Islam is a complete way of life, and as such it addresses every aspect of human life ranging from personal and family matters to social, economic, political, and spiritual issues. The teachings of Islam are devised, therefore, to enable mankind attain prosperity in this life and in the hereafter.
As part of the measures to attain that prosperity, an adult Muslim needs to conduct his or her affairs according to the teachings of Islam and behave and respond accordingly in all aspects of life. Those issues and affairs range from matters concerning acts of worship to other matters such as family, culture, current affairs, financial transactions, etiquettes, and ethics.
An adult Muslim thus has a duty to learn the teachings of Islam on those issues that he or she might come across in life. Some of those teachings may be readily available, and if not, he or she must learn or seek the answers to one’s queries.
Although every conduct that an adult Muslim performs according to the teachings of Islam constitutes an act of worship, no matter what aspect of life it may concern, traditionally by ‘acts of worship’ it is meant issues such as ritual cleanliness, the obligatory daily prayers, fasting, the hajj pilgrimage, zakah or the Islamic tax, was well as the Islamic doctrine (‘aqa’id).
Acts of Worship or ‘ibadat, as referred to in Arabic, regulate the individual’s association with his Creator, while mo‘amalat, which is the term used to refer to such issues as contracts, deals, or mutual agreements such as trade, lease, loan, and marriage regulate the individual’s relationship with others.
Islam gives significant importance to these two categories of relationships, and in order that mankind is aware of his duties and responsibilities before his creator and with respect to his fellow human beings, Islam lays down detailed laws to regulate those relationships. The significance that Islam attaches in these respects is such that those laws are not only restricted to the obligatory duties, i.e. the wajib and the haram, but they also define and address optional issues; which are categorised as the mostahab (recommended/encouraged), the makrooh (undesirable/discouraged), and the mobah (permissible; mobah is referred to anything that is not categorised as either obligatory or prohibited).
It is adherence to the teachings of Islam in these categories; observing all aspects of obligatory duties and abstaining from all those prohibited that pave the way for the individual’s spirituality and prepare him or her to seek closeness to the Almighty. Other matters that need to be observed are Islamic doctrine and Islamic ethics. It is emphasised in the hadith of the prophet and Ahl al-Bayt that through total adherence to fulfilling the obligatory duties and abstaining from the prohibition that Islamic spirituality is acquired. The quest for seeking nearness to the Almighty and day-to-day conduct or observance of the teachings of Islam go hand in hand. Adherence to all the teachings of Islam as taught by Allah’s Messenger and his pure Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them all, prepares the individual to acquire nearness to the Almighty. To show the effect of observance of halal and haram, Imam Rida, peace be upon him, narrates from his father, grandfather, and forefathers that Allah’s Messenger, peace be upon him and his pure family, said: “He who purifies his conduct and is sincerer in worship for Allah for forty days, Allah would burst the wells of wisdom in his heart, thus flowing on his tongue.” (Book of Bihar Al-Anwar, Volume 53 Page 326)
What is required is complete adherence to His teachings if we are to attain any degree of nearness to Allah Almighty, and there is simply no alternative to that.
Experts in Islamic Law, i.e. the mujtahids in amongst the Muslim scholars, use such sources as the Holy Qur’an and the sunnah or teachings of Allah’s messenger for deriving the Islamic rulings concerning various domains. In turn, the general public, those who are not experts in Islamic law, seek clarification about their Islamic duties and responsibilities by referring to the mujtahids. It is obligatory for every adult who is not a mujtahid himself to refer to a mujtahid who is fully qualified – i.e. marje‘ taqleed – for identifying and fulfilling his or her duty and responsibility. In a bid to make them more accessible, when a fully qualified mujtahid assumes the office of a marje‘ he collates his decrees and rulings concerning the Acts of Worship (‘ibadat) and Contracts (mo‘amalat) in a book known as al-Risalah al-‘Amaliyyah.
Normally the Risalah ‘Amaliyyah work is detailed and they may contain more than 3500 queries and postulations, all of which may not be immediately required or necessary for most people. Furthermore, sometimes the material is traditionally in technical manner and they may not be as user-friendly as the layman or novice reader may wish them to be, in which case the reader may need to refer to an expert for explanation.
The compilation prepared in this presentation is designed to be more practical for a broad spectrum of readers particularly the layman or the novice user. This is realized through selecting only the queries and postulations of the Risalah ‘Amaliyyah that are required or encountered more often by the average user, while explaining and clarifying the topics concerned if required. Furthermore, also included in this presentation are those queries that are not normally found in the traditional Risalah ‘Amaliyyah but are frequently asked by the faithful, together with the corresponding answers given by the office of the Marje‘ Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Sadiq Husayni Shirazi.
