AbdusSibtayn

Wassalam, I made a thread regarding this some years ago, and to be honest, I am still not very clear about their definitions, or how they differ from each other. What I am led to believe is that apart from the seegha (the formula for reciting them) and the kaffarah (the penalty for not fulfilling them intentionally), there is no significant difference.

Well, if you considered him your equal (kufw) from both shar'i and urfi (customary) perspectives, then that's a different matter and the marriage is valid. As for the advice, there's not much particularly to offer, Islamically or otherwise. It is you who need to decide if you want to stay married to him or to separate. It's a question of what you wish to prioritize, the life you wish to lead versus the one that you have now. Unfortunately, we cannot make that choice for you. That's a call you need to take yourself. ...إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا۟ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ ۗۗۗۗ... "Indeed Allah doesn't change what (situation) it is with a people, unless they change what it is with themselves" (13:11)

Was it a vow (nadhr), covenant ('ahd) or oath (qasm)? The kaffarah for breaking these is different in each case- https://www.sistani.org/english/book/48/8232/ https://www.sistani.org/english/book/48/8233/ See what applies to your situation. But if it was an oath, then Ruling 2691. If a person does not fulfil his oath owing to forgetfulness, necessity, or negligence, it is not obligatory for him to give kaffārah. So I don't think you have to pay the kaffarah if you were negligent about observing the proper sleep schedule. I'd just pray that prayer another night and dedicate the thawaab to Sayyidah (sa). Lesson learnt: Swearing an oath to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) is no light matter. If you don't fulfill it it's a sin. Don't take it casually- Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) has, let you off lightly this time. Consider it a warning and make commitments only when you are able to keep them. These things are not meant to enforce discipline, these are not life hacks. These are very serious things.

Update: I now speak Klingon at home and Esperanto outside. People don't understand me anyways. Why not, therefore, speak to them in some language they don't understand?

The marriage is not a valid one- it's null and void. The wali (male guardian- father) 's permission is compulsory for it to be valid.

Wa alaikis salam, I am really at a loss of words. I don't really have any advice other than being patient until the first opportunity you get to get out of the house. You can not really do much apart from this. This is a perfect illustration of how every child deserves parents, but not all parents deserve children. Fi Amanillah.

،نازد به خودش خدا که حیدر دارد ، دریای فضائلی مطهر دارد !همتای علی نخواهد آمد، والله !صد بار اگر کعبه ترک بردارد (Translation: Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) prides Himself that He has a Lion/Haydar (عليه السلام), That He has a virtuous, immaculate river, An equal to Ali there shall never be, by Allah! A hundred times though the ka'abah may split asunder...)

'Grooming gangs'

Accurate.

Wa alaikis salam, Tabarakillah, congratulations and may the child be blessed. You can name her 'Wajeeha' (وجیہہ in Urdu, meaning esteemed, or beautiful, it is one of the names of Fatima SA). Or Waaliha (والہہ in Urdu, meaning affectionate, loving). You can also use combinations like Wajeeha Batool or Waaliha Batool. Fi Amanillah.

Then the lay Shi'a have to be more vocal about opposing these people and declaring dissociation from them. But again, as we see in the online neo-Shia culture, they have made opposing anything and everything 'Sunni' their entire entire religious personalities, even if it means idolizing figures like Habib and Qurayshi (the latter is a clear mushrik and apostate, considering if he was ever a muwahhid in the first place).

And they actually believe that this is from the teachings of the Imams (ams), is a part of the religion and promotes Shiism. While the reality is that this behaviour is more rooted in the Western culture of blasphemy and the 'freedom to offend' where they make obsecene sexual jokes on religious figures just to trigger certain segments and get a kick out of it.

In other words, congratulations on becoming the useful idiots for the Zios. Their country is now a joint Turkish-American-Israeli colony and the Zios have control over all their critical communications and water resources (just like Jordan). They 'have them by the (EDITED OUT)', as they say in American slang. Let's see how long their Zio American Liege Lords humour their Umayyad Caliphate 2.0.

I do understand, and it is also true that these people are a miniscule minority. The response of the majority was either stoic indifference or outright hostility- that's exactly when they sped up the Wahhabization campaign to contain Iranian/Shi'a influence. It did though- one of the reasons why the Sunni Arabs discreetly funded and armed Saddam (alongside the Americans) was because they were afraid of a new Shi'a power right next door. This was before Saddam turned on his benefactors in the Gulf War.

