THE SHIA AND THE FRIDAY PRAYER
From the important matters, which the Sunni raise and criticize the Shia for on all occasions, is the matter of neglecting and not offering the Friday Prayer. Some of them are so excessive to a degree that they consider the Shia as disbelievers for not offering the Friday Prayer, relying on a Prophetic tradition that they narrate saying, "Whoever gives up the Friday (prayer) three times does turn his back to Islam." They also narrate another tradition that the Prophet (a.s.) once was asked about one, who gave up the Friday Prayer, and he said, "He shall be in the Fire."
Regarding the truth, we say that the Shia disagree among themselves on the legality of the Friday Prayer during the age of the Occultation of Imam al-Mandi (a.s.). The Shia jurisprudents are of two opinions; some say it is obligatory in every time, and others say it is not obligatory except when all its conditions are available, and one of its conditions is that it must be offered by (or under the rule of) the just ruler.
Before I turned a Shia, I truly say that I too much approved Sheikh al-Khalisi who offered the Friday Prayer in the Mosque of Imam al-Kadhim (a.s.) in Baghdad. Sometimes I traveled from Najaf or Karbala to participate in the Friday Prayer there. At that time, I wondered at the courage of Sheikh Mandi al-Khalisi
1 who
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1 It is worth mentioning that once Sheikh Muhammad al-Khalisi, the father of Sheikh Mandi al-Khalisi, went to the religious authority Savvid al-Khoei in Najaf, talking with him about the matter of the Friday Prayer, relying on this Qur'anic verse, (0 you who believe! when the call is made for prayer on Friday, then hasten to the remembrance of Allah...) (62:9). Sayyid al-Khoei pondered for a little, and then said to him, "Who is the caller?"
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did not care for the criticism of some ulama who did not think that the Friday Prayer was obligatory. He believed it was obligatory and he offered it in the best way. I noticed at that time (in 1968 AD) the masses of people crowding in his mosque, showing him great reverence and respect.
I also wondered at those, who criticized him for offering the Friday Prayer. I said to myself, "How do these people defame an alim (scholar) who, due to his ijtihad, offers the prayer that Allah the Almighty has ordered it to be offered when He has said:
0 you who believe! when the call is made for prayer on Friday, then hasten to the remembrance of Allah ...?
I repeated this saying before some of those people, defending Sheikh al-Khalisi and seeking for him different excuses and proofs, but some of them revealed what was inside their hearts. Some of them said to me that Sheikh al-Khalisi did not recite in the azan "the third witness". I asked what "the third witness" was, and they said that it was, "I bear witness that Ali is the saint of Allah".
I spent that night asking myself if that required to criticize and defame that man. I researched much in the books, and I read the books of his (Sheikh Mandi al-Khalisi) father's books, but I did not find except true knowledge, piety, and concernedness for the unity of Muslims, which some people considered (the concern about the unity of Muslims) as flattery to the Sunni.
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Sheikh Muhammad al-Khalisi could not answer and he went back to Baghdad, keeping on offering the Friday Prayer there.
It has been mentioned that Abu Hanifa too thought that it should not be offered except by the availability of a just ruler.
Be it known that it is now offered in the Islamic Republic of Iran that calls for offering it in the other countries and in Syria.
Sayyid Fadhlullah calls for it in Lebanon (in fact, it is offered in Lebanon now).
What kind of Friday Prayer is that which is offered under the authority of an oppressive ruler, or when the Friday Sermon is dictated under his supervision, or when the imams of mosques are appointed according to his desire and mood from among those who praise and glorify the regime and its policies?!!
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However and despite that some persons tried to make me dislike and keep away from him, whenever I visited al-Kadhimiyyah (in Baghdad where Imam al-Khadim (a.s.) was buried), I offered the Friday Prayer behind Sheikh al-Khalisi and listened to his sermons which I benefited much from. Whenever I sat with him and listened to his talks, I liked him more, but I remained reserved, justifying that the Shia knew him more than I did. On the other hand, I remained confused between the two ijtihads (deductions) that one said the Friday Prayer was obligatory and the other said it was not.
