Al-Hassan

Wsalam It has allegorical meaning and should not be taken literally. This type of language is common in Arabic but can be misunderstood when translated in English, and even the Quran has similar contexts when Allah(سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) describes ‘Isa as Roohon Minho (His soul) and Kalimatoho (His word) in Surat Al-Nisa (171). It should not be understood literally as ‘Isa (عليه السلام) having a physical link to Allah. According to Ahlulbayt, the Rooh (soul) was created by Allah before mankind and Adam and ‘Isa were created from the Rooh. Moreover, the Face of Allah (Wajh Allah) and the Light of Allah (Noorullah) are mentioned numerous times in the Quran and similarly to the Ayah in Surat Al-Nisa describing, ‘Isa it should not be understood literally. According to Hadith, the Ahlulbayt (عليه السلام) refer to themselves as the Face of Allah, meaning they are the sole representatives of His authority and the face of Islam on this earth. And they are the Light of Allah which is their guidance where only through them one can attain salvation.

The Ma’sam can carry the earth with his own finger, let alone split if Allah wills. Anything is possible by the will of Allah but we don’t make a claim that such event indeed occurred until it is confirmed by a report in the classical hadith corpus. Likewise for this story. Where is it mentioned in any of our books? The references that the OP mentioned is dubious. Yes there is because the Masumeen said anyone who fabricates in their name is destined to the hellfire.

As nice as this story may sound, it will remain a fantasy until it is corroborated by an authentic source. Perhaps you can quote where in the classical literature this story is mentioned?

It would be nice to have the old chatroom back. The new version is not as vibrant compared to the old one as I remember it from 5 years ago.

In this situation, assuming one had no previous knowledge that the company was involved in haram activities at the time when initially bought, then any gains that are accumulated from the book value that was initially invested is to be distributed to the poor, then the original amount can be reclaimed. Source: https://www.sistani.org/arabic/qa/02052/ https://www.sistani.org/arabic/qa/0523/ Use your judgement and your best intentions to research the company thoroughly before you are confident to put your money in it. For example, look into the nature of it’s business (eg. do they profit from halal or haram means?), it’s history of transactions and even the directors and CEOs (eg. Trump) if the information can be obtained. Moreover, the majority of companies traded in the international exchanges are categorized into three categories: Category 1: These are companies that are publicly known to earn the majority of their profits from haram transactions. Examples of such companies include banks, wine breweries and those that are involved in the music and film industry. In this case, investing in such companies is haram. Category 2: These are companies that are publicly known to earn all of their profits completely from halal transactions and there is no apparent evidence of them being involved in haram activities, even upon further examination. Examples of such companies are those that invest in commodities (oil, minerals, gold ect), telecommunications, utilities, technology or R&D (eg. health and biotech). In this case, investing in such companies is halal. Category 3: Companies that earn their a partial of their profits from haram transactions, even if the percentage of the haram transactions are small compared to the halal. I believe this is where some scholars differed. According to Sayed Sistani, it is also haram to invest in these companies. For example: - Food retailers that serve non-halal food (eg. Walmart, McDonalds, ect) - Clothing companies that promote haram pictures of women and men in their ads. (majority of clothing brands in the west) - Transportations companies that are known to transport alcohol (eg. Amazon, Uber and cargo companies) - Airlines and hotels that are known to sell alcohol - Mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, bonds and RRSPs since the money invested in all of these funds is allocated to companies that include those involved in haram businesses. Finally, keep in mind that khums is also applicable to annual profits.

As long as the company that you intend to buy shares in are not involved in any haram transactions (eg. gambling, riba, alcohol ect) then it’s halal. As for cryptocurrency, bitcoin and even forex in general, I would advice you to avoid them completely as they are highly speculative and merely based on price fluctuations. And unlike stocks, you are not investing your money on tangible assets that can potentially produce profit, such as commodities, gold, or R&D firms like biotech.