I wasn't talking about any documents dadash, I am talking about the revolution of '79 as a movement. He congratulated the Ikhwanis in Egypt after they took out Sadat when he signed the Camp David agreement. I'm not saying they copied everything from him, just inspiration, and I don't even think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Exceptions prove the rule. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an outlier group which doesn't have many admirers even among the Sunnis. The Islamic Revolution also invoked a second, very opposite reaction from the Sunni clerics. There was a flood of polemical anti-Shia works from the Deobandi and Ikhwani leaders (ironically, Sayyid Khumayni and Khamenei were both inspired by Sayyid Qutb and basically his political disciples), the wave of Wahhabization funded by petro-dollars, and eventually the Iran Iraq War to crush the new Shiite government. Let's not forget that too.

Only in one situation do I oppose couples having children- when they have unresolved problems between themselves. Bringing a third family member ie the child into the picture will make matters worse. The parents will be quarreling all the time, or they will eventually separate, and the child will be left with a broken family, alone to suffer abuse or neglect. That's why, they must resolve their own problems, if any, before having children.

Even the children of the best of the best creations of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى), the prophets and the imams (ams) went astray. They are basically independent beings with free will who will grow up and choose their actions irrespective of how their parents bring them up. One cannot use this as an excuse for not having children.

No, none of that is obligatory. You have to get the fundamentals in order first. Correct fiqh and aqeedah is the baseline. From here on, you can become as spiritual as you want- the sky is the limit. And no, you don't need to leave material comforts of the world to be a good Muslim either. Islam repudiates monasticism and such false notions of piety. But if you are addicted to those comforts to the point that you can't do without them, stop caring about your religious obligations and distinguishing haram and halal, become arrogant, or greedy or develop other loathsome traits, that's when things go wrong. Don't fret about this too much. All the 'signs' that you are looking for are already there in the Quraan and the ahadith of the infallibles (ams). As long as you are putting in your utmost efforts, the rest can be left to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى). One very good way of finding out if you are genuinely being guided by Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) or being misled by the Shaytaan is to see if being more pious or knowledgeable is making you smug, conceited and proud. As you increase in worship and knowledge, do you look down upon people who are at a lesser level than yours? Do you feel entitled and think that you can never be wrong about something? Do you feel smug and complacent and think you are beyond reproach and don't need to improve further? Do you show off your knowledge and piety? Do you feel superior to those who you think don't know or do as much as you? Then you are very likely being misguided by the Shaytaan. Kibr (arrogance) is a cardinal sin, and if at any time you find its faintest trace within you, it's time to pause and introspect. A tree laden with fruits always bows lower. The supplejack survives storms which fell big trees.

Irrespective of how divided they might be internally based on whichever parameter (sect, ethnicity, level of religious practice, nationality etc), no Sunni is ever going to accept a Shi'a power in leadership/command position of the Muslim world. Some Shi'a-led worldwide pan-Islamic revivalist project, with the sincere cooperation of Sunnis, is a pipe dream which the Shi'a need to get over. It's never going to materialize. The first thing that they are going to do as soon as they even smell power is to turn on the Shi'a, just like they did in Egypt under Morsi and are currently doing in Pakistan. Our battle on all fronts is solely our own, and a thankless one at that. I am saying this because I am being realistic. We have never shied away from supporting the broader Muslim causes, from Bosnia to Burma but look what we got in return. Does that mean we stop opposing oppression? No. In the end we are answerable to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) and commanded to do as His book and His Messenger (S) say. But we must also acknowledge the reality.

I agree that there is no alliance with reciprocity in geopolitics, but it is really hard to play nice when they take over or support the takeover of our lands (South Lebanon, Bahrain,Eastern Saudi occupied Arabia), torture us in military prisons (Iraq, Afghanistan) and use starvation techniques to make us docile (Iran). We have more reasons to hate them than to like them.

No, by taking the help of those who don't want to kill us against those who want to kill us. If it means moderate Sunnis (against the zios, West and ISIS/al-Qaeda), so be it. If it means the West (against ISIS/al-Qaeda) , so be it. If it means the Russians (against West, zios and isis/al-Qaeda) , so be it. Politics is not holy matrimony. And by adopting a 'trust but verify' policy for our allies.

