372 replies to this topic

[Maula Dha Mallang]

lol no problem barader, take your time bro

[baradar_jackson]

(1) your favourite conspiracy theory about iran

That the government sent Abbas Doran on an impossible mission with the purpose that he would die, because his popularity was a "threat" to Imam Khomeini.

I love this conspiracy theory.

Bonus: that Mesbah Yazdi heads the Hojjatiyeh Society.

(2) why iranian women have a reputation for being so tough

Imam Khomeini said in a speech to a group of women shortly after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution: The country belongs to you.

They took it literally.

And some nonsense about Iranians being a mountain people and therefore having faced a difficult lifestyle in the villages...

(3) iranian exiles influencing western media and what are the ways to battle it

One is to raise people's consciousness so they're not ignorant sheep.

Another is to improve the quality of state media.

(best to do both at the same time)

For example, the satellites' programming. Its not academic. Its not reasonable. It's just demagoguery. If we had one good show on state TV that responded to their nonsense with the language of reason (something like what Sayyed Kamal does to Salafi views on his show), I think it would have a big impact.

(4) other things in iran you wish you could change

Privatization

Monetary corruption (and in fact the prominence of the money economy in general)

The fact that any time anything goes wrong in a neighboring country, it spills into Iran (our drug problem is almost entirely due to rise in poppy production in Afghanistan)

Art. Either force these degenerate filmmakers to make movies that conform to what we're trying to do, or at least stop them from broadcasting filth to the world!

When the revolution first began, they stopped broadcasting commercials on TV. Now they broadcast more than before the revolution. Let's undo this deviation.

We need better means of propagating hijab and modesty (for men and women both).

More attention to be paid to spectacle and image. These things are not as useless as we often assume! Let's have better uniforms (for everything), better guidelines for construction (not so much color and crazy designs!), better parades, better exhibitions. Spectacles inspire national confidence.

Paperwork should be streamlined. This is an area where maybe computers could help. Maybe make some application processes electronic. Office workers in Iran are committed to do nothing and not help you.

Tone down the racism toward Iraqis and Afghanis who live in the country. It makes people disillusioned and get a negative image of Iranians.

Put Sayyed Kamal on Iranian TV. He knows Farsi, he's a terminator, what are you waiting for?

Make it even more unbearable to drive in Tehran than it already is. Get those idiots out of their cars and into the buses and metro trains. Tehran has such a great transportation system but idiot Iranians are so attached to their dumb cars. (and then they complain about traffic)

And there's probably more but I will stop thinking of any, for the sake of time.

(5) if you could write any book, what would it be?

I would write a book documenting the criminal incompetence of Reza Shah, Ataturk, Mammad Reza Shah, and other puppet Muslim secularist leaders, both from Western standards and from our own standards. I am tired of people glorifying these pathetic stooges.

finally, mr jackson, you have 1 minute to rant about any subject you choose.

My rant will be about the Seyyed Ali Khamenei risalah issue!

I am really tired of this risalah issue. I really am.

Foolish people who have no interest in truth, but only in delegitimizing the Leader and causing others to question his credentials, bring up this issue, and then admire themselves proudly in the mirror, as if they have cured AIDS.

Why has the Leader not published a risalah.

First of all, what is a risalah? It is a book of fatwas. Anyone who has reached ijtihad and who can make fatawa, can quite easily compile these rulings into a risalah. Most of the people who are today maraji, came up with their religious rulings from when they were much younger (from when they first reached ijtihad).

So the risalah is simply a compilation of fatwas. Anyone who is in the position to make fatwas, can easily compile his risalah. And if someone is not in fact in a position to give fatwas (as the hojjatiyeh clan believes the Leader is not), well then he can simply fake it. Its not that hard. If I, Baradar Jackson, wanted to claim marja'iyah and release a risalah, I could easily do it. Of course, my marja'iyah would be illegitimate both in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the people (Isn't it nice when those two things coincide? It makes pleasing God much easier!), but there is nothing -- as far as ability is concerned -- that prevents me.

Writing up fatwas is easy. Doing the study and the ijtihad that puts you in a position to have the right and the credentials to write up fatwas; that is what is hard.

The people who blow up this risalah issue, are people who reject the Leader's ijtihad! Their concern is not that he has his fatwas in writing, and available to the public; this is just a stupid little nothing of an issue which they bring up to advance their political agenda. If he had his fatwas in writing, would they suddenly embrace him and say his ijtihad is legitimate and his marja'iyah is legitimate? Of course not! And indeed, why should they? The existence or non-existence of a risalah does not determine the legitimacy or illegitimacy of one's scholarship (I already mentioned why).

So to all hate-filled individuals, I say: stop bringing up this issue. If he released a risalah, you would not change your opinion of him. Your reason for bringing this up is not to uphold truth, but to bring down Seyyed Ali's status in the eyes of the people.

Wa'salaamun aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu

[Maula Dha Mallang]

thank you barader for the interview, its been a great one. may all that you desire (starting with a wife!) be given to you, ameen. great stuff.

salwaat!

[Maula Dha Mallang]

ok guys the next person i am going to interview, is brother al mufeed

its becoming less and less of secret that i have a slightly creepy fascination with this brother. we have talked on msn for around 2 years now, and there hasnt been a single time i can think of where we have talked about anything but islam. his personality, depth of knowledge and sense of humour make him mash'Allah a great teacher for me, and many others. he has done things in his life which i can only dream of doing. he is a quiet member, kind of like the silent uncle who always shows up at family functions, sitting quietly in the corner, not really talking to anyone, then when you are much older you realise he was batman or something. when he speaks though, it is always something that needs to be heard.

salam yara, ya ali madad, here are my first set of questions

(1) im sorry if you were hoping to keep this a secret forever, but you should have known it would be the very first thing i asked. you once flew to kuwait, and from kuwait, over several weeks/ months, you WALKED TO KARBALA. please tell us this ziarah, in as much detail as possible, right down to the number of times you scratched your head.

(2) did you attend formal islamic education (in a hawza)? if so, where, who were your teachers, how long did you attend and so on? if not, where do you hope to go?

(3) what do you say to those whose mission it is to stop people like us doing aza?

(4) what is the best way for the youth to prepare for the awaited imam (atf)?

(5) have you met any mujtahids/ marjas? can you tell us of your meetings?

(6) who is hajj abbas, why must we know who he is when we go karbala?

(7) how did you get the mod/ admin job at sc? how do you find it? have you ever met Ali (the owner)?

(8) what is your long term goal in life?

(9) how did you become an azadar of maula hussain as a child, who taught you, who inspired you?

(10) is it rude for a deaf person to use sign language with their mouth full of food?

[El Cid]

Don't ask for the Impossible MDM, Al-Mufeed, Supreme Leader of SC hardly posts =P He has this streak going on.

[Maula Dha Mallang]

i live in hope!

[Al-Mufeed]

Salamun Alaykum

Eid mubarak to every one. I have to attend the eid prayers this morning, and I have a few things to do at the masjid afterwords, so later today inshaAllah I will reply to these questions.

I also wanted to say that brother MDM, you are speaking much too highly of me, and you are exaggerating, but your kindness is appreciated.

May Allah grant you the blessing of being with Al-Qaim when he returns.

[S.hassan]

Al-Mufeed, on 06 November 2011 - 10:20 AM, said:

Salamun Alaykum

Eid mubarak to every one. I have to attend the eid prayers this morning, and I have a few things to do at the masjid afterwords, so later today inshaAllah I will reply to these questions.

I also wanted to say that brother MDM, you are speaking much too highly of me, and you are exaggerating, but your kindness is appreciated.

May Allah grant you the blessing of being with Al-Qaim when he returns.

Even Mufeed says MDM is a ghali, so it must be true!