I said that I could not understand that, except when I would reach the degree of ijtihad. However, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the establishment of the Islamic Republic there, the Friday Prayer was offered since the first Friday after the victory. And since then, the Islamic Republic spared no effort for the sake of the unity of Muslims. Then, I knew the value of Sheikh al-Khalisi and became certain of his loyalty and truthfulness in his mission. I remained until today wishing for seeing him that Allah may make me meet him on a near, happy occasion, and Allah is powerful over everything.
Anyhow, the Shia are still until now on two thoughts; some offer the Friday Prayer, and the others do not, waiting for the Reappearance of Imam al-Mahdi (may Allah hasten his reappearance).
I wish from the deep of my heart that the Friday Prayer is offered in every village and town of the Muslim countries, for it evokes great reward and has many benefits that only Allah the Glorified knows.
In Many lectures, I invited the Muslim colonies in the different countries, which I visited, to offer the Friday Prayer, taking the Islamic Republic in Iran and its leader as their example and trying to near the hearts to each other and make Muslims, Sunni and Shia, love each other in one united nation.
We pray Allah the Powerful to help us thank and worship Him well as His due, and to reconcile our hearts with each other to be true brothers by His Grace, He is Hearing, Responding to the prayer.
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SMOKING IN THE PLACES OF PRAYER
How often that the Sunni criticize the Shia for their smoking in the mosques and say that it is an abominable doing from the doings of Satan.
We can say that smoking is a common phenomenon among the Shia that when you come into their mosques for the first time, you are shocked by that.
1
I remember that when I traveled to Holy Najaf for the first time and was shocked by this phenomenon. I found it odd, and so I asked some of their (the Shia) ulama about it, but they gave answers which did not convince me until now. Some of them say that smoking is neither impermissible nor disapproved, because there is no (legal) text concerning it neither from the Prophet (a.s.) nor from the infallible imams (a.s.), and that analogy is not permissible to them. Some others say that they do not smoke in the mosques, but only in Husayniyyas,
2 which are not from mosques.
As for the first answer, a Muslim cannot accept that every thing, about which no religious text have been mentioned, is permissible, because the texts are either general including all prohibited vices like this saying of Allah:
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1 For the truth, we should say that this phenomenon cannot he seen in the mosques in Iran.
2 Holy places like mosques but do not have the same rulings and conditions of mosques.
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Say: My Lord has only prohibited indecencies, those of them that are apparent as well as those that are concealed. 1
or special, in which something is mentioned by name, like these sayings of Allah:
And go not nigh to adultery. 2
And do not kill any one whom Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause. 3
0 you who believe! do not devour usury. 4
or the sayings of the Prophet (a.s.):
He, who cheats us, is not from us.
Whoever fabricates lies against me (as if I have said) let him take his seat in the Fire.
Cigarettes were not available at the time of the Prophet (a.s.) and the times of the infallible imams; therefore, it is not possible to have a religious text about them from Allah, His messenger, or the infallible imams. It is the same as to many impermissible things available nowadays that arc included by the general texts, such as lottery, horseracing, and modern games that cause many profits with no effort.
Smoking can be included by this saying of Allah the Almighty:
... and do not squander wastefully. Surely, the squanderers are the fellows of the devils and the devil is ever ungrateful to his Lord. 5
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1 Qur'an, 7:33.
2 Qur'an, 17:32.
3 Qur'an, 17:33.
4 Qur'an, 3:130.
5 Qur'an, 17:26-27.
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The messenger of Allah (a.s.) said:
Squandering is to spend even one dirham on what does not benefit you.
Is there squandering worse than to spend one's money on some things harmful to his health and dangerous to his life?
Smoking is also included by this saying of the messenger of Allah (a.s.):
There should be no harm (against oneself) and no harming (against others).
