr. Basit’s Marja does not allow him to break his fast on that day.
B. Difference in determining Mauzoo:
Suppose Mr. Abid and Mr. Tanveer do taqleed of Ayt. Sistani. Mr. Abid himself sights Moon but the sighting of Moon is not proved to Mr. Tanveer in Karachi. Mr. Abid will celebrate Eid but Mr. Tanveer will fast. Mr. Abid is correct in celebrating Eid but he cannot force Mr. Tanveer to break fast because the Mauzoo is determined by Mr. Tanveer differently while being sincere.
Q. Ayt. Sistani rule seems to speak on unwaane saanvi alone even when asked about unwaane awwal. As Muqallid of Ayt. Sistani, what is our responsibility in such a situation?
Answer:
1. As explained, Aqaed.com working under the office of Ayt. Sistani has rigorously supported tatbir in more than 50 pages and with around 1000 references/ evidences/ reasonings. Despite its association, it may happen that a few lines maybe written on it which do not fall in line with his view. But such rigorous presentation of a viewpoint and also proving the same for the AhleSunnat that it is halal even for them and in turn then wondering ourselves whether Ayt. Sistani allows it or not in Unwaane Awwal would be too absurd. Aqaed.comsays that all fuqaha believe in tatbir being halal then how is it possible that we doubt the matter that the Mujtahid with whom the website is officially associated also believes that it is halal or not!
2. Previous & present Mujtahideen including Ayt. Sistani, Ayt. Bashir are famous for hosting tatbir in Iraq. If we believe that Ayt. Sistani is hosting despite his view of it being haraam then his Adalat will cease. Hence, we do not have any other way than to believe that Tatbir is allowed according to him.
3. For the sake of argument, even if we suppose that the unwaane awwal fatwa is not clear to us then we have following options:
A. Since Mutawatir concept, Ijma of Mujtahideen are on it’s halal then we consider it halal.
Example: if we cannot find a fatwa of our Mujtahid regarding Zuhr Namaz has 4 Rakaats wajib then too without having the need to refer to the Fatwa, we will follow the Mutawatir & Ijma. Similarly for Mubah actions like ‘walking’ if we do not get fatwa for ‘walking’ (which is not even required) then we can go for it as ‘allowed’ as Mutawatir & Ijma.
I remember when I was quite young age, I wanted to tell my friend not to say lies. I was then going through the Tauzeeh frantically to find the fatwa of ‘lies being Haraam’. Then later I found out that acts that are Mutawatir like lies haraam, Zuhr 4 rakaat, Roza wajib are not themselves in need of fatwas. In fact, if a Mujtahid gives Fatwa otherwise then he goes out of the fold of Adalat/ Mazhab/ religion. Mujtahid may give fatwa on these Mutawatir actions only as a routine and as a starting point so that further discussions where taqleed is applicable can be discussed. Like a Mujtahid starts that there are 4 rakaat in Zuhr. If you have a doubt that you have completed 3 rakaat or 4 rakaat then….. This does not mean we are saying 4 rakaat Zuhr because my Marja is saying so because even if he does not say so I will say 4 rakaat Zuhr. Also, for the sake of argument, if someone says 5 rakaat then I will not follow him rather he will go out of the fold of religion and I will change my taqleed. When we say I am doing an X action because my Marja says ‘yes’ for it then we will have to stop if he says ‘no’ to it. But Mutawatir rules have the status of the Holy Quran in acceptance and are not subject to taqleed of a non-Masoom when the rule of Masoom is clear to us.
Yes, for the details of it like exceptions when can a person say lies, doubts within Zuhr namaz, Mubtilaat of Roza, etc. we need to do taqleed.
B. Remember that there are 3 ways to reach the hukum of Allah Ta’ala. Become Mujtahid, Ihtiyat, become Muqallid. Ihtiyat is better then taqleed but difficult or at times impossible to do. Anyways, since here we cannot be a Mujtahid, we cannot be Muqallid because the fatwa of Mujtahid has not reached us, we can therefore do Ihtiyat.