[Maula Dha Mallang]

lol @ ghali, if mufeed says it, its true

[Al-Mufeed]

Sorry for the late response Eid and family duties delayed me from answering your questions.

(1)   im sorry if you were hoping to keep this a secret forever, but you should have known it would be the very first thing i asked. you once flew to kuwait, and from kuwait, over several weeks/ months, you WALKED TO KARBALA. please tell us this ziarah, in as much detail as possible, right down to the number of times you scratched your head.

I think you may have been misinformed, I was originally planning to do the walk from the Kuwait border/basra to Karbala, but unfortunately due to a number of reasons out of my control I was not able to do it. It is a life time goal though, I hope that Imam Hussain invites me to see him again and allows me the honor of being among those who walk long distances and strive through difficulties to see him. The late Marja – Sayed Burujardi (as reported by his students and friends) in his later years had a severe eye problem that hindered him in his studies/teaching. He went for ziyarat in Iraq and there while he was in the south of Iraq he came across a group of zuwar on a train that had made the trip to karbala from various cities barefoot. One of them was asleep and he had some mud on his feet which had collected from his trip. Sayed Burujardi says he took some of the mud off the foot of the man and then asked for the shifa’a of Imam Hussain  and rubbed the mud on his eye, and instantly his vision problem was corrected. He used to tell everyone about this story, as a reminder of the blessings of making the ziyarat of aba abdillah .

That ziyarat trip was a very blessed one for me, even though I was unable to do the long walk as I had planned. There are many people who do not understand things of this nature, ie spending 8-9 days walking to see Aba Abdillah . I have a friend in najaf, a shaikh who is a teacher at the howza and a fairly well known speaker in Iraq who recites the tragedy of Imam Hussain . Every year he walks from najaf to Karbala barefoot through the hot desert. Even his own students at the howza question him about it, and say he is an educated scholar etc, why is he doing such things? He would tell them that for imam hussain it is worth it, even if it means walking for days in hot desert sands and burning his feet.

فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ ۖ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى

“put off thy shoes: thou art in the sacred valley Tuwa”

During my trip I was able to visit the various shrines, and ask for my needs. I find the haram  of aba abdillah  to be a most amazing place.  Every Friday night (Thursday night by solar calendar) it is full of people, I mean full to the extent where you can barely move around. The narrations say the Angels come there, and probably the Imam is there along with holy servants who are unknown to us. It is beautiful to be there on Friday nights, looking around and wondering where the Imam  may be. There are so many people sometimes it almost feels like you cannot breathe, and it makes you think of the Day of Judgment. Everyone is standing around crying and praying, some people are even screaming, but there are so many people every one is drowned out and you don’t pay any attention to anyone else, and you just focus on yourself.  Every time my eyes see the haram it burns my heart.

When I was in karbala I would spend several hours a day at the haram, and when I am not there I try and make ziyarat to Aba Abdillah every day at home or at work, or where ever I am.



(2) did you attend formal islamic education (in a hawza)? if so, where, who were your teachers, how long did you attend and so on? if not, where do you hope to go?
I have attended formal Islamic education. I have spent some ime studying in Karbala, as well as Najaf and I have done some corispondence studies with various scholars in qum. The howzas where I actually studied at were – howza imam sadiq and madressa amir al mumineen  – which is a very old school in Najaf, fairly close to the shrine. My teachers were good, they were good people, pious and knowledgable scholars. I don’t think anyone would recognize them if I mentioned their names.

If Allah allows me the opportunity I would like to go back in to my studies, I would like to spend some time in Mashad if possible, and some time in qum as well, perhaps with periodic stayes in Iraq. If it were in my hands I would like to spend my life in the howza.

(3) what do you say to those whose mission it is to stop people like us doing aza?

There is nothing much I can say except to parrot the words of Allah (swt)

يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ إِلَّا أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ

They wish to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will not agree except that He will perfect His light, even if the disbelievers hate it.

(4) what is the best way for the youth to prepare for the awaited imam (atf)?

Follow the shariah properly. The answer is as simple as that. Everything else is secondary. Before going on to all the recommended things, they should get them selves to the level where they are fulfilling the wajib things and stopping the haram things in their lives. This means prayer, paying their khums, following all the rules of halal and haram, obeying their parents etc.
Just all of this alone is a full time job for most people, and from my personal experience the majority of people barely ever got past this level. Some people will spend their whole lives and still not be able to due all their prayers on time etc. No one is massom, but a mumin person should be adil, they have to stop performing the sins, and do the wajibat. I think people are very foolish, they think that they will be with the Imam even though they commit a dozen sins a day and do not care for their salat. Imam hussain died for the establishment of Salat.  People do not care for salat, and this would be the biggest advice I would give to the youth, take care of your prayer. Allah (swt) says in the quran:

وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ ۖ إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ

Establish the prayer, for surely prayer is what wards off evil and debauchery


Prayer is the tent pole of religion according to the narrations, and the prophet said that some one who abandons prayer is not a muslim, and that the difference between kufir and iman is salat. Also imam sadiq  in the very well known narration states that the people who do not take their prayer seriously will not receive the shifa’a of ahlululbayt. And as we know through the narrations this is the only key to heaven (shifa’a of ahlulbayt). Allah also says in the quran:

فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ
الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَن صَلَاتِهِمْ سَاهُونَ

Woe (wail) on the prayer makers
Those who are unmindful of their prayers.

Imam Sadiq says that this verse refers to people who  do pray, but do not take their prayer seriously. When the time for prayer comes they delay their prayer, even though they have no excuse. Also you should note here that wail is also a destination of hell, and imam sadiq says that Allah never uses wail against a people unless they are disbelievers. Meaning those who do not take prayer seriously are considered to be among the disbelievers (as is also noted in various narrations.)

Most of us will not even take a few hours out of our lives to study the fiqh rules of prayers and even learn them properly. What does that say about our position? I have found that to be the case with 90% of youth, they do not even know how to perform the prayer properly, nor do they know the rules associated with the clothes of prayer, place of prayer etc. They can spend 4 hours a day watching t.v or playing video games but not spend that much time to even learn how to pray correctly and learn the mustahabat of the prayer, but then they think that they will be with the imam when he returns?

In a well known narration the prophet said if a person does not pray correctly and they die with out correcting their prayer, they will not die on his religion.

So to re-iterate, the youth should learn and follow the rules of the religion correctly – with a major emphasis on salat. That would be my best advice for them. Other than that they should marry early to keep themselves away from sins, and allow them to mature quickly and be able to better focus on the various aspects of religion.

(5) have you met any mujtahids/ marjas? can you tell us of your meetings?

Yes I have met some. Several mujtaheads, and a few maraja. My meetings have been fairly short. Largely just giving my greetings and exchanging a few kind words. I have yet the opportunity to sit down and discuss anything in depth with any of the.


6) who is hajj abbas, why must we know who he is when we go karbala?

Well hajj abbas was an individual I told you about, and suggested you try and meet him when/if you go to the holy city of karbala. He is an elderly man who is well known to the locals. He lives near a hotel called Jannatul Hussain (very easy to find,its next to the haram of Abbas  and its probably the most famous hotel in karbala). In order to find Hajj Abbas, you would just have to ask one of the locals in that area, and they will guide you to his home. He is a very pious and kind man. His parents bore him through a nadhir that they took at the shrine of Abal Fadhlul Abbas . Because of that they named him Abbas and they dedicated him to be a life long servant to the shrine. He spent his entire life serving the visitors of Abul Fadhlil Abbas  and performing the various duties in the shrine. He is now too old for that and spends his time at home. He is an exceptionally pious man, and when you meet him you can sense that. People visit him from various parts of the world, because his duas for people seem to almost always come true. Allot of people from Iran visit him for that, especially women who cannot give birth. Nearly every day he has dozens of visitors at his home asking for him to make dua for them.  He also recently finished a book where he compiled all the various amazing and miraculous things that he saw in his life time at the shrines of Abbas  and Imam Hussain .