Is there any harm worse than cancer, which has been proved by medicine and sciences of today to attack smokers and do away with their lives? Smoking is proved to cause dyspnea and that the nicotine in cigarettes causes addiction, which a smoker can hardly get rid of.
Sociologists in the developed countries knew the dangers of smoking; therefore, smoking was forbidden there in the public halls, state centers, airplanes, trains, and other means of transportations. Lastly, the British government prohibited smoking in the metro, and the same was done by the French government.
Modern medicine has proved that a smoker, in addition to harming himself, harms others who sit with him in a place or a vehicle during a journey. Therefore, smokers are forbidden to smoke inside the public halls and are forced to go out to smoke in the open air if they want to smoke, as a kind of regarding others' feelings and safety.
This is actually what the Prophet Muhammad (a.s.) meant when he said:
There should be no harm (to oneself) and no harming (against others).
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In fact, in this saying there is a prohibition for smokers not to smoke even if they arc alone, because a Muslim is prohibited from harming himself, as he is prohibited from harming others.
Do you not see that Islam has prohibited suicide? Islam considers suicide as one of the major sins. A Muslim is not free to harm even his own body, because his body is a possession of Allah, and a Muslim has no right to do to his body except what pleases Allah the Glorified.
When, nowadays, we hear that the developed countries prohibit drivers from having alcohols during driving their cars, because they may cause fatal accidents, as they prohibit smokers from smoking in public places because they harm others, we see that they apply the rule of "no harming to others" and they neglect the rule of "no harm against oneself' according to the law of FREEDOMS they have that consider man as free to do to himself whatever he likes, on condition that he should not harm others.
Islam does not acknowledge this absolute freedom and does not permit man to do to himself except what Allah has permitted within the limits that the Sharia has determined for him; therefore, Allah has said, "... and cast not yourselves to perdition with your own hands,"
1 and the Prophet (a.s.) said, "There should be no harm (against oneself) and no harming (to others)."
If we supposedly agree with these Muslim smokers, who say there is no any text on the prohibition of smoking, we do not agree with them on permitting smoking inside the mosques and other places of prayer, worship, and meeting of Muslims. Therefore, smokers must observe non-smokers.
Here comes the problem of their second answer when saying that smoking is not practiced in mosques but in Husayniyyas. To define a Husayniyyas for those who do not know it, we say that a Husayniyya is a building built by the Shia and entailed for Imam
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1 Qur'an, 2: 195.
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Husayn (a.s.) where ceremonies of anniversaries of births and deaths of the infallible imams are held besides the anniversary of Asura and the Eid al-Ghadir. Other ceremonies of different occasions are also held in the Husavnivya. These Hussayniyyas are often furnished with precious carpets and most of them have a mihrab of prayer.
If one of the Shia says that it is permissible to smoke inside a Husayniyya because it is not a mosque, we say that this is a confession that smoking is not permissible in mosques first, and secondly, every place in which prayer is offered is called "a mosque". When we attend on any occasion in a Husayniyya, we shall find the meeting full of remembrance of Allah and praying Him to send blessings on the Prophet Muhammad and his progeny (peace be on them all), surrounded by the angels who pray Allah to forgive the believers. So, is it nice to pollute such meetings with bad smells that harm people besides the angels?
I myself find it odd from the Religious Authorities of the Shia who prohibit the playing with chess, but do not prohibit smoking, though there is a great difference between the harms of each of them. And I find odd too that one of the grand authorities prohibits his followers, by ijtihad, from smoking tobacco as a way of resisting the British companies that promote it, but does not prohibit it again, by ijtihad too, to keep his followers safe from the fatal diseases and the squandering that Allah hates too much!!
I often criticized this state and discussed these matters with some of ulama, but I did not find any one who had enough courage to prohibit smoking,
1 neither among the Shia nor among the Sunni.
