Saudi-US Aggression Commits Fresh Massacre in Saada, Kills 50

/in /by

The Saudi-US aggression continued its aerial attacks on Yemen on Tuesday, launching brutal air strikes in several provinces of the country which left score of innocent people killed.

The Saudi-led coalition fighter jets launched six air raids in the morning over the region of Maran in Hidan province.

Moreover, the Saudi-US war planes killed Tuesday night around 50 Yemenis by launching a number of air strikes over Al-Mahwit, Saada, Hajja and Thamar provinces, most of them women and children.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 174 days now to restore power to fugitive president Abed-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 5,862 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

/149

32 Nations Slam Bahrain’s Human Rights Record

/in /by

In a letter read out to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, the 32 governments said, “…the human rights situation in Bahrain remains an issue of serious concern” to them.

The letter, which was read out by Swiss Ambassador to the UN Alexandre Fasel, regretted the fact that the Bahraini government had failed to provide enough guarantees for a fair trial of prisoners, while it slammed the detention of minors who took part in demonstrations.

“We are concerned there is insufficient accountability for human rights violations,” said the letter, which was also signed by the United States, a close ally of Manama.

Bahrain has been gripped by an uprising since 2011 when people began to take to the streets to demand more freedom and more of a say in the closed ruling system. The demonstrators later demanded the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa regime. Nearly a hundred have died in protests or under custody while hundreds more are also behind bars for taking part in peaceful demonstrations. 

The Monday letter criticized the government for its intolerance of people’s peaceful rallies, saying such gatherings should not be met with harassment.

“We are concerned about reports of harassment and imprisonment of persons exercising their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and of peaceful assembly and association, including human rights defenders,” the letter said, urging the government “to appropriately address all reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees and ensure full investigation and prosecution of these cases.”

The statement also called on Manama to agree to a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for a probe into repeated cases of mistreatment in the regime’s prisons. The UN investigator was denied one such visit in 2013.

Bahraini officials reacted to the letter, saying the smaller number of signatories compared to last year’s 47 proves a recognition of the kingdom’s efforts in improving the human rights situation.

Rights advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Watch, slammed some governments, including Italy and Spain, for their lack of support to the statement, saying they “put politics before rights.”

/149

American Family Gifts Rare Quran Manuscripts to Iran’s Astan Quds Museum

/in /by

Hojat-ol-Islam Mohammad Hassan Nourinia, an official with the Astan, said the manuscripts date back to the 11th, 12th, and 13th Hijri centuries (17th, 18th and 19th centuries A.D.).

He said they are also precious in terms of their artistic value.

The Muslim family from New York has also gifted a manuscript copy of the Sahifeh Sajjadiyeh to the museum.

Calligraphed by an artist named Hassan Ali bin Abbas Qoli Sultan in the year 1232 Hijri, the copy is embellished with gold and colors.

With some 20,000 Quran manuscripts and Quranic works, as well as 95000 rare Islamic books, the museum of Astan Quds Razavi is the greatest treasury of rare written works in the Muslim world.

Astan Quds Razavi and its subsidiary cultural institutes comprise 38 libraries with an overall collection of 2.5 million books, including manuscripts and lithograph-printed books.

/149

What is the philosophy behind “Wudu” inn Islam?

/in , /by

oblutionPerforming “Wozu” or minor ablution has been recommended in Islam and in some cases it is obligatory.

If we want to do something like performing prayer or touching the scripture of the holy Quran or the name of Allah or the names of the infallibles i.e. the holy Prophet of Allah, 12 Imams and Lady Fatimah peace be upon them all, it is obligatory to perform Wodu before that. But in general, performing wudu is recommended.

It might be somehow hard for some people to perform Wodu especially at the time of winter but let’s see what is the philosophy of Wodu?

The philosophies of Wudo can be discussed from two aspects, the first aspect, is its sanitary aspect and the second is its spiritual aspect.

Some of the benefits of having Wodu are mentioned in the Narrations, like:

1) It is a cause for prolonging the lifetime.

The holy Prophet of Islam said: “O’ Anas( the name of one of his companions) be on the purity -having Wudu-, (if you are so) Allah will prolong your lifetime, and have Wodu in day and night and if you die on this state, you will have the reward of the martyr.”

2) It is a cause for fulfilling our needs and wishes.