He shared a beautiful story with us about a poor man who had walked barefoot to the shrine of Abbas from a village some where in the south of Iraq. He was present in the haram when the man walked in, he came in crying and his feet where mangled and blistered from the long trip. He went to the gate of the grave and threw him self on it and started crying and speaking loudly. He said my master Abbas I have come all this way just to see you. I don’t have any hajaat that I want to ask, all I wanted was to come to visit you and see your grave. But I am your guest and I know that you always take care of your guests, you are the son of Ali . This guest of yours has hurt his feet, could you please help with that? – And he told us that he saw with his own eyes the feet of the man suddenly heal up, and the people who were there threw themselves on the man and started crying and tearing at his clothes.



(7) how did you get the mod/ admin job at sc? how do you find it? have you ever met Ali (the owner)?

Other mod/Admins recommended me to be one (the bribes probably helped).
To be honest, its just like being a regular member, not much different, except you have the responsibility of attending to issues on the forum where people break rules.
I have never met Ali, may be one day inshaAllah.

(8) what is your long term goal in life?

When I was younger I used to always think I would like to do this or that in my life, but as I got older I realized that pretty much everything is in the hands of Allah, and you never know what situation you are going to end up in, all you can really control is how you act in it. At this point my main goal is to just die – with out having any religious debts to Allah, or monetary/religious debts to people. If I can do that, ie fulfill my wajib duites to Allah and the people I interact with in my life, then I would be more than satisfied.

(9) how did you become an azadar of maula hussain file:///C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtmlclip11clip_image001.gif as a child, who taught you, who inspired you?

Who ever told you I was an azadar of Imam is lying. I could never count myself among those who properly mourn Imam Hussain This is a heavenly duty that according to the narrations is done by prophets, shaheeds, Angels and all the blessed and noble creatures of Allah. I could never be counted among this group.

There is a narration where imam sadiq  has stated that mourning for Imam Hussain is a right that the Imams demand from us. I can not even fulfil the rights of my own body, and that of my family etc, how in the world can I fulfill the rights of the imam ?

(10) is it rude for a deaf person to use sign language with their mouth full of food?

If the person located in a place where its culturally rude to speak while eating, then yes, I would say it probably is.

(I wanted to apologize for not putting the correct form of respect after the names of holy personalities in this post, the forum limits the amount of time you can use emotions, and alayhisalam and peace be upon him etc are considered to be emotions, so i was forced to erase many of them to make the post actually post)

[Replicant]

^Beautiful.

[Kamranistan]

Mufeed..

Subhan'Allah..  May Allah  bless you..

[SD2]

Loved reading it, can't wait for the next parts.

Also JazakAllah Khair for your help earlier, may Allah (swt) reward you and not take your soul until you have no debts whether they be religious or to people insha'Allah

[lalala123]

Best thing Al-Mufeed taught me was a farsi saying - Wuzu bidoon wilayat ab bazeest.  Wuzu without believing in wilayat is like playing with water.

[SD2]

lalala12, on 07 November 2011 - 07:13 PM, said:

Best thing Al-Mufeed taught me was a farsi saying - Wuzu bidoon wilayat ab bazeest.  Wuzu without believing in wilayat is like playing with water.

Ya Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii !!!!!

[S.hassan]

NARAY SHEIKH AL MUFEED!

YA GOAT.

Edited by S.hassan, 07 November 2011 - 10:55 PM.

[Mahdavist]

Al-Mufeed, on 07 November 2011 - 05:34 PM, said:

Sorry for the late response Eid and family duties delayed me from answering your questions.

(1)   im sorry if you were hoping to keep this a secret forever, but you should have known it would be the very first thing i asked. you once flew to kuwait, and from kuwait, over several weeks/ months, you WALKED TO KARBALA. please tell us this ziarah, in as much detail as possible, right down to the number of times you scratched your head.

I think you may have been misinformed, I was originally planning to do the walk from the Kuwait border/basra to Karbala, but unfortunately due to a number of reasons out of my control I was not able to do it. It is a life time goal though, I hope that Imam Hussain invites me to see him again and allows me the honor of being among those who walk long distances and strive through difficulties to see him. The late Marja – Sayed Burujardi (as reported by his students and friends) in his later years had a severe eye problem that hindered him in his studies/teaching. He went for ziyarat in Iraq and there while he was in the south of Iraq he came across a group of zuwar on a train that had made the trip to karbala from various cities barefoot. One of them was asleep and he had some mud on his feet which had collected from his trip. Sayed Burujardi says he took some of the mud off the foot of the man and then asked for the shifa’a of Imam Hussain  and rubbed the mud on his eye, and instantly his vision problem was corrected. He used to tell everyone about this story, as a reminder of the blessings of making the ziyarat of aba abdillah .

That ziyarat trip was a very blessed one for me, even though I was unable to do the long walk as I had planned. There are many people who do not understand things of this nature, ie spending 8-9 days walking to see Aba Abdillah . I have a friend in najaf, a shaikh who is a teacher at the howza and a fairly well known speaker in Iraq who recites the tragedy of Imam Hussain . Every year he walks from najaf to Karbala barefoot through the hot desert. Even his own students at the howza question him about it, and say he is an educated scholar etc, why is he doing such things? He would tell them that for imam hussain it is worth it, even if it means walking for days in hot desert sands and burning his feet.

فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ ۖ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى

“put off thy shoes: thou art in the sacred valley Tuwa”

During my trip I was able to visit the various shrines, and ask for my needs. I find the haram  of aba abdillah  to be a most amazing place.  Every Friday night (Thursday night by solar calendar) it is full of people, I mean full to the extent where you can barely move around. The narrations say the Angels come there, and probably the Imam is there along with holy servants who are unknown to us. It is beautiful to be there on Friday nights, looking around and wondering where the Imam  may be. There are so many people sometimes it almost feels like you cannot breathe, and it makes you think of the Day of Judgment. Everyone is standing around crying and praying, some people are even screaming, but there are so many people every one is drowned out and you don’t pay any attention to anyone else, and you just focus on yourself.  Every time my eyes see the haram it burns my heart.

When I was in karbala I would spend several hours a day at the haram, and when I am not there I try and make ziyarat to Aba Abdillah every day at home or at work, or where ever I am.



(2) did you attend formal islamic education (in a hawza)? if so, where, who were your teachers, how long did you attend and so on? if not, where do you hope to go?
I have attended formal Islamic education. I have spent some ime studying in Karbala, as well as Najaf and I have done some corispondence studies with various scholars in qum. The howzas where I actually studied at were – howza imam sadiq and madressa amir al mumineen  – which is a very old school in Najaf, fairly close to the shrine. My teachers were good, they were good people, pious and knowledgable scholars. I don’t think anyone would recognize them if I mentioned their names.

If Allah allows me the opportunity I would like to go back in to my studies, I would like to spend some time in Mashad if possible, and some time in qum as well, perhaps with periodic stayes in Iraq. If it were in my hands I would like to spend my life in the howza.

(3) what do you say to those whose mission it is to stop people like us doing aza?

There is nothing much I can say except to parrot the words of Allah (swt)

يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ إِلَّا أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ

They wish to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will not agree except that He will perfect His light, even if the disbelievers hate it.

(4) what is the best way for the youth to prepare for the awaited imam (atf)?