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1 From the ulama, who has given a fatwa on prohibiting smoking, is Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadhlullah, relying on this Qur'anic verse that prohibits wine, (They ask you about intoxicants and games of chance. Say: in both of them there is a great sin and means of profit for men, and their sin is greater than their profit) 2:219. It is understood that everything, whose sin (and harm) is more than its benefit, is impermissible,
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Shahid Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr (may Allah have mercy on him) did never smoke at all. When once I asked him about smoking, he said, "I do not smoke and I advise every Muslim not to smoke." However, I did not hear from him the prohibition of smoking openly.
It is said that some ulama have prohibited smoking for the ones, who have never smoked and they want now to smoke, and considered it unapproved for smokers themselves, and that some ulama consider it impermissible, but they do not dare to announce that openly for fear that they may he accused of following analogy.
I want to say that the religious authorities have to give an open, clear opinion about smoking without fearing the blame of any
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and according to this rule, smoking is impermissible too.
Justifying it in this way, Ayatollah Sayyid Fadhlullah has given a fatwa of "obligatory precaution", because there are many believers and ulama have been addicted to smoking, and it may be difficult for them, or they may face harms if they give up smoking.
As for mosques and those who frequent them, it may be considered by a new Muslim, who has recently embraced Islam, in the west as a kind of binding to his freedom; this is beside the bad treatment that a smoker may face there. Perhaps out of ignorance, a smoker may be invited negatively not to smoke there. It has been mentioned that once Imam Hasan and Imam Husavn (peace be on them) saw an old man perform the wudu incorrectly. They did not scold him, but kindly said to him, "0 old man, would you please watch us both and say which of us performs the wudu correctly?" When they finished their wudu, the old man said, "By Allah, the wudu of both of you is better and more correct than mine." By this way, the old man corrected his wudu. Would that we learn from the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) the morals and etiquette of inviting others to do something!
In a very polite manner, we can invite the youth, who have been attracted by the places of gambling, impermissible amusement, and ill-educating cinemas, and who think that they enjoy their freedoms, to follow the right path. In the same way and through wisdom and goodly exhortation, we can invite our Sunni brothers who wear gold, or who do not care for impurities to correct their behaviors.
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blamer. They have to prohibit it, even by their own ijtihad, as long as it causes harms to smokers themselves and to others, besides the squandering and wastefulness it has.
Have we not agreed from the beginning that when a mujtahid is right in his fatwa, he shall get two rewards, and if he is mistaken, he shall get one reward on condition that there is no religious text from Allah or His messenger on that matter concerned?
Let us suppose that there is no clear text on smoking and that it is not included by this saying of Allah,
"and do not squander wastefully" 1 nor the saying of the Prophet (a.s.), "There should be no harm (against oneself) and no harming (against others)", then the way is open before the ulama and religious authorities to follow their ijtihad and prohibit smoking because of the harms and fatal diseases it causes. But, when the ulama and religious authorities keep silent just because people accept that, it is really a big problem.
They may fear the reaction of smokers, and so they do not give a fatwa on its being disapproved. Someone of them tried his best to convince me that smoking has many benefits, and this is really a dangerous thing having dangerous effect. It encouraged the Muslim youth, who knew this man, to keep on smoking.
At the same time where we find charitable societies and social organizations in the atheist countries spare no effort against smoking and smokers, and prevent even advertising it, and ask from the factories of cigarettes to write on the packets of cigarettes the word "SUICIDE" to encourage people to keep away from it, we find in the Islamic religious societies wide embarking on it and encouraging others towards it. We even find women there carrying with them packets of cigarettes in the places of worship and religious meetings.
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1 Qur'an. 17:26.
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When a child opens his eves and see his mother and father smoke, he shall imitate them before he shall imitate the religious authority. When such a child becomes young with the love of smoking and is intoxicated with cigarettes, it shall be very difficult to convince him to give up when he becomes adult, especially when he is used to see his father smoke in the places of worship.
If Muslims know how much monies they lose because of smoking and what it has been plotted against them through it, they shall be thunderstruck!