The Risalah ‘Amaliyyah of most scholars, past and present, are generally very similar in structure. However, the presentation of this collection of Islamic law has somewhat different arrangement to the traditional works.
1) This compilation covers all topics that are normally covered in a traditional Risalah ‘Amaliyyah, but presents a selection of materials, which are frequently needed by a broad spectrum of users, and in particular the non-expert and novice user. Book One of this work covers issues such as ijtihad and taqleed (emulation), ritual cleanliness, daily prayers, fasting, hajj, khums and zakah.
2) In addition to the classical structure of such work, new topical chapters are also added that are not normally found in the traditional Risalah. These are topics such as culture and development, freedom, human rights, social and personal reform, peace and non-violence, medicine, immigration, morality and ethics. These topics are covered in Book Two.
3) Furthermore, some of the questions that have been submitted by the faithful to the office of the marje‘ together with their corresponding answers are also presented in this work. Such Q & A are not normally given in the traditional Risalah.
4) On the issue of the presentation of this work, some restructuring have been made compared with the traditional Risalah, and thus relevant issues are grouped together. For example, the rulings concerning women, hijab, marriage, divorce, and marital issues, will, inheritance are grouped under the title of the Family. The reason for this restructuring is the topical categorisation of the subject matter and the ease of use.
This work therefore combines the essence of the traditional Risalah together with benefits of contemporary additions.
Book One has already been published separately, and this work is the combined books One and Two.
Although the technical terms used in this work are normally defined on first occurrences, also presented is a glossary of technical and Arabic terms used in the work, which serves as a useful and informative table of the terminologies. Explanatory notes given within [ ], in the footnotes are the editors’, and so too are the materials given in the Appendix.
Contents
Foreword. xi
BOOK ONE: ACTS OF WORSHIP 1
Part One: Ijtihad and Taqleed 3
Definitions. 7
Mujtahid and Moqallid. 8
Criteria of a Mujtahid. 8
Shura al-Fuqaha’ or Wilayat al-Faqih. 17
Part Two: Taharah 19
Chapter One: The Unclean or Najasat 21
Categories of Najasat 21
Chapter Two: The Purifiers or Motahhirat 30
Categories of Motahhirat 30
Chapter Three: Queries on Taharah. 45
Rulings for household utensils. 45
Chapter Four: Lavatory and Toiletry. 55
The rulings concerning the use of lavatory. 55
Istibra’ 56
Chapter Five: Categories of Personal Taharah. 58
A) Wodu’ 58
Things that invalidate wodu’ 59
Procedure of Wodu’ 59
Criteria of Wodu’ 62
Rulings of Wodu’ 65
Jabirah Wodu’ 75
Rulings of Jabirah Wodu’ 75
B) Ghusl 76
Obligatory Ghusls. 76
Ghusl of Janabah. 77
Rulings on Ghusl 80
Ghusl of the three bloods. 85
Ghusl of touching the corpse. 86
C) Tayammum.. 87
Rulings of Tayammum... 91
Chapter Six: The Three Bloods. 95
Hayd or Menses. 95
Rulings of Hayd. 97
Prohibitions for the Ha’id. 97
Hayd Ghusl 99
Types of Ha’id. 100
Istihadah. 108
Categories of istihadah. 108
Rulings of istihadah. 109
Nifas. 113
Rulings of Nufasa’ 113
Part Three: Salah 115
Chapter One: The Daily Obligatory Salah. 119
Preliminaries of the Daily Salah. 119
1. The Times of Salah. 119
Rulings of Salah’s Time and Sequence. 123
2. The Qiblah. 127
3. The Mosalli Clothing. 129
4. Place of Mosalli 138
5. Adhan and Iqamah. 144
Chapter Two: The Acts of Salah. 147
Obligatory acts of Salah. 147
Rukn or key-elements of the Salah. 147
Details of obligatory acts of Salah. 148
Criteria for validity of Salah. 167
Quonoot in Salah. 168
Ta‘qeebat of Salah. 169
Invocation of Allah’s Blessings upon the Prophet 170
Invalidation, abandonment and doubt 170
Conditions when Salah is invalidated. 170
Aborting the Salah. 174
Doubts. 174
Ihtiyat Salah. 182
Chapter Three: The Nafilah Salah. 189