Follow the shariah properly. The answer is as simple as that. Everything else is secondary. Before going on to all the recommended things, they should get them selves to the level where they are fulfilling the wajib things and stopping the haram things in their lives. This means prayer, paying their khums, following all the rules of halal and haram, obeying their parents etc.
Just all of this alone is a full time job for most people, and from my personal experience the majority of people barely ever got past this level. Some people will spend their whole lives and still not be able to due all their prayers on time etc. No one is massom, but a mumin person should be adil, they have to stop performing the sins, and do the wajibat. I think people are very foolish, they think that they will be with the Imam even though they commit a dozen sins a day and do not care for their salat. Imam hussain died for the establishment of Salat.  People do not care for salat, and this would be the biggest advice I would give to the youth, take care of your prayer. Allah (swt) says in the quran:

وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ ۖ إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ

Establish the prayer, for surely prayer is what wards off evil and debauchery


Prayer is the tent pole of religion according to the narrations, and the prophet said that some one who abandons prayer is not a muslim, and that the difference between kufir and iman is salat. Also imam sadiq  in the very well known narration states that the people who do not take their prayer seriously will not receive the shifa’a of ahlululbayt. And as we know through the narrations this is the only key to heaven (shifa’a of ahlulbayt). Allah also says in the quran:

فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ
الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَن صَلَاتِهِمْ سَاهُونَ

Woe (wail) on the prayer makers
Those who are unmindful of their prayers.

Imam Sadiq says that this verse refers to people who  do pray, but do not take their prayer seriously. When the time for prayer comes they delay their prayer, even though they have no excuse. Also you should note here that wail is also a destination of hell, and imam sadiq says that Allah never uses wail against a people unless they are disbelievers. Meaning those who do not take prayer seriously are considered to be among the disbelievers (as is also noted in various narrations.)

Most of us will not even take a few hours out of our lives to study the fiqh rules of prayers and even learn them properly. What does that say about our position? I have found that to be the case with 90% of youth, they do not even know how to perform the prayer properly, nor do they know the rules associated with the clothes of prayer, place of prayer etc. They can spend 4 hours a day watching t.v or playing video games but not spend that much time to even learn how to pray correctly and learn the mustahabat of the prayer, but then they think that they will be with the imam when he returns?

In a well known narration the prophet said if a person does not pray correctly and they die with out correcting their prayer, they will not die on his religion.

So to re-iterate, the youth should learn and follow the rules of the religion correctly – with a major emphasis on salat. That would be my best advice for them. Other than that they should marry early to keep themselves away from sins, and allow them to mature quickly and be able to better focus on the various aspects of religion.

(5) have you met any mujtahids/ marjas? can you tell us of your meetings?

Yes I have met some. Several mujtaheads, and a few maraja. My meetings have been fairly short. Largely just giving my greetings and exchanging a few kind words. I have yet the opportunity to sit down and discuss anything in depth with any of the.


6) who is hajj abbas, why must we know who he is when we go karbala?

Well hajj abbas was an individual I told you about, and suggested you try and meet him when/if you go to the holy city of karbala. He is an elderly man who is well known to the locals. He lives near a hotel called Jannatul Hussain (very easy to find,its next to the haram of Abbas  and its probably the most famous hotel in karbala). In order to find Hajj Abbas, you would just have to ask one of the locals in that area, and they will guide you to his home. He is a very pious and kind man. His parents bore him through a nadhir that they took at the shrine of Abal Fadhlul Abbas . Because of that they named him Abbas and they dedicated him to be a life long servant to the shrine. He spent his entire life serving the visitors of Abul Fadhlil Abbas  and performing the various duties in the shrine. He is now too old for that and spends his time at home. He is an exceptionally pious man, and when you meet him you can sense that. People visit him from various parts of the world, because his duas for people seem to almost always come true. Allot of people from Iran visit him for that, especially women who cannot give birth. Nearly every day he has dozens of visitors at his home asking for him to make dua for them.  He also recently finished a book where he compiled all the various amazing and miraculous things that he saw in his life time at the shrines of Abbas  and Imam Hussain .

He shared a beautiful story with us about a poor man who had walked barefoot to the shrine of Abbas from a village some where in the south of Iraq. He was present in the haram when the man walked in, he came in crying and his feet where mangled and blistered from the long trip. He went to the gate of the grave and threw him self on it and started crying and speaking loudly. He said my master Abbas I have come all this way just to see you. I don’t have any hajaat that I want to ask, all I wanted was to come to visit you and see your grave. But I am your guest and I know that you always take care of your guests, you are the son of Ali . This guest of yours has hurt his feet, could you please help with that? – And he told us that he saw with his own eyes the feet of the man suddenly heal up, and the people who were there threw themselves on the man and started crying and tearing at his clothes.



(7) how did you get the mod/ admin job at sc? how do you find it? have you ever met Ali (the owner)?

Other mod/Admins recommended me to be one (the bribes probably helped).
To be honest, its just like being a regular member, not much different, except you have the responsibility of attending to issues on the forum where people break rules.
I have never met Ali, may be one day inshaAllah.

(8) what is your long term goal in life?

When I was younger I used to always think I would like to do this or that in my life, but as I got older I realized that pretty much everything is in the hands of Allah, and you never know what situation you are going to end up in, all you can really control is how you act in it. At this point my main goal is to just die – with out having any religious debts to Allah, or monetary/religious debts to people. If I can do that, ie fulfill my wajib duites to Allah and the people I interact with in my life, then I would be more than satisfied.

(9) how did you become an azadar of maula hussain file:///C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtmlclip11clip_image001.gif as a child, who taught you, who inspired you?

Who ever told you I was an azadar of Imam is lying. I could never count myself among those who properly mourn Imam Hussain This is a heavenly duty that according to the narrations is done by prophets, shaheeds, Angels and all the blessed and noble creatures of Allah. I could never be counted among this group.

There is a narration where imam sadiq  has stated that mourning for Imam Hussain is a right that the Imams demand from us. I can not even fulfil the rights of my own body, and that of my family etc, how in the world can I fulfill the rights of the imam ?

(10) is it rude for a deaf person to use sign language with their mouth full of food?

If the person located in a place where its culturally rude to speak while eating, then yes, I would say it probably is.

(I wanted to apologize for not putting the correct form of respect after the names of holy personalities in this post, the forum limits the amount of time you can use emotions, and alayhisalam and peace be upon him etc are considered to be emotions, so i was forced to erase many of them to make the post actually post)

Very inspiring. Jazakumallah.

MDM, excellent choice.

[Maula Dha Mallang]

question set 2 of 3

Al-Mufeed, on 07 November 2011 - 05:34 PM, said:

Sorry for the late response Eid and family duties delayed me from answering your questions.

no need to apologise yara, its an honour for us to be listening to you.

The late Marja – Sayed Burujardi (as reported by his students and friends) in his later years had a severe eye problem that hindered him in his studies/teaching. He went for ziyarat in Iraq and there while he was in the south of Iraq he came across a group of zuwar on a train that had made the trip to karbala from various cities barefoot. One of them was asleep and he had some mud on his feet which had collected from his trip. Sayed Burujardi says he took some of the mud off the foot of the man and then asked for the shifa’a of Imam Hussain  and rubbed the mud on his eye, and instantly his vision problem was corrected. He used to tell everyone about this story, as a reminder of the blessings of making the ziyarat of aba abdillah .

mash'Allah. I also remember a story you once told me, that i believe it was one of the shirazi family, they were travelling for the first time to karbala, at the time when iran and iraq hated each other. on the way he stopped at a hotel and struck up a conversation with an iraqi, who once he found out shirazi was iranian, began abusing him and swearing at him etc.

ayatollah (?) shirazi became very upset, and for the rest of his journey was thinking about that man. when he eventually reached karbala, he held on to the zari paak, and asked for nothing else from them, other than for them to punish that man who abused him.

in his dream that night he was granted ziarat of imam hussain alaihisalam and ghazi sarkar alaihisalam, they said that they refused to punish that man, because one time, years ago, that man was stood by the river euphrates on his own, he looked towards the river and thought to himself "how could yazeeds (LA) army cut off the water to the camp of hussain ", and he shed a single tear.

in the sadaqa of that single tear that one time, he was protected from the curses of ayatollah shirazi.

forgive me if i have said it wrong (as i am prone to)

Even his own students at the howza question him about it, and say he is an educated scholar etc, why is he doing such things? He would tell them that for imam hussain it is worth it, even if it means walking for days in hot desert sands and burning his feet.

فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ ۖ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى

“put off thy shoes: thou art in the sacred valley Tuwa”

this is how i will arrive there insha'Allah. we take off our shoes to walk into our masjids, it wounds me to see people walking with shoes in that place.

let me narrate to you a quite a famous event, that there was once a hindu minister, a member of the indian parliament, who once visited karbala. as a hindu, as a non muslim, as someone who never knew about wilayat, when he reached karbala, he refused to walk. he would crawl on his hands and knees all the time that he was in karbala, with his feet in the air.

he was asked, why he was acting in such a ignorant and drama way, he was a minister of the state. he said "i do not want to put my feet on the floor, in case my feet touch a place where hussains blood fell, i am just a najis hindu, he was an imam, i do not want to disrespect him by putting my feet on his blood".

look at the love this hindu showed towards hussain, and look at the state of the anti azadari brigade shia.

alhamdulillah this minister became shia, and is in fact buried in karbala. if i remember correctly, India once donated a large sum of money towards the zari of imam hussain, and he was the minister responsible for it.


When I was in karbala I would spend several hours a day at the haram, and when I am not there I try and make ziyarat to Aba Abdillah every day at home or at work, or where ever I am.

please can you tell those who do not know, some of the benefits of daily recitation of the ziarah/ ziarah & dua alqamah. why is it important to renew our pledge to aba abdillah alaihisalam every day, and not once or twice?

in terms of the youth who are reading this, what is the importance of ziarat ashura and dua alqama?

I have attended formal Islamic education. I have spent some ime studying in Karbala, as well as Najaf and I have done some corispondence studies with various scholars in qum. The howzas where I actually studied at were – howza imam sadiq and madressa amir al mumineen  – which is a very old school in Najaf, fairly close to the shrine. My teachers were good, they were good people, pious and knowledgable scholars. I don’t think anyone would recognize them if I mentioned their names.

we have discussed taqleed between ourselves many times, as you know i am confused and doubtful. it seems that many people choose their marjas based upon less than logical reasons, for example "his fatwas are easy to follow", "he looks cute", "everyone else likes him" and so on.

you do not need to tell us who you do taqleed to, but can you give us your personal reasons for choosing whatever marja you chose, and what advice you would give people in choosing their marja?


There is nothing much I can say except to parrot the words of Allah (swt)

يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ إِلَّا أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ

They wish to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will not agree except that He will perfect His light, even if the disbelievers hate it.


i think there has been a great failing in our generation - aza has been completely twisted to make it into a political tool. aza is now going on a march or giving out leaflets. our generation is amongst the losers.

how can we undo the mistakes and failings of our parents and our scholars, and ensure aza is continued in our childrens generation? what can those in my age group, who are ready to have children, do to ensure aza is a part of their childrens lives?


People do not care for salat, and this would be the biggest advice I would give to the youth, take care of your prayer. Allah (swt) says in the quran:

وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ ۖ إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ

Establish the prayer, for surely prayer is what wards off evil and debauchery

So to re-iterate, the youth should learn and follow the rules of the religion correctly – with a major emphasis on salat. That would be my best advice for them. Other than that they should marry early to keep themselves away from sins, and allow them to mature quickly and be able to better focus on the various aspects of religion.

why is there such an emphasis on the actions of our waajibaats, is there really no room for error? what books would you suggest one could buy, which teach the importance and correct method of prayers?


Yes I have met some. Several mujtaheads, and a few maraja. My meetings have been fairly short. Largely just giving my greetings and exchanging a few kind words. I have yet the opportunity to sit down and discuss anything in depth with any of the.

if you could choose, which marja would you have a correspondance with, and what would your initial questions/ points be?


Other mod/Admins recommended me to be one (the bribes probably helped).
To be honest, its just like being a regular member, not much different, except you have the responsibility of attending to issues on the forum where people break rules.
I have never met Ali, may be one day inshaAllah.

dont you hate it when members like me cause trouble i do *try* to behave myself, but sometimes things just burst out of me. how do you tell who is just an idiot (like me) and who is a troll?

At this point my main goal is to just die – with out having any religious debts to Allah, or monetary/religious debts to people. If I can do that, ie fulfill my wajib duites to Allah and the people I interact with in my life, then I would be more than satisfied.

this is a beautiful goal mash'Allah.

for those who are reading this interview, who are deciding what to do with their lives, what would you suggest is a good area for them to study, which would benefit them, benefit their community and benefit the imam (atf) when he returns, are there any job roles you can think of? i dont think the awaited imam will have much use for someone who majored in history of art for example, but maybe there will be a need for someone who knows how to build bridges.

apart from career and spiritually, how else can we prepare for the zuhoor?


There is a narration where imam sadiq  has stated that mourning for Imam Hussain is a right that the Imams demand from us. I can not even fulfil the rights of my own body, and that of my family etc, how in the world can I fulfill the rights of the imam ?

all we can do, is try our best yara, and warn those who try to stop us what fate befalls the enemies of azadari.

[Al-Mufeed]

Quote

no need to apologise yara, its an honour for us to be listening to you.

The late Marja – Sayed Burujardi (as reported by his students and friends) in his later years had a severe eye problem that hindered him in his studies/teaching. He went for ziyarat in Iraq and there while he was in the south of Iraq he came across a group of zuwar on a train that had made the trip to karbala from various cities barefoot. One of them was asleep and he had some mud on his feet which had collected from his trip. Sayed Burujardi says he took some of the mud off the foot of the man and then asked for the shifa’a of Imam Hussain and rubbed the mud on his eye, and instantly his vision problem was corrected. He used to tell everyone about this story, as a reminder of the blessings of making the ziyarat of aba abdillah .

mash'Allah. I also remember a story you once told me, that i believe it was one of the shirazi family, they were travelling for the first time to karbala, at the time when iran and iraq hated each other. on the way he stopped at a hotel and struck up a conversation with an iraqi, who once he found out shirazi was iranian, began abusing him and swearing at him etc.

ayatollah (?) shirazi became very upset, and for the rest of his journey was thinking about that man. when he eventually reached karbala, he held on to the zari paak, and asked for nothing else from them, other than for them to punish that man who abused him.

in his dream that night he was granted ziarat of imam hussain alaihisalam and ghazi sarkar alaihisalam, they said that they refused to punish that man, because one time, years ago, that man was stood by the river euphrates on his own, he looked towards the river and thought to himself "how could yazeeds  army cut off the water to the camp of hussain file:///C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtmlclip11clip_image002.gif", and he shed a single tear.

in the sadaqa of that single tear that one time, he was protected from the curses of ayatollah shirazi.

forgive me if i have said it wrong (as i am prone to)

The story you have told is basically correct with a few (minor) mistakes- the person who mentioned the story was the late sayed Muhammad shirazi  but the story wasn’t about him or a family member, but it was about an Iranian man who had traveled for ziyarat. He was abused very badly (verbally) by a sunni farmer who accosted him on his way to Karbala, the rest of the story is accurate, here is the link where the late sayed is mentioning that story.