Imam Sadiq peace be upon him said:

“I wonder at a person that is seeking his/her need while he/she has Wodu, if his/her need does not get fulfilled.”

3) If someone sleeps at night while having Wodu, as the holy Prophet said, the bed of that person is like his/her mosque and his/her sleep is like performing prayer till the morning.

4) It is a cause for enhancing the livelihood.

Imam Sadiq peace be upon him said:

“The one who wants the livelihood of his house to be more, he/she must have Wodu while eating the meal.”

5) It is a cause for the destruction of sadness and sorrow.

6) It quenches the anger. The holy Prophet of Islam said:

“If one of you gets angry, he/she should (is beneficial for him/her to) perform Wodu.”

Imam Reza peace be upon him said:

“The servant(of Allah) is ordered to perform Wodu in order to be pure while standing before the Lord and chanting Him and to be obedient to Him and to be away from the impurity and filth, and by Wodu the state of phlegm and snooze is removed and the heart becomes pure for standing before Allah.”

From the scientific perspective, Wodu and Ghusl (as we have mentioned it in the discussion regarding Gusl) make the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system (which are two important systems in the body) have balance, because the lack of this balance, makes the other systems of the body to be out of balance and Wodu and Gusl are two ways that can make this balance to return.

And there are some recommended acts before wodu like entering the water in the mouth and circulating it and lifting the water into the nose and making that come out.

These preliminary acts have some benefits, like: making the blood to circulate into the mouth and heart and at the end to the brain or preventing inside the nose from being dry or making the air that comes into the lungs, cold and other benefits.

 

What is the philosophy behind the importance of “expectation” for the reappearance of Imam Mahdi?

/in , /by

expectationOne of the beliefs of Muslims and let’s say the followers of the divine religions is the matter of a savior that in a day he will come and fill the world full of justice, and especially in the Shia school of thought we see this matter very obvious.

There is a difference between what we as Shia believe and what some Sunni brothers believe, and that is in the matter of a savior that is alive right now, they say that he will be born in a day and will fill the world full of justice, but we believe he is alive now and he is the immediate son of our eleven Imam, i.e. Imam Hasan Askari peace be upon them both.

The matter of expecting and waiting for the twelfth Imam is so important to the extent that is it considered as one of the most precious acts in Islam.

There is a Narration, narrated from our Infallibles that shows the value of expecting the reappearance of Imam Mahdi; it says:

The one, who dies at the state of the expectation of the reappearance of the twelfth Imam, is like the one who is beside twelfth Imam in his tent.

When we say that expecting is very precious, we mean that it is not just sitting and waiting for the twelfth Imam to come, but rather it means to make ourselves and our society as much as we can ready and prepared for that worldly just government.

Expectation for the reappearance of the twelfth Imam means that you expect a worldly government which is based on divinity and monotheism, expectation for a government of the righteous people, and the fulfillment and realization of the appointment that Allah has made in the holy Quran in chapter Anbiya verse 105:

وَلَقَدْ كَتَبْنَا فِي الزَّبُورِ مِن بَعْدِ الذِّكْرِ أَنَّ الْأَرْضَ يَرِثُهَا عِبَادِيَ الصَّالِحُونَ

“We have written in the psalms, after the remembrance: ‘the righteous among my worshipers shall inherit the earth’ “.

We expect a government in which the monotheism is spread around the world and one rule, one just government, a government which its leader is an infallible Imam, and a government that realizes the meaning of overcoming the righteousness on falsehood and justice on cruelty.

Some people might criticize us and say that it is possible that the twelfth Imam will not reappear in our age and it is possible that he will reappear after hundreds of years, so what is the benefit of such an expectation?

We answer them that expectation of the twelfth Imam in its real meaning (which means to make ourselves and the society as much as possible prepared for that government) has a lot of benefits even though the Imam does not reappear. Let’s mention some of the benefits of that:

1) It makes the individuals and the society dynamic and full of hope, because the one that knows that all of these committed cruelties will end in a day, he/she can struggle with cruelty better and can tolerate it easier.

2) It helps us to be away from the corruption of the societies, because the real waiter of the twelfth Imam wants and tries to be ready for that very important event and to be as an appropriate soldier through not committing the sins and being spiritually pure.

3) It helps us to struggle with cruelty and not accepting that. A real waiter never submits before the cruel government.