Fixed * وحيث أن فتوى سماحة السيد (دام ظلّه) هي أن أول الشهر في كل منطقة يتبع امكانية رؤية الهلال بالعين المجردة في تلك المنطقة أو حواليها ولا يثبت بالتمكن من رؤيته بالأدوات المقرّبة أو في مناطق أخرى من العالم فإن يوم غدٍ الأحد يكون مكملاً لعدة شهر رمضان المبارك وسيكون يوم الاثنين هو يوم عيد الفطر السعيد. “...sunday is the last day of the month of Ramadan and Monday is the the day of Eid” https://www.sistani.org/arabic/

According to Sayed Sistani, Eid is on Monday May 25th for Iraq and GCC. I live in GCC and did not see it this evening. Source: https://www.sistani.org/arabic/

Wsalam Who are you exactly? This is intended as constructive criticism and not to be misunderstood as any provocative sentiments, but when someone comes and claims to have held an influential position in the community where their intent was to guide the people on behalf of the Prophet and the Ahlulbayt, they are expected to come out clean and be consistent in their approach and reveal their true identity, what they taught, their level of knowledge and credentials ect. Otherwise, it’s all speculation and no one can really address your concerns. You really have to rethink this again carefully. Let’s assume for argument’s sake as you stated that the Safavids did inject unknown practices into Imami beliefs. How does this negate the fact that the foundations of the religion was already established hundreds of years before that based on the works of the great early scholars? Saduq, Tusi, Mufeed, Kulayni, Murtadhah, Qummi, Tabrasi and the early companions of the Imams, who dedicated their entire lives to establish the foundations of the religion that we have today existed long before any “ritualistic set of customs and practices” that we see in the 21st or Ismail Al-Safawi. Don’t misunderstand me, there are defects in every community and I understand your concerns considering that I had my own doubts growing up in relatively small and problematic Shi’a community in the west, but this is not the way to address these issues without looking at certain issues in greater contexts. If you did indeed study Imami Shiaism for eight years as you say, I am skeptical that you have understood or learned deeply enough because any basic study of Imami classical literature cannot lead to such conclusion. The first chapters of Kitab Al Tawheed by Shaykh Al-Saduq are all about Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى). For example: The messenger of Allah Said: “The best of worship is the saying of La ilaha ila Allah” (Kitab Al-Tawhid) And there are many other Hadiths as well yet Imami Shiasm is not God centric?

This was expected considering that almost every street in every city across the world is dead right nie while the oil production rate remained the same as it was before the fall. I just hope it doesn’t remain that way for too long since the consequences in the near future will further ravage the global economy. Oil dependent muslim developing countries including Iran and Iraq will be hit hard as well.

There is no conspiracy or a vague pro-baathist splinter cell that initiated these recent protests as some are erroneously claiming. I lived and worked in Basra for a year and a half (2017-2018) and have witnessed enough corruption and a poor quality of life to confidently say that these protests are expected to be driven by ordinary people. This isn’t the first time a wave of protests like this occurred. In August 2018, similar demonstrations erupted in Basra, where the protesters had similar demands and eventually burned down the Basra governarate building. Iraqis are simply fed up with the failure of the post-2003 fragile government, to meet the basic needs of the people and reconcile the tensions between corrupted feuding political parties in Baghdad, which all led to a deteriorating economy. At the same time, there is also no doubt that external entities (eg. pro-baathists, ISIS ect.) could take advantage of these protests to serve their own agenda, this is expected in any major protest, uprising or revolution. Who remembers the 2011 Bahraini protests, where the peaceful Bahraini protestors called out on the deteriorated quality of live in Bahrain and everyone jumped to accuse them of being Iranians? Similarly, these protestors in Iraq, generally speaking, lack coordination and management from any political/religious entity. Moreover, Iran was quick to jump and accuse these protests as being driven by Israel and US and did not consider that such a hasty judgment could lose them support from Iraqi Shi’as. It’s understandable from Iran’s perspective to be concerned about breaking their ties with Iraq as it does not serve Iranian interests. But in reality, most of these protesters are Shias who go for Ziyarat in Iran and pray next to Iranian visitors in Karbala so it is also not in the interest of most Iraqis for a wall to be built between Iran and Iraq.

The concept of Allah’s Oneness is mentioned in the Qur'an but not all of His Names are mentioned. The rest of His Names along with His Attributes and other details are mentioned in the Hadith. Prophethood is mentioned but only a number of Prophets out of the 124000 are mentioned in the Qur'an and yet you still have to believe in all of them. Likewise for Imamah. Just because the names of the Ma’sumeen are not mentioned explicitly in the Qur'an does not negate their divinely appointed authority. The foundations of Imamah as a concept where only Allah appoints those who represent his Deen on Earth is mentioned throughout the Qur'an (eg. the story of Talut) and this suffices to declare it as a pillar of the religion. As for the name of the Imam, his attributes, the period of time that he will succeed his predecessor and other details are mentioned in the Hadith. MUHSIN KHAN - Say: "Allah knows best how long they stayed. With Him is (the knowledge of) the unseen of the heavens and the Earth. How clearly He sees, and hears (everything)! They have no Wali (Helper, Disposer of affairs, Protector, etc.) other than Him, and He makes none to share in His Decision and His Rule." [al-Kahf: 26] In the end, if you believe in the Mahdi, where both Sunnis and Shias agree on his divinely appointed authority, then you cannot deny Imamah because they are tied together. It is illogical and inconsistent with Allah’s Justice to believe that in the end of times Allah alone will appoint the Mahdi and at the same time allow the tribes of the Arab peninsula, that have been feuding with each other for centuries such as the Aws and the Khazaraj to leave the authority of the Deen in their hands after the departure of the Prophet and decide between themselves who gets to represent the Prophet.