Salat-al-Layl (Night Prayer) 189
Ghufaylah Salah. 191
Chapter Four: The Qada’ or missed Salah. 194
Queries on missed prayers. 197
Chapter Five: Congregational Prayer 200
Rulings of congregational prayers. 200
Criteria of Jama‘ah Imam... 205
Rulings of Jama‘ah. 206
Queries on congregational prayers. 209
Chapter Six: Salah of Traveller 217
Criteria of traveller salah. 217
Miscellaneous issues on salah. 226
Salah and new developments. 229
Chapter Seven: The Friday and Eid’s Salah. 230
Ruling of the Friday Salah. 230
Ruling of the Eid Salah. 231
Procedure for Eid Salah. 231
Salat al-‘Eid for ‘Eid al-Ghadir 232
Chapter Eight: Salat al-Ayat 233
Occasions of its obligation. 233
Procedure of Salat al-Ayat 234
Part Four: Fasting 237
Chapter One: Fasting. 239
Those for whom fasting is not mandatory. 239
Establishing the Beginning of the Month. 240
Niyyah (Intention) 241
Chapter Two: Invalidators of Fast 245
Chapter Three: Rulings of Muftirat 251
Kaffarah for not Fasting. 251
Chapter Four: Zakat-al-Fitrah. 257
Disposal of Zakat-al-Fitrah. 259
Chapter Five: Rulings of Qada’ Fasting. 261
Chapter Six: Rulings of Fasting for Traveller 263
Queries on Fasting and Travelling. 264
Chapter Seven: Prohibited, Discouraged and Mostahab Fasting. 267
Chapter Eight: Miscellaneous Issues on Fasting. 270
Health and medical conditions and fasting. 272
Part Five: Hajj 275
Chapter One: Hajj 277
Criteria for Hajjat-al-Islam Obligation. 278
Matters that fulfil criteria of “ability” (istita‘ah) 279
Hajj by grant 281
Chapter Two: ‘Umrah of Tamattu‘ 282
Rites of Umrah of Tamattu‘ 282
Chapter Three: Hajj of Tamattu‘ 289
Rites of Hajj of Tamattu‘ 289
Chapter Four: Queries on Hajj 294
Part Six: Zakah 303
Chapter One: Khums. 305
Categories of Assets Liable to Khums. 305
Chapter Two: How to Calculate Your Khums. 313
1. Decide on the start of your khums year 313
2. Khums on Surplus Cash. 316
3. Khums on items surplus to requirement 321
4. Bank Interest Khums. 327
5. Matters in which Mosalahah apply. 330
Disposal of Khums. 330
Chapter Three: Queries on Khums matters. 332
Chapter Four: The Rulings of Zakah. 343
Items liable to Zakah. 343
Criteria for Liability to Zakah. 343
Zakah of the Four Crops. 344
Zakah of the Two Cash Metals: Gold and Silver 346
Zakah of the Three Cattle. 348
Queries on Cattle. 350
Disposal of Zakah. 351
Criteria of those qualifying for Zakah. 354
Time of Paying Zakah. 355
Priority of Zakah and Khums over other things. 356
BOOK TWO: CULTURE, ECONOMICS, ETHICS 357
Part One: Striving and Social Reform 359
Chapter One: The Greater Jihad. 361
Chapter Two: The Lesser Jihad. 383
Chapter Three: Devotion and Disownment 392
Chapter Four: Bidding Good and Forbidding Evil 394
Chapter Five: Peace and non-Violence. 399
Part Two: Morals and Character Building 405
Chapter One: Youths’ Affairs. 407
Chapter Two: Morals and Ethical Manners. 425
Chapter Three: On sexual issues. 434
Part Three: Social and Family Matters 439
Chapter One: Rulings of Attire, Looking, and Socialising. 441
Chapter Two: Women Issues. 450
Status of Woman in Islam... 450
Woman’s hijab and adornment 451
Woman and career 459
Woman’s Rights. 465
Woman’s exclusive role. 470
Woman and divorce. 476
Chapter Three: Family and Married Life. 481
Marriage. 481
Rulings of indefinite marriage. 489
Rulings of fixed-term marriage. 494
Difference between indefinite and fixed-term marriage. 495
Women who are haram to marry. 500
Miscellaneous marriage queries. 502
On procreation, and parents-offspring relationship. 507
Abortion. 508
Rulings of embryo and foetus. 510
Rulings of Breastfeeding. 511
Those who become mahram through breastfeeding. 513
Child’s Wealth. 515
Discipline. 518
Divorce. 520
Categories of Divorce. 523
Miscellaneous rulings on divorce. 526
Chapter Four: Death, Will, and Inheritance. 528
Rulings concerning death. 528
Ritual Washing of the Deceased. 530
Shrouding the deceased. 533
Prayer of the deceased. 535
Rulings of Burial 539
Miscellaneous burial issues. 542
Rulings of Will 549
Rulings of Inheritance. 554
Part Four: Food and Drink 561
Chapter One: Slaughtering and Hunting of Animals. 563