Quote

Even his own students at the howza question him about it, and say he is an educated scholar etc, why is he doing such things? He would tell them that for imam hussain file:///C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtmlclip11clip_image002.gif it is worth it, even if it means walking for days in hot desert sands and burning his feet.

فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ ۖ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى

“put off thy shoes: thou art in the sacred valley Tuwa”

this is how i will arrive there insha'Allah. we take off our shoes to walk into our masjids, it wounds me to see people walking with shoes in that place.

let me narrate to you a quite a famous event, that there was once a hindu minister, a member of the indian parliament, who once visited karbala. as a hindu, as a non muslim, as someone who never knew about wilayat, when he reached karbala, he refused to walk. he would crawl on his hands and knees all the time that he was in karbala, with his feet in the air.

he was asked, why he was acting in such a ignorant and drama way, he was a minister of the state. he said "i do not want to put my feet on the floor, in case my feet touch a place where hussains blood fell, i am just a najis hindu, he was an imam, i do not want to disrespect him by putting my feet on his blood".

look at the love this hindu showed towards hussain, and look at the state of the anti azadari brigade shia.

alhamdulillah this minister became shia, and is in fact buried in karbala. if i remember correctly, India once donated a large sum of money towards the zari of imam hussain, and he was the minister responsible for it.

That is a very beautiful story about the formerly hindu minister, thanks for sharing it. “there is enough light for those who wish to see” – Imam Ali

Quote

When I was in karbala I would spend several hours a day at the haram, and when I am not there I try and make ziyarat to Aba Abdillah file:///C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtmlclip11clip_image002.gif every day at home or at work, or where ever I am.


please can you tell those who do not know, some of the benefits of daily recitation of the ziarah/ ziarah & dua alqamah. why is it important to renew our pledge to aba abdillah alaihisalam every day, and not once or twice?

in terms of the youth who are reading this, what is the importance of ziarat ashura and dua alqama?

One should first understand the magnitude of the Ziyarat of Imam Hussain , and the reward for the zair – here are some narrations to help the believers understand that:

file:///C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtmlclip11clip_image001.gif   ـ حدَّثني الحسن بن عبدالله⁽³⁾ ، عن أبيه ، عن الحسن بن محبوب ، عن إسحاق بن عمّار «قال : سمعت أبا عبدالله عليه السلام يقول : ليس نبيّ في السَّماوات [والأرض] إلاّ يسألون الله تعالى أن يأذن لهم في زيارة الحسين عليه السلام

Imam Sadiq  stated: There is not a prophet in the heavens (or on the earth) who does not ask Allah permission to make the ziyarat of Imam Hussain

عن أبي عبدالله عليه السلام «قال : سمعته يقول : ليس من ملكٍ في السَّماوات إلاّ وهم يسألون الله عزّوجلَّ أن يأذن لهم في زيارة قبر الحسين عليه السلام

Imam Sadiq  stated that there is not an angel in the heavens that does not ask Allah for permission to visit the grave of Imam Hussain .

الوَشّاء ـ عمّن ذكره ـ عن داودَ بن كثير ، عن أبي عبدالله عليه السلام «قال : إنَّ فاطمة عليها السلام بنت محمّد صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم تحضر لزوَّار قبر ابنها الحسين عليه السلام فتستغفر لهم ذنوبهم» .

Imam Sadiq  says: Surely Fatimah  the daughter of Muhammad  attends to the Zuwar of the grave of her son Hussain  and seeks forgiveness for their sins

حدّثني الحسن بن عبدالله بن محمّد بن عيسى ، عن أبيه ، عن الحسن بن محبوب ، عن أبي المَغرا ، عن عَنْبَسَة ، عن أبي عبدا‏ عليه السلام «قال : سمعته يقول : وكّل الله بقبر الحسين بن عليِّ عليهما السلام سبعين ألف ملك يعبدُون الله عنده ، الصّلاة الواحِدَة من صلاة أحدهم تعدل ألف صلاة من صلاة الآدميّين ، يكون ثواب صلاتهم لزوّار قبر الحسين بن عليِّ عليهما السلام وعلى قاتله لعنة الله والملائكة والنّاس أجمعين أبد الآبدين

Imam Sadiq said, Allah has placed seventy thousand angels at the grave of Imam Hussain and they worship Allah there. One prayer from one of them is worth one thousand human prayers, and the reward of those prayers go to the Zuwar of the grave of Hussain ibn Ali peace be upon him, and the curse of Allah and all the angels and men be upon his killers forever and ever.

حدَّثني محمّد بن جعفر الرَّزَّاز قال: حدَّثني محمّد بن الحسين بن أبي الخطّاب ، عن أبي داود المسترقّ ، عن اُمّ سعيد الاُحْمَسِيّة ، عن أبي عبدالله عليه السلام «قالت : قال لي : يا اُمّ سعيد تزورين قبر الحسين؟ قالت : قلت : نَعَم ، فقال ليزوريه؛ فإنَّ زيارة قبر الحسين واجبة على الرّجال والنّساء :

Imam Sadiq  said to Um Saeed, Ya Um Saeed have you visited the grave of Hussain . She said yes. He (imam  ) said: Visit the grave of Hussain, for surely it is an obligation (wajib) for men and women.

«قال : سَمِعتُ أبا عبدالله عليه السلام يقول : مَن أراد أن يكون في جِوار نبيّه صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم وجِوار عليٍّ وفاطمة عليهما السلام فلا يدع زيارة الحسين بن عليٍّ عليهما السلام

I heard Imam Sadiq  say: Who ever desires to become the neighbor of the Prophet(pbuh) , and the neighbor of Ali and Fatimah  should not leave the ziyarat of Hussain ibn Ali

ـ حدَّثني أبي ؛ وأخي ؛ وعليُّ بن الحسين ؛ ومحمّد بن الحسن ـ رحمهم الله ـ جميعاً ، عن محمّد بن يحيى العطّار ، عن العَمْرَكي بن عليٍّ البوفَكيِّ ، عن صَندل⁽¹⁾ عن عبدالله بن بُكَير ، عن عبدالله بن زُرارةً «قال : سمعت أبا عبدالله عليه السلام يقول : إنَّ لزوَّار الحسين بن عليٍّ عليهما السلام يوم القيامة فَضلاً على النّاس ، قلت : وما فضلهم ؟ قال : يدخلون الجنّة قبل النّاس بأربعين عاماً ، وسائر النّاس في الحساب والموقف» .

I heard Aba’Abdillah  say: Verily the Zuwar of Al Hussain ibn Ali  will have a virtue over the rest of people on the Day of Judgment. I asked what is that virtue? He said, they will enter paradise forty years before all the people, and they will be at the forefront of the people during their reckoning (hisab) and position.

(here 40 years could/and probably does mean the years of Allah which are like 50,000 of our years)

قال : قلت لأبي عبدالله عليه السلام : إنّهم يَروون أنّه مَن زارَ الحسين عليه السلام كانَتْ له حَجّةٌ وعُمرةٌ؟ قال لي : مَن زارَه ـ والله ـ عارفاً بحقِّه غُفِرَ له ما تَقدَّم مِن ذَنبه وما تأخَّر

I asked Aba Abdillah  Those visitors who visit Imam Hussain , do they get the reward of a hajj and an umrah? He said, the one who visits (by god) knowing his rights (meaning imam hussain  ) his past and future sins will be forgiven.

