Don'tMakeAس

Sheikh Azhar Nasser

You can choose to analyze Sayyid Khāminiʼī's statements through this lens if you want, but it's easy to forget that we're only a year removed from Qāsem Soleimānī's assassination and three years removed from the United States' unilateral withdrawal from the Iran deal (which Iran bent over backwards to get across the line). I find it very, very hard to imagine Sayyid Khāminiʼī being able to credibly say these sort of things or cast these sorts of aspersions at the West given where Iran-USA relations were immediately after the JCPOA was negotiated in 2015. It's easy to point fingers abroad and accuse people in the Islamic world of being irrational, but our politicians here are just as culpable of creating this climate of mutual distrust.

This topic has very much been derailed, but in answering OP's question, ^ this needs to be emphasized. Sayyid Khāminiʼī's statement, too, is not a fatwā (though I'm not surprised that the Orientalist reporting on this in Western news sources would elide the difference between a fatwā and a decree specific to the operations of the Iranian government), and his justifications behind it pretty clearly relate to Iran's relations/historical experiences with the states now producing the particular vaccines that he discussed. I have no idea how this ruling could be extrapolated to apply to Sayyid Khāminiʼī's followers in Western countries who are receiving the same vaccines domestically that their non-Muslim neighbours are, and I've yet to see any fatwā from him to this effect. The discussion over the last few pages about biological experimentation and the speed with which vaccine trials have occurred is by and large irrelevant to scholars' statements on vaccines. Iran has already administered 700,000 vaccines and just purchased 60 million more from countries its government is friendly with (and thus doesn't have any reason to fear biological warfare from). https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/iran-to-purchase-60m-russian-vaccines-as-coronavirus-surges-1.5389677

Sheikh Azhar Nasser

Sayed Hossein Al-Qazwini

Syed Jawad Naqvi

Hajj Hassanain Rajabali

Sayed Ammar Nakshawani

These are initiatives organized for the second year in a row by several university-level Shīʿī student organizations in North America — I'll share the links and schedule when they become available.

As a part of our annual tradition here on ShiaChat, we're making this thread to serve as a repository for Ramaḍān-themed lectures given by our Shīʿī scholars during this holy month of Ramaḍān, in the 1442nd year after hijra (or 2021 on the Gregorian calendar). However, we believe that due to the circumstances of this month (as was also the case last Ramaḍān) — with many of us ostensibly not going to the mosque as a result of COVID-19 — that this thread is all the more important. Please do contribute both the recorded lectures and the live Zoom links (or livestreams from any other platform, for that matter) that your various social media networks bring to you. Share lectures of whatever language you understand, but please do strive to keep them limited to the Ramadan and pre-Ramadan lectures of this year. For previous years, feel free to browse through the links below and get back into the Ramadan mood!

https://www.imams.us/predicting-the-crescent-moon-of-the-month-of-ramadan-1442-a-h/ Not sure if there's been an update since.

As a part of our annual tradition here on ShiaChat, we're making this thread to serve as a repository for Muharram lectures given by our Shīʿī scholars during this holy month of Muharram, in the 1442nd year after hijra (or 2020 on the Gregorian calendar). However, we believe that due to the unique circumstances of this year — with all of us ostensibly not going to the mosque as much as a result of COVID-19 — that this thread is all the more important. Please do contribute both the recorded lectures and the live Zoom links (or livestreams from any other platform, for that matter) that your various social media networks bring to you. Past Years:

I've also ordered books from the Shrine as recently as a few months ago, and a few friends received their orders at the start of this year.