I found this interesting. This is a chronicle that was written by a 7th century Bishop named Sebeos who lived in Byzantine a few decades after the Prophet: “Twelve peoples representing all the tribes of the Jews assembled at the city of Edessa. When they saw that the Persian troops had departed leaving the city in peace, they closed the gates and fortified themselves. They refused entry to troops of the Roman lordship. Thus Heraclius, emperor of the Byzantines, gave the order to besiege it. When the Jews realized that they could not militarily resist him, they promised to make peace. Opening the city gates, they went before him, and Heraclius ordered that they should go and stay in their own place. So they departed, taking the road through the desert to Tachkastan Arabia to the sons of Ishmael. The Jews called the Arabs to their aid and familiarized them with the relationship they had through the books of the Old Testament. Although the Arabs were convinced of their close relationship, they were unable to get a consensus from their multitude, for they were divided from each other by religion. In that period a certain one of them, a man of the sons of Ishmael named Mahmed, became prominent. A sermon about the Way of Truth, supposedly at God’s command, was revealed to them, and Mahmed taught them to recognize the God of Abraham, especially since he was informed and knowledgeable about Mosaic history. Because the command had come from on High, he ordered them all to assemble together and to unite in faith. Abandoning the reverence of vain things, they turned toward the living God, who had appeared to their father–Abraham. Mahmed legislated that they were not to eat carrion, not to drink wine, not to speak falsehoods, and not to commit adultery. He said: “God promised that country to Abraham and to his son after him, for eternity. And what had been promised was fulfilled during that time when God loved Israel. Now, however, you are the sons of Abraham, and God shall fulfill the promise made to Abraham and his son on you. Only love the God of Abraham, and go and take the country which God gave to your father Abraham. No one can successfully resist you in war, since God is with you." What is significant about this narration is that Sebeos never met the Prophet(صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم), the Imams(عليه السلام) or the Sahaba/Tabi’in and did not travel to Arabia. He never embraced Islam nor did he consider what he narrated as part of his beliefs other than writing what he heard for historical purposes. Therefore his testimony is arguably free from bias and most certainly becomes valuable when it correlates with Imami beliefs. Moreover, in the same narrations he states: “He said: “God promised that country to Abraham and to his son after him, for eternity...” This excerpt correlates with this Ayah: “And [mention, O Muhammad], when Abraham was tried by his Lord with commands and he fulfilled them. [ Allah ] said, "Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people." [Abraham] said, "And of my descendants?" [ Allah ] said, "My covenant does not include the wrongdoers."”[al-Baqarah:124] Arguably Sebeos’s testimony has strong parallels with Imami theology. His mention of the country that God promised to Abraham for eternity could reflect the Imami belief on Wilayah where the Earth is inherited by the Ahlul Bayt until the day of resurrection and cannot remain without an Imam at any period of time. Also in Surat an-Nisa... “Or do they envy people for what Allah has given them of His bounty? But we had already given the family of Abraham the Scripture and wisdom and conferred upon them a great kingdom.” [an-Nisa] Allah(سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) gave the family of Ibrahim the scriptures such as Qur'an and Torah. He also gave them knowledge and wisdom. It is established in most Islamic historical sources that the Imams were the most knowledgeable from the people of their time. Lastly, Allah states in this Ayah that he gave the family of Ibrahim “a great kingdom”. If this great kingdom will be held by the sons of Abraham for eternity as Sebeos narrated, could this mean that it is an affirmation of the divinely appointed authority of the 12th Imam? If not, then who from the sons of Abraham today holds authority to this great kingdom?

From the Messenger of Allah (saw), he said: "The Imams after me are twelve. The first one is 'Ali b. Abi Taleb (as) and the last of them is the Qa'im (as). The one who seeks nearness to them is a believer. And the one who rejects them is a disbeliever". [Kamal Aldeen, Hadith 4, Page 248] https://ia801708.us.archive.org/18/items/348783478349/kmal-aldin.pdf

Anas b. Malik*