Now, there is a misconception that when doing Ihtiyat we must consider the act as Haraam and avoid it. But this is incorrect. Like there is a medicine which I am not sure if it is allowed by my Mujtahid or no then I will not consider it as Haraam. It can even be wajib for me.
Hence, Ihtiyat depends on case to case basis. In every case, we have to decide whether the law is limited to what possibilities like wajib, Mustahab, Mubah, Makrooh, Haraam. When all other Mujtahideen say it is actually Mubah/ Mustahab then the Ihtiyat will be any one of these 2 and not at all consideration of Haraam. Also, when a practice is there of Ulama & Fuqaha like they have been regular organisers of tatbir from centuries then we will need a strong evidence & explicit statement to consider it to be Haraam.
C. We do Taqleed of falAalam (second most learned Mujtahid). Since all others say it is allowed then whoever we believe as falAalam say Ayt. Bashir Najafi, Ayt. Wahid Khorasani, etc. then we will go for it being Halal and NOT Haraam.
D. When fatwa of something is asked like:
i. Is eating honey allowed for high sugar levels of a person.
Reply will come:
Honey kills a high sugar level person therefore it is not allowed.
or Honey is not allowed if it will kill you.
Both the above are same. This means:
Honey is allowed
Killing is not allowed.
ii. Is it allowed to eat Honey?
If the reply comes:
Honey has lots of benefits in it. The source of energy is honey. Life saving foods must be taken. Food that kills should not be taken.
This means:
Honey is allowed in itself but can be Wajib or Haraam according to unwaane Saanvi.
Now people who have tatbir fatwas of Ayt. Sistani can compare with above explanations to understand the fatwa of Ayt. Sistani which means it is Halal in itself but can be different in unwaane saanvi like all other actions Namaz, Roza, Haj, etc.
ls read & spread the message.
Q. Sometimes the question does not suggest a Unwaane Saanvi but still the answer is with unwaane saanvi. How is that?
Answer:
1. You must understand that when you are sending the question from your side then it is one question. You are imagining a wrong situation where the Marja will take your question and answer it directly. This is not so and not even possible.
You are sending the question in English. You have sent one question but there are thousands more who have written their questions on email as well. Near Muharram, tatbir question may have repeated 10,000 times from various places. All questions have different details where the crux of the matter is same. Anyways, most of the detailed stories that we write do not fall in the scope of Isteftaat. Also, the office does not have time to analyse each question classically with its various details.
Also, all questions are first summarised. If in English then the summary is also translated to original language of the replier either Arabic/ Persian.
There are certain parameters/ skeletons / formats of replies ready with them approved by an expert.
Then the translated summary is matched with a ready format. The ready format of reply has a unwaane saanvi in it so you will get it even if you did not ask for it.
Like question: Is Cigarette smoking allowed?
Reply may be: Cigarette smoking is Haraam if it causes Zarar.
The unwaane saanvi was not there in this question. But there may have come other 1000 questions with this unwaane saanvi like ‘Can we smoke if it harms us?’
Hence, even those other 1,000 questions that do not show unwaane saanvi get the same format answer with the Unwaane Saanvi in it.
Now generally Zarar is wrongly translated as ‘harm’ or ‘damage’. Which will be like this: ‘Cigarette smoking is not allowed if it causes harm.’
The Muqallid will wrongly take ‘harm’ in literal sense which cigarette does cause. Also, Muqallid will feel that since I did not ask for Unwaane Saanvi of smoking but still my Marja has written about unwaane saanvi of being Haraam that means unwaane saanvi must be applicable here and my Marja is guiding me on that Unwaan. Whereas, the matter is that the office of Marja are giving a fixed format reply to the muqallid and do not have any intention, not the scope, not the expertise to tell the Muqallid about the fact.
Hence, the Muqallid will consider smoking Haraam. But then he may see his own Mujtahid smoking!
Same is the case with Honey where a Muqallid may misunderstand it as Haraam whereas he sees on the other hand that Marja is eating honey himself.