No it is not obligatory and not even mustahhab. There's no scriptural proof for that. Stick to the Qur'an and the ahadith of the Ahl al-Bayt (ams) - what exactly do you find lacking in them that you have to run helter skelter to seek spiritual growth and fulfilment? You need duas? There's more than you can handle in our dua books- Misbah al-Mutahajjid, Mafatih al-Jinan etc. You want other mustahhab acts of worship, like namaz, fasts and other aamaal? There's truckloads of that too. You want theology? Fiqh? Tafsir? Hadith? People in the hawzas have greyed their hair and beards studying these topics and are still researching them. What additional value exactly is this 'irfan' thing supposed to add to your religious understanding and practice? You won't become an 'arif', whatever that's supposed to mean, by reading and hair splitting over thick tomes of some obscure metaphysical mumbo jumbo or some crazy rituals. You'll become a true arif through zuhd (self-denial and control), taqwa (Godwariness) and tafaqquh (deep understanding of the religion). Ma'arifah of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) is about action and sincerity, not putting up a show. Everything else is either superfluous or even misleading. Many youngsters, even some hawzawi wannabes fall into this trap. A similar young enthusiast had once asked Shaykh Bahjat (rh) to recommend him some good 'manual' on 'irfan', the Shaykh replied, "Go read the Tawdih al-Masa'il; understand it and implement it in your life" (I've heard this from his direct student). Someone who claims that it is wajib must bring his proof from the Book of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) or the traditions of His deputies (ams) ; we don't recognize anything else. Let him convince us. Abu Jaffar (peace be upon him) told me: ‘Oh Abu Hamza, whoever knows Allah will worship Allah. As for those who do not know Allah, they will worship other than Allah and as such become astray.’ So I said: ‘And what is ‘Irfan’ (knowledge) of Allah?’ (In the Arabic text: “What is the ‘Irfan’ of Allah?”) He replied: ‘To believe in Allah Almighty and to believe in His Messenger, Mohammed (peace be upon him and his pure family) and in the Divine Authority of Ali and the Imamate of Ali, taking Ali as his Imam and accepting the Imams of Guidance after him, as well as declaring dissociation to Allah from their enemies. That is the ‘Irfan’ (knowledge) of Allah’. “ I said: ‘What matters shall I do, if I have done them, I will attain the Truth behind Belief?’ He said: ‘Declare befriendship to the Vice-regents of Allah and declare enmity to the enemies of Allah, and as such, you will be with the Truthful Ones as Allah has ordered you to do.’ I said: ‘Who are the Viceregents of Allah? And who are His enemies?’ He said: ‘Mohammed, the Messenger of Allah, Ali, Hassan, Hussain, Ali, son of Hussain, then it came down to me.’ Then he pointed with his blessed forefinger to his son Jaffar and said: ‘Whoever takes them and recognizes their Divine Authority, has befriended Allah and become with the Truthful Ones as Allah commands.’ I said: ‘And who are the enemies of Allah?’ The Imam replied: ‘The Four Idols’. I said: ‘And who are they?’ The Imam said: ‘Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman, Muawyah and whoever followed the creed, rules and notions of the Islam they created. Whoever makes himself an enemy of those four idols, has become an enemy of Allah’s enemies. Tafseer al Ayashi, volume 2, page 116.

The Soviets also tried to harm us, by supporting the Druze and Sunni militias against the Shi'a in the Lebanese civil war, and then by trying to overthrow the Shi'a government in Iran through their Tudeh party proxies. I am not saying they were as bad as the Americans but they were not even fair weather allies. The belief that the West would leave the Shi'a alone in a dog eat dog world is wishful thinking. Unless we let them plunder our resources and enslave us, they won't let us live. We are sitting across the oil wells in Iraq, Bahrain and Syria, across the mineral reserves in Iran, across strategic lands in Lebanon, and they want us gone. We are not fighting someone else's war, it's a war for self preservation in which we have no friends. Sunni revivalists are the West's musclemen- they fight us for the Western imperialists and when they as much as scratch a paint on their cars they worship their feet to apologize. If someone thinks that we are going to get away by spitting on the Sunnis and licking the West's feet, well, I don't know how to remark on his intelligence in civilized language. There are no extra marks for good behaviour here.