: حدَّثني أحمد بن عليِّ بن عبيد الجعفيُّ قال : حدَّثني محمّد بن أبي جَرير القمّيُّ «قال : سمعت أبا الحسن الرِّضا عليه السلام يقول لأبي : مَن زارَ الحسين بن عليٍّ عليهما السلام عارفاً بحقِّه كان مِن مُحدِّثي الله
⁾  فوق عرشه ، ثمَّ قرء
إنَّ المتَّقين في جَنّاتٍ ونَهَرٍ * في مَقْعَدِ صِدْقٍ عِنْدَ مَليكٍ مُقْتَدِر

Muhammad ibn abi Jareer al Qumi says:

I heard Abul Hassan Al Reza say from his father, Who  ever makes the Ziyarat of Hussain ibn Ali cognizant/knowing/understanding of his rights,  will be those who meet with Allah on his throne, then he recited the following: Surely those who guard (against evil) shall be in gardens and rivers, In the seat of honor with a most Powerful King. (Al-Qamar 54-55)

عن أبي الحسن الرِّضا عليه السلام «قال : مَن زارَ قبر أبي عبدالله عليه السلام بشطّ الفُرات كان
كمن زار الله فوق عَرشه

From Abi Al Hassan Al Reza : who ever visits Aba Abdillah  by the river of furat, it is as if he has visited Allah on his throne.

عن عبدالله بن مُسكانَ ، عن أبي عبدالله عليه السلام «قال : من أتى قبر الحسين عليه السلام كتبه الله في عِلّيّي

From Imam Sadiq : Whoever goes to the grave of Hussain , Allah will write him in to illiyeen.

(illiyeen is the book of the people who are in the highest level of paradise, and it is also the name of the highest level of paradise).

قال أبو عبدالله عليه السلام : مَن أتى قبر الحسين عليه السلام عارفاً بحقّه كان كمن حَجّ مائة حَجّة مع رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم

Imam Sadiq  says who ever visits the grave of Hussain  understanding/cognizant of his rights, it is as if he has completed 100 hajj pilgrimages with Rasool Allah

There are numerous narrations about the great reward of the visitor of Imam Hussain . The reward of this act is beyond imagination, these narrations above are not 1/100^th of the amount of narrations that are out there on this subject, in any case that should give people an understanding of the importance of visiting Imam Hussain , and according to the narrations a believer must visit the Imam every day, and if they cannot do so physically they should do so from their homes, here is a narration to show that:

عن حَنان بن سَدير ، عن أبيه ـ في حديث طويل ـ «قال : قال أبو عبدالله عليه السلام : يا سَدِيرُ وما عليك أن تزور قبر الحسين عليه السلام في كلِّ جُمُعة خمسَ مرَّات؛ وفي كلِّ يوم مَرَّةً؟ قلت : جُعِلتُ فِداك إنَّ بيننا وبينه فراسخ كثيرة ، فقال : تصعد فوق سطحك ، ثمّ تلتفتُ يُمنةً ويُسرة ، ثمّ ترفع رأسك إلى السّماء ، ثمَّ تتحوَّل نحو قبر الحسين ، ثمَّ تقول : «السَّلامُ عَلَيكَ يا أبا عَبْدِالله ، السَّلامُ عَلَيكَ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكاتُهُ» ، يكتب لك زَورة ، والزَّورة حَجّة وعُمرة ، قال سَدِيرُ : فربما فعلته في النّهار أكثر مِن عشرين مَرّة» .

Imam Sadiq  said: Ya Sadeer do visit the grave of Hussain  every Friday five times, and once on every other day? He said, May I be sacrificed for you, between our home and it (the grave) is a very far distance. He (the Imam  ) said then go to the roof of your home, then look to the right, and then to the left, then look at the sky, then turn to the grave of Hussain  and say “Asalamu Alayka Ya Abba Abdillah, Asalamu Alayka wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu” – You will be written down as a Zuwar (of Imam Hussain  ), and your Ziyarat is worth a hajj and an umrah. Sadeer said after that I used to do this more than twenty times a day.

Because of the lengthiness of this post I am going to stop here with the narrations on this matter, but note that there are narrations which narrate longer things to recite from the roofs/high places of the home. As was noted earlier the ziyarat of Imam Hussain   is some thing which is incumbent on the believers, men and women, and the Imam  asks us to do it 5 times on Friday and once every single day. Surely the more we get involved in the ziyarat the better, there are many ziyarats to recite for Imam Hussain , the one in the hadeeth above is the shortest, any of them can be read.

Reciting of Ziyarat Ashura every day is a great choice, because it has in it the salutations to Imam Hussain  and to all the shuhada and the sons of the Imam . It also has in it a pledge to Imam Mehdi  and it also has the added blessing of cursing the enemies which is part and parcel of the faith.

It should be recited every day for the purpose of both fulfilling the requirement set by Ahulbayt  to visit Imam Hussain  every day (as noted in the hadeeth above) but also it has the added benefits mentioned above, and on top of that it is the regular practice of our Mar’aja, and there are countless miracles which have been seen through the recitation of Ziyarat Ashura.

Dua Al-qamah (in reality dua safwan) is a dua which is recommended to recite after the recitation of Ziyarat Ashura, and it has with it many blessings.

I think it will suffice to say that daily recitation of a ziyarat to Imam Hussain  will bring one to the peak of faith, and it is equal to visiting Allah on his throne, thus it is imperative that any one who wishes to be a shia regularly recite these ziyarat.

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I have attended formal Islamic education. I have spent some ime studying in Karbala, as well as Najaf and I have done some corispondence studies with various scholars in qum. The howzas where I actually studied at were – howza imam sadiq file:///C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtmlclip11clip_image002.gif and madressa amir al mumineen – which is a very old school in Najaf, fairly close to the shrine. My teachers were good, they were good people, pious and knowledgable scholars. I don’t think anyone would recognize them if I mentioned their names.

we have discussed taqleed between ourselves many times, as you know i am confused and doubtful. it seems that many people choose their marjas based upon less than logical reasons, for example "his fatwas are easy to follow", "he looks cute", "everyone else likes him" and so on.

you do not need to tell us who you do taqleed to, but can you give us your personal reasons for choosing whatever marja you chose, and what advice you would give people in choosing their marja?

A person should chose their marja based on logic and reasoning. They should follow the rulings of an individual who is most qualified to derive them, if they cannot come to a conclusion about who is the most knowledgable amongst the scholars, they should follow all of them in terms of ehtiyat – that is they should follow the strictest rulings from all of them to be safe. Any one who picks a scholar out of convenience or because they are popular is fooling them selves and is trying to cheat Allah.I have chosen to follow the rulings of a scholar who based on my research and the opinion of people I trust, is capable of deriving rulings, and is adil/pious.

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There is nothing much I can say except to parrot the words of Allah (swt)

يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ إِلَّا أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ

They wish to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will not agree except that He will perfect His light, even if the disbelievers hate it.


i think there has been a great failing in our generation - aza has been completely twisted to make it into a political tool. aza is now going on a march or giving out leaflets. our generation is amongst the losers.

how can we undo the mistakes and failings of our parents and our scholars, and ensure aza is continued in our childrens generation? what can those in my age group, who are ready to have children, do to ensure aza is a part of their childrens lives?

The mourning of Imam Hussain  is a divine duty that is incumbent on all the believers. No believer will ever leave the mourning of Aba Abdillah  and it is the duty of every believer to ensure that this mourning continues.

I would strongly suggest that in order to keep the love of Aba Abdillah  strong, you should read and teach all the narrations about his great status and the status of mourning him to the people.
If some one understand s the status of Aba Abdillah  they will never look down upon those that mourn him. Just having a look at how the greatest shia among us mourn Imam Hussain  should be enough for us to understand it is not some thing to take lightly.

The late Marja Shaikh Hassan Seeboway reports that he used to go to Karbala with his uncle (who was also a marjah) and many other Maraj’a in the days of Muharram, and all the Maraj’a used to have their own gathering, great scholars such as Allamah Amini (the author of Al Ghadeer) would be present there, and he would report how, even on the first day of Muharram , the scholars would literary cry for over 1 hour, and by the time they reached the day of Ashura, it was like the day of judgment.