For example and in a simple mathematical operation, we can see the danger of the situation. In the world today, there is one milliard Muslims. If we suppose that only one fifth of them smoke, we shall find two hundred millions smokers. And if we suppose that every smoker spends one dollar a day, which is the least price of an ordinary packet of cigarettes-and we do not talk about those who smoke two or three packets a day nor those who spend two or three dollars on their expensive kind of cigarettes-we shall find that two hundred million (200,000,000) dollars are spent by Muslims on smoking every day, and seventy-three milliard (73,000,000,000) dollars every year. Thus, Muslims squander seventy-three milliard dollars on smoking every year to buy with it fatal diseases.
If we add to that the amounts that Muslims spend on the treatment from the diseases caused by smoking itself, like cancer, dyspnoea, infection of lungs, angina pectoris, dental caries, pyorrhea, and others, the amounts shall be unimaginable that mind cannot believe easily.
If Muslims spare these amounts of ten years, they shall have a paradise on the earth, and there shall be no any poor among them. They shall not need to beg the atheists, and they shall definitely do away with poverty, diseases, and underdevelopment. They can, by such monies, buy modern technology and develop in all fields.
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After this brief discussion, we want to say that Muslims have to prohibit themselves from everything that harm and not benefit them. Even if there is no clear text on that, surely their religion encourages and orders them to keep away from everything harmful and not useful to them. Allah says in the Qur'an:
... and (Allah) makes lawful to them the good things and makes unlawful to them impure things. 1
The messenger of Allah (a.s.) forbade his companions from eating garlic on Fridays, lest the people in the mosque would be hurt by its bad smell, though garlic is permissible and it has many medical benefits. Certainly, the smell of garlic cannot be compared to the smoke of cigarettes that spreads everywhere, pollutes the space, and bothers others too much. Nevertheless, the Prophet (a.s.) forbade the eating of garlic on Fridays (for those who would mix with people) according to the rule of "no harming to others". Those, who eat garlic, get advantages from it, but it is hated for them to eat it when they want to mix with others especially in the Friday Prayer, lest others he hurt by its had smell.
Moreover, only the bad smell of garlic may hurt others. It causes neither diseases nor infections, but it is not so for smoking. Nevertheless, the Prophet (a.s.) forbade it. After this, is there any lesson in that for men of understanding?!
Mujtahids prohibit the playing with playing cards and chess even if they are used for amusement and not gambling, and they prohibit amusing singing and music and other things that there is no any clear text about neither in the Book of Allah nor in the Sunna of the Prophet. Could they not prohibit what causes harms and diseases for Muslims?
But, if some Shia insist on permitting smoking and not prohibiting it, then, let them observe the feelings of non-smokers and observe the sanctity of the places of worships, as their Sunni brothers do inside their mosques. Would you try that individually?
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1 Qur'an, 7:17.
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If you come into a mosque of the Sunni while having a lit cigarette in your hand, you shall be prevented and denied, and may be hurt by some of them.
I can swear that Allah and His messenger hate smoking, because reason, sound nature, and logic hate it.
This bad habit made many of the Sunni, who visited the countries of the Shia, alienate and go back to their countries, criticizing the Shia, though they did not know about Shiism anything, except those bad habits. Therefore, I always remind of Imam as-Sadiq's saying to his followers:
Be propagandists for us by your deeds and not your sayings. Be a cause of praise to us and not a cause of dispraise against us.
How many doings that one may see and alienate, and then he becomes displeased, and after that he does not accept any invitation, even if it is true! What is said about some of the Shia in this concern can be said about some of the Sunni.
In the end, I say that reform is necessarily required, and returning to the truth is a virtue. Let one not be deceived by saying: Can what have been corrupted throughout too many centuries be repaired?
Yes, it can be. If there is loyalty, and causes are available, the nation shall be recovered from this chronic disease, even if it takes a long time, by the power of Allah the Almighty.
