Questions On Titles

Ayatollah Al Uzma (the Great Sign of Allah)

Does this not remind you of Me'raj?

َ the greatest signs of his Lord.

[Shakir 53:17-18] The eye did not turn aside, nor did it exceed the limit. Certainly he saw of Somehow it does not compute in my brain that when the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) arrived at his (s.a.w.) destination in Me'raj, there was one of these people who go around calling themselves the 'great sign of Allah', sitting there waiting for him. And in Ziyarat, the Holy Imam (a.s.) is referred to as the great sign of Allah (s.w.t.). BIHAR UL ANWAAR VOL. 97 H 5

Peace be upon you o Doyen of the Martyrs, Peace be upon you of Great Sign of Allah (s.w.t.).

BIHAR UL ANWAAR VOL. 54 H 26

Imam Ali (a.s.) said: If I make the intention to see the wonders of the earth and the seven heavens in the twinkling of an eye, then I can do so for I have the Great Name and I am the Great Sign and the magnificent Miracle.

QUESTIONS

What happens when one of these 'great sign of Allah' declares the playing of Chess to be permissible when it has been clearly forbidden? When two of these 'great sign of Allah' oppose each other, does it mean that they are both signs of different Allahs? But there is only one Allah (s.w.t.).

Faqih (Man Of Understanding)

You are probably surprised at the heading where you expected a Faqih to be described as one who is a Jurist. This is the common understanding of most people that a Faqih is a person who is an expert in the principles of jurisprudence (Usool E Fiqh). But the Holy Infallibles (a.s.) have described a Faqih as a person who understands their position.

For example when Imam Husayn (a.s.) wrote a letter to Habib Ibn Mazahir to invite him for help he addressed it as 'From Abu Abdillah Al Husayn to a man of understanding (Rajool Un Faqih) Habib Ibn Mazahir'.

Can someone now tell me as to which Usool E Fiqh did Habib Ibn Mazahir study or whether he used to issue any verdicts (Fatwas)? When you study the whole of Imam Husayn (a.s.)'s letter you will realize the connotation of the epitaph 'Man of Understanding' that he (a.s.) used for Habib Ibn Mazahir (a.r.).

He (a.s.) says in his letter 'O Habib! You are aware of our station and position, therefore come to our help'. It is now established that according to Imam Husayn (a.s.) the 'Faqih' is one who understands the position and the station of the Imam (a.s.). This word has no relationship with the branches (Furoo) of religion.

This is the reason why the Holy Imams (a.s.) never recognized these so called Faqihs as Faqihs.

Wasaail Us Shia Vol 11 H 27; Bihar Ul Anwaar Vol. 82 H 2; Rijal Kashi Vol 3.

Imam Sadiq (a.s.) said: Understand the status of our Shias according to the good reports from us for we do not recognise the Faqih from among them to be a Faqih unless he becomes a Muhaddith (Narrator of traditions) What! Our heroes spend their entire lives learning Fiqh, then how come the Holy Imams (a.s.) refuses to recognise them as such? Is it because they base their Ijtihad on the Usool E Fiqh taken from the enemies of the Holy Ahl Ul Bayt (a.s.)? Think again about what I have just said!

Al KAFI - H 206, Ch. 22, h8 (EXTRACT)

It is reported that: A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn uhammad ibn Khalid from 'Isma'il ibn Mihran from abu Sa'id al-Qammat and Salih ibn Sa'id from Aban ibn Taghlib who has said the following: "Once a man asked a question from Imam abu Ja'far, recipient of divine supreme covenant, who replied to it, and then the man said, 'The Fuqaha do not say this.' "The Imam then said, 'It is a pity. Have you ever seen a Faqih? Look at the question here. Have you ever seen a Faqih? So what were those guys who used to walk around with turbans on their head posing as Faqihs? Maybe it is because of this Hadeeth. AL KAFI - H 167, Ch. 19, h11

Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from al-Washsha' from Muthanna al-Hannat from abu Basir who has said the following:"Once I asked (Imam) abu 'Abd Allah, recipient of divine supreme covenant, saying, 'We may face an issue about which there is nothing said in the book of Allah or in the Sunnah, tradition of the Holy Prophet, recipient of divine supreme covenant, can we use our own opinion in such matters?' The Imam replied, 'No, you must not do that. If you, in this way, find the truth you will receive no rewards for it, and if you missed the truth you have forged lies against Allah, the Majestic, the Glorious.'"

So it does not matter whether he gets it right, as there is no reward for him for that. And if he gets it wrong? Imagine spending you entire life in a Madrassah in a far away land, publishing your own book of emulation for people to follow, answering thousand of questions posed by them, and then find out there is no reward waiting for you on the Day of Judgment for all your right answers. For all your wrong answers you will be classified as a forger of lies and be deserving of Hell. What a waste of life that would be.

The forger of lies against Allah (s.w.t.) will end up in Hell as he is the most unjust.

[Shakir 6:144] Who, then, is more unjust than he who forges a lie against Allah that he should lead astray men without knowledge? Surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. Not only that, they have been regarded as evil people by the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.). 23

AL KAFI - VOL 8 H 479

Ali Bin Ibrahim heard from his father from Nawfil from Sakuni from Abu Abdillah (a.s.) who said: 'The Commander of the Faithful (a.s.) said that the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) said: "A time will come upon the people when the Quran will only remain as a custom and Islam will only remain in name and the mosques will be full of people but they will be bereft of guidance and the Fuqaha of that period will be the most evil Fuqaha under the shadow of the sky; evil will emanate from them and return towards them"'.

After this Hadeeth if I were to write any more on this topic then I would probably end up getting killed.

Anyhow, let me tell you about a funny argument which I received from someone about this. He claimed that the Fuqaha referred to here are the ones from the Sunnis, and not from among the Shiites. Honestly, every time I remember this, it brings a smile to my face.

The reason being, that the Sunnis do not have any Fuqaha. In their entire history they only ever had four of them who all died over a thousand years ago. The entire Sunni population are the Muqallideen (emulators) of these four - Imam Shafei, Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik and Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal.

QUESTIONS

If the Fuqaha are not being recognized by the Holy Imams (a.s.) as Fuqaha then why are we recognising them as such?

If the only Fuqaha being recognised by the Holy Imams (a.s.) are the Muhaddith, the narrators of Hadeeth, then how come we are unaware of any of them these days? If the Fuqaha of the end times are the most evil people then what does that make their followers?