This is happening with tatbir where Ayt. Sistani followers are wrongly considering it Haraam whereas Ayt. Sistani himself is openly organising & hosting tatbir himself!
Most of the Muqallideen level of understanding of Fatwas as that of the Holy Quran, Holy Ahadees is too poor. He is not able to understand them appropriately. Also, he is trying to rely directly on the Marja for everything as if the Marja is in direct contact with him for questions and also as if himself has the capacity to discern all the technical statements/ verdicts of the Marja!
Hence, here we see that there is a dire need of guidance of a local/ approachable, adil & Alim who can guide the Muqallideen. Also, the Muqallideen should not run away from quoting & understanding the Holy Quran, Holy Ahadees, Fatwas in a better way. Learning & education of a Muqallid is required even if he is not a Mujtahid and is merely following his Mujtahid as in taqleed because even to understand the Marja there is a capacity building required.
I wanted to write around 7-8 parts more but the readers are becoming impatient and want to change the topic. Hence I conclude in next brief part.
We will IA continue next year before Muharram.
ls read & spread the message.
We give 2 citations from Aqaed.org which is under the auspices of Ayt. Sistani, Allah protect him, so as to get a finishing understanding on tatbir as necessarily a Halal action. Though if I got an opportunity then I would have quoted around 30-40 references & links from Aqaed.org:
http://www.aqaed.org/faq/2293/
Question:
في زمن الفضائيات وسهولة انتقال الخبر، هل يصحّ القول بأنّ ما يقوم به الشيعة في مختلف البلدان في مناسبة عاشوراء، وخصوصاً القاسي منه، يؤدّي إلى عكس صورة غير حضارية عن الطائفة في بلاد الغرب؟
Q. In these days of space and facilities to transmit news, is it correct to say that what Shias practice in various countries on the occasion of Ashura, specially the more inflexible ones from among them, leads to an opposite image of being uncultured to the people of the west?
Answer:
أوّلاً: إنّ للغرب معاييره ومناهجه ومفاهيمه عن الحياة، وله أيضاً قِيَمه التي يؤمن بها، ويلزم نفسه برعايتها… ولنا نحن قيمنا ومفاهيمنا، وديننا ومناهجنا، فلماذا نلزم أنفسنا بالتقيّد بما يرضيهم عنّا، أو بما يسمّى: حضارة حسب مقاييسهم؟!
ولماذا لا يكون العكس؟! أو لماذا لا نلتزم نحن وإيّاهم بما يرضي الله تعالى, فنعمل على توحيد المناهج والمفاهيم, وتحديد المثل والقيم الصحيحة، لتكون هي الأساس في التعامل فيما بيننا وبينهم..
إنّ إرضاء الغرب عن المسلمين، أو عدم إغضابهم، من الأمور المستحيلة ما دام المسلمون متمسّكين بدينهم وبقيمهم، قال تعالى: (( وَلَن تَرضَى عَنكَ اليَهُودُ وَلاَ النَّصَارَى حَتَّى تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُم )) (البقرة:120)……
Firstly: Surely for the west, they have their values, their ways, their understandings about living. Also, they have their values that they believe in and prepare themselves to practice according to them……. And we have our values and our understandings. We have our religion and our ways. Hence, why should we place on ourselves the burden & restrictions merely to please them.? Or try to achieve what they claim: ‘Culture’ according to their standards?
And why it cannot be the opposite?
Or why it cannot be that we and they both heed to what pleases Allah Ta’ala. So we work on unity of ways & actions and definitions of harmony & values that are truly correct. So that these become the foundations of interactions of what is between them & us.
Surely satisfaction of the west from Muslims or absence of their annoyance from Muslims are from the impossibles till the Muslims hold firm to their religion & values.
Allah Ta’ala says: ” And the Jews will not be pleased with you, nor the Christians until you follow their religion.” Al-Baqrah, 2:120.
Pls read & spread the message for the sake of Ishq e Hussain alayhessalam in our hearts.