Islamic Question & Answer

Question 31 : What Is the Criterion For 'taqiyya' (precautionary Concealment)?

ANSWER:

'Taqiyya' is the concealment of the inner belief of ones faith and convictions before the opposers for the purpose of preventing the worldly, spiritual and religious losses, and it is one of the legal duties of every Muslim, having its roots from the Holy Quran.

Taqiyya from the Quranic point of view. The holy Quran had many verses in this regard that we shall mention a few of them:

Question 32 : In the Islamic Republic constitution of the Islamic state, why do you the Shias consider the Jaffari sect as the country's official sect?

ANSWER:

There is no doubt to the fact that all the Islamic sects, from the Islamic Republic's point of view, are greatly respected, however, the Islamic Jurisprudential sects (such as the Jafari, Maliki, Shafe-e, Hanbali, hanafi and ) don't share the same thoughts and have many differences amongst them when going on further to expound the peoples individual and social duties.

On the other hand, for the purpose of compiling the civil laws and the organization of regulations in the society, there is an extreme need for the harmony and concordness of the mentioned regulations.

Thus one can only consider a single Islamic sect for the organizing of the social regulations in a special area due to the fact that in the case of variety of sources of legislation, one can never compile a set of harmonious and concord rules and regulations.

Therefore, it is suitable to determine only one of the Islamic Jurisprudential sect that has an accurate criterion, as the source of the social rules and regulations, in order to prevent any chaos and discord in the country's laws; thus making the way smooth for the compilation of a chain of harmonious and concord regulations in the civil, social and economic grounds.

The criterion for choosing the Jaffari Sect:

Yet another question is raised here and that is what is the criterion for choosing the Jaffari sect among all the Islamic jurisprudential sects as the source for regulating the country's rules and regulations?

The answer to this question is quite clear and that is because of the fact that approximately all the People in Iran are Muslims who declare the Jaffari sect as their belief and the expounder of their social and individual and moral duties. Thus, it becomes clear that choosing the Jaffari sect in the Islamic constitution is but natural and in perfect accordance with all the logical as well as legal criterions.

Respect and Position Of The Other Islamic Sects:

In the constitution of the Islamic republic, the Jaffari sect is declared as the official sect, whereas the other sects that include Shafe-e, hanbali, hanafi, Maliki and Zaidi are also respected, and the followers of these sects are free to follow their principles according to their respective sects in the following fields:

Performing religious ceremonies

Practicing their own Religious teachings and Education.

Performing their personal works.

Special religious regulations such as in: marriage, divorce, inheritance, wills etc.