People have to understand that nothing can be compared to the events of Ashura. La yoma ka Yomak, Ya Aba Abdillah  – There is no day like your day, ya Aba Abdillah. This is a narration from Imam Hassan and Imam Ali .

Imam Hussain fought the purest Jihad in the way of Allah, not for money, power, land or position. He stood on the battlefield, covered in arrows, all of his family killed, and he never forgot Allah for one instance.

إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُذْهِبَ عَنكُمُ الرِّجْسَ أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ وَيُطَهِّرَكُمْ تَطْهِيرًا

Allah only wishes to remove all abomination from you, oh people of the house, and to make you pure and spotless.

Here the word rijz (abomination) that Allah says he has removed from ahlulbayt – according to narrations refers to doubt and shirk in Allah.

They never had any doubt or shirk, meaning that they never thought about any thing else ever in their lives except Allah.

Looking at Imam Hussain  imagine a man who is covered with arrows to the extent that they say he looked like a porcupine, covered in his own blood, dying of thirst, and still batteling off enemies, after all his family and friends have been murdered, and he never even for one instance takes his thoughts off of Allah, where as we are selevs cant even keep our thoughts on Allah for even 1 minute, while we live in ease and comfort. When some one understands this and the pure jihad of Imam Hussain  they will never compare it to anything else, and making the children understand this will keep the flame of Imam Hussain  burning in their heart.

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People do not care for salat, and this would be the biggest advice I would give to the youth, take care of your prayer. Allah (swt) says in the quran:

وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ ۖ إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ

Establish the prayer, for surely prayer is what wards off evil and debauchery

So to re-iterate, the youth should learn and follow the rules of the religion correctly – with a major emphasis on salat. That would be my best advice for them. Other than that they should marry early to keep themselves away from sins, and allow them to mature quickly and be able to better focus on the various aspects of religion.

why is there such an emphasis on the actions of our waajibaats, is there really no room for error? what books would you suggest one could buy, which teach the importance and correct method of prayers?

I can only go based off of what the narrations of Ahlulbayt  say and they seem to be clear that there is very little room for error in these things. More over it is a sign of disrespect towards Allah/Ahlulbayt not to take these things seriously. A person can spend 4 years in university studying a subject for several hours a day to earn a living, but can not devote a few hours of their life to learning the rules of their religion properly?

The two books I would suggest would be the risalat of any scholar along with the book greater sins by Sayed Dastaghaib Shirazi – there is an excellent section in there on salat, and the punishments for not taking salat seriously, both are written in simple language so that people of all educational backgrounds and ages can understand.

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Yes I have met some. Several mujtaheads, and a few maraja. My meetings have been fairly short. Largely just giving my greetings and exchanging a few kind words. I have yet the opportunity to sit down and discuss anything in depth with any of the.

if you could choose, which marja would you have a correspondance with, and what would your initial questions/ points be?

It’s a difficult choice; I don’t think I could choose only one, but If it had to be one it would probably be Sayed Seestani, and I think most of my questions would be related to what duties we shia in the west must complete.

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Other mod/Admins recommended me to be one (the bribes probably helped).
To be honest, its just like being a regular member, not much different, except you have the responsibility of attending to issues on the forum where people break rules.
I have never met Ali, may be one day inshaAllah.

dont you hate it when members like me cause trouble file:///C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtmlclip11clip_image004.gif i do *try* to behave myself, but sometimes things just burst out of me. how do you tell who is just an idiot (like me) and who is a troll?

To be honest my Moderating skills arnt that good yet, its hard to tell some times.

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At this point my main goal is to just die – with out having any religious debts to Allah, or monetary/religious debts to people. If I can do that, ie fulfill my wajib duites to Allah and the people I interact with in my life, then I would be more than satisfied.

this is a beautiful goal mash'Allah.

for those who are reading this interview, who are deciding what to do with their lives, what would you suggest is a good area for them to study, which would benefit them, benefit their community and benefit the imam (atf) when he returns, are there any job roles you can think of? i dont think the awaited imam will have much use for someone who majored in history of art for example, but maybe there will be a need for someone who knows how to build bridges.

Its hard to say, I would imagine very useful people would be highly skilled in computers, so id say computer science probably. Every thing is run by computers now, being skilled in cyber warfare id say would be a big plus.

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apart from career and spiritually, how else can we prepare for the zuhoor?

Being physically fit would be a good thing.

And their prophet said to them: Surely Allah has raised Talut to be a king over you. They said: How can he hold kingship over us while we have a greater right to kingship than he, and he has not been granted an abundance of wealth? He said: Surely Allah has chosen him in preference to you, and He has increased him abundantly in knowledge and physique, and Allah grants His kingdom to whom He pleases, and Allah is Amplegiving, Knowing. (2:227)

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There is a narration where imam sadiq has stated that mourning for Imam Hussain is a right that the Imams demand from us. I can not even fulfil the rights of my own body, and that of my family etc, how in the world can I fulfill the rights of the imam file:///C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Tempmsohtmlclip11clip_image002.gif?

all we can do, is try our best yara, and warn those who try to stop us what fate befalls the enemies of azadari.

[SD2]

Looking forward to the next set of questions and answers

I don't want the interview with mufeed to ever end

[Maula Dha Mallang]

question set 3 of 3

brother thank you so much for all your advice and hadiths so far. this is turning out to be a fantastic opportunity to speak to a lot of people at once, who insha'Allah will learn a lot from your words and benefit from it.

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Reciting of Ziyarat Ashura every day is a great choice, because it has in it the salutations to Imam Hussain and to all the shuhada and the sons of the Imam . It also has in it a pledge to Imam Mehdi and it also has the added blessing of cursing the enemies which is part and parcel of the faith.

following on from your previous point about salah, and this quote, is it safe for me to say that salah without aza is pointless, aza without salah is also pointless?

its like i am contracted to work 7.5 hours of work a day, and lets say my over time is double pay (i.e. overtime is worth twice as much as standard pay), i cannot just show up for my overtime hours and expect to be paid doubl - i need to do my contracted hours first before i am eligable for double pay. in the same way i need to ensure i do all my wajibaats - namaz, fasting etc before i can look towards earning blessings from aza and ziarah? i cant just use ziarah as a shortcut for blessings (or can i?)

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It’s a difficult choice; I don’t think I could choose only one, but If it had to be one it would probably be Sayed Seestani, and I think most of my questions would be related to what duties we shia in the west must complete.

the system in the uk (i dont know about the US) is completely broken - the representatives are chocolate teapots. how would you change things so marjas like sistani could rely on their teachings being followed properly by people in far away countries?

here are my final set of questions bro

(3) what are your views on the supernatural, jinns, monsters etc? have you had any supernatural/ paranormal experiences?

(4) what is your guiltiest pleasure?

(5) what do you do, that you think no one else does?

(6) insha'Allah you will be called at the zahoor and raj'ah. if imam mahdi (atf) says to you "badboy you are allowed to fight any zaalim from history, but its a fair fight, swords and shields only, so he will fight back", who would you fight, and how would you win?

(7) if you were a non shia, what would it be to you (as an outsider) which would draw you towards shiaism?

(8) narrate to me a story which demonstrates our maula ali greatness. try and find something that you think i may not know

(9) how can our brothers and sisters in bahrain be successful?

(10) similar to barader jackson, you have 1 minute to rant about any subject you choose.

[SD2]

Can't wait for the answers

[Devotee]

Great questions MDM!

[DoubleAgent4]

One of the most informative threads on shiachat in a long time where we all come together, learn something and put our differences behind!

[Replicant]

Question #6 is amazing!