The Shari‘ah method of slaughtering. 563
Rulings of hunting with weapons. 566
Hunting by Hound. 568
Fishing. 569
Miscellaneous issues on slaughter and hunting. 572
Chapter Two: Rulings of Food and Drinks. 574
Part Five: Culture and Development 581
Chapter One: The Holy Qur’an and Qudsi Hadith. 583
On the Authenticity of the Holy Qur’an. 583
Qur’an Education. 586
Istikharah with the Holy Qur’an. 590
Qudsi Hadith. 592
Chapter Two: Prophetic Hadith and Narrations of Ahl al-Bayt 593
Tragedies of Our Lady Fatima al-Zahra’ 595
Reappearance of Imam al-Mahdi 595
Meeting Imam al-Hujjah. 598
Hallaj cursed by Imam Mahdi 598
Chapter Three: Muharram and the Husayni Rites. 601
The Tradition of ‘Ashura’ 605
On the Rites of ‘Ashura’ 607
Tatbir 608
The Origins of Shedding Blood for Imam Husayn. 616
Enacting the Events of Karbala’ 621
Chapter Four: Freedoms and Human Rights. 627
Freedoms. 627
Human Rights. 633
Other Rights. 636
Chapter Five: Governance. 641
System of Governance. 641
Council of the Fuqaha’ Maraje‘ 643
Political parties. 645
Chapter Six: Medical Issues. 650
Abortion. 650
IVF or in vitro fertilisation. 651
Surrogacy. 653
Cloning. 654
Implants and transplants. 656
Medical experiments on humans. 660
Medical treatment and Shari‘ah criteria. 661
Patients’ examination and care. 661
Autopsy. 662
Sex Change Rulings. 665
Chapter Seven: Singing and Music. 667
Chapter Eight: Media and Art 673
Chapter Nine: Rulings on Diverse Issues. 683
Part Six: Emigration to Non-Islamic Countries 687
Chapter One: Rulings on Emigration. 689
Chapter Two: Marriage with non-Believers. 696
Chapter Three: Prayers and Ritual Cleanliness. 700
Part Seven: Economics and Transactions 707
Chapter One: Outline of Islamic Economic Policies. 709
Shari’ah Monetary Duties. 710
Chapter Two: Trading, Buying and Selling. 713
Categories of Earnings. 714
Prohibited trade or business. 715
Transactional Usury. 717
Loan Usury. 719
Categories of Transactions. 731
Chapter Three: Contracts and Transactions. 742
Rulings on Right of Precedence (Shuf‘ah) 742
Rulings on Partnership (sharakah) 743
Rulings on Investment (mudarabah) 745
Rulings on Settlement (sulh) 747
Rulings on Lease (ijarah) 748
Rulings on Cultivation scheme (Mozara‘ah) 752
Rulings on Irrigation scheme (Mosaqah) 754
Rulings on Loan/Borrowing (qard) 755
Rulings on Debt Transfer (hawalah) 757
Rulings on Security (rahn) 758
Rulings on Surety (daman) 759
Rulings on Banks. 760
Bank Loans. 762
Banking career 763
Miscellaneous Monetary Matters. 764
Lawyer’s career 769
Commission. 770
Rulings on Competition & Betting. 771
Chapter Four: Deposits and Grants. 777
Rulings on Reward (ju‘alah) 777
Rulings on Agency (wakalah) 778
Rulings on Admission (iqrar) 779
Rulings on Grant (hibah) 780
Rulings on Charity (sadaqah) 782
Rulings on Barring (hajr) 785
Rulings on Bail (kafalah) 788
Rulings on Deposit (wadi‘ah) 788
Rulings on Lending (‘ariyah) 790
Chapter Five: Public Resources, Covenants, and Expiations. 792
Rulings on the developed and undeveloped lands. 792
Rulings regarding the Find. 796
Rulings on Usurpation. 802
Rulings on Vow, Covenant, and Oath. 805
Rulings on Oath. 812
Rulings on Expiation (Kaffarat) 815
Part Eight: Foundations and Endowments 821
Chapter One: Foundations and Societies. 823
Charitable Organisations. 823
Public institutions and unions. 827
Political Institutions. 829
Business Institutions. 831
Chapter Two: Rulings of Endowment 833
Part Nine: Penal Code and Punishment 839
Chapter One: The Law.. 841
Adequacy and Competence of Islamic Law.. 841
Groundless Criticisms. 841
Chapter Two: Rulings of the Judiciary and Witnesses. 846
Attributes of the Judge. 846
Chapter Three: Rulings of Expiations & Punishment 850
APPENDIX 859
Quick Chart for Salah. 861
Outline Procedure for Salah. 863
On the Distinctions of the Islamic Society. 869
Islam and Ethics are Twins. 870
The Obligatory. 870
The Prohibited Conducts. 875
Unethical Conducts. 886
Ethical Conducts. 890
The Fourteen Infallible (ma‘soom) Personages. 893
Months of the Islamic Calendar 897
Glossary 899
Transliteration 923
The Author 927