It is interesting that the enemies of Islam have realized this important point. They mentioned it in a conference in Israel that the factor of the mobility and dynamism of Shia is because of two things, one is believing in the red uprising which means the tragic event of Karbala in which Imam Hussein and his faithful companions got martyred and this event is very meaningful and informative for the Shia, and the second factor is the green expectation which means the expectation for the reappearance of the twelfth Imam.

An interesting and hope-giving point here is that according to Shia beliefs, some of the real followers and waiters of the twelfth Imam will be resurrected at the time of the reappearance of the Imam, this belief is called Raj’at( which literally means returning).

————————–

Source:

Maaref.porsemani.ir

What is the philosophy behind prostration on a piece of soil in the prayer?

/in , /by

prostrateIn prayer we must perform “Sajdah” or prostration, but the question is on which we are allowed to prostrate. There is a difference between Shia and Sunni.

At first we must say that Sajdah on the soil is something which is accepted by all groups of Muslims and the priority of the soil is understood through the Narrations that are narrated form the holy Prophet of Islam.

In addition to that, it is obvious that prostration on “soil” shows the very deep humility before our Lord.

It must be said that in Shia rules, we do not believe that it is obligatory to prostrate only on the soil, and we believe that we can perform Sajdah on some other things like stone.

One of the things which is a cause for blaming shia is this very matter of Sajdah on the soil, and we want to talk about it in detail.

We say: at first it must be enlightened that we do not worship a piece of soil that is used for Sajdah (which it is called in Arabic as Torbah, or Mohr in Persian).

You have might heard that the extreme group of Wahabis accuse Shia of being Moshrek(meaning: the one who worships anything besides Allah) and they call this piece of soil as an idol and they say Shia must be killed because of some faults like this idol, but we answer that:

We do not worship this piece of soil, and it is nothing special but just a piece of clean soil that is formed in this shape to be easy to be carried, and we believe that Sajdah on some other materials like stone is correct.

It is recommended to perform Sajdah on the soil which is made out of the soil of the land of Karbala (the city in Iraq in which Imam Hussein peace be upon him and his faithful companions got martyrs in the very tragic way) but we do not say it is obligatory to perform Sajdah on this specific soil.

We have been advised and recommended by our infallible Imams to perform Sajdah on this soil.

Imam Sadiq peace be upon him said:

“Performing Sajdah on the soil of Imam Hussein removes the seven (spiritual) veils (obstacles).”

There are some benefits for this specific soil i.e. the soil of the land of Karbala, like:

-It is a way that reminds us that we are the followers and lovers of Imam Hussein.

Also it is a way by which we remember the truth and righteousness of all infallibles as the real successors of the holy Prophet of Islam. So it is as a kind of flag for us.

-We ask Allah to accept our prayer because of this specific soil; it means that we bring Imam Hussein which was a very pure and sincere servant of Allah, as an intercessor.

-By using this kind of soil, we remember the calamities and tragedies of the event of Imam Husain and the sincerity and purity and submission of Imam Hussein before Allah.

You know there are different ways for keeping the remembrance of Imam Hessian and his tragic event alive, like holding the Husseini ceremonies in which we remember the goals of Imam Hussein’s revolution and we commemorate and lament for him, so using this blessing soil of Karbala in prayer, is another kind of that.

-Through using this kind of soil we ask Allah to help us to be on the right and straight path which is the way which is shown to us by the infallibles.

 

How to Repent to Allah?

/in /by

the-prayer“And most surely I am most Forgiving to him who repents and believes and does good, then continues to follow the right direction.”  (Qur’an; 20:82)

The Messenger of Allah (swt) also says: “A repentant person is like one who has no sin.”

Once a man came to Imam Ali (as) to repent and when the Imam realized that the man was ignorant of the importance of repentance, he said to him, “Do you know the meaning of repentance? It has an exalted position. It has six conditions for its acceptance and the last two are the conditions of its completion.” Now let’s see what these six conditons are:

  1. Feeling ashamed and regretful for the past sins;

The first one is regretting what has passed. It means looking at the dark deed and being so sorry and ashamed of it that it makes your heart burn.

  1. Taking firm decision for avoidance of sins forever;

The second condition that forms the basis of reference is a decisive resolution not to repeat the foul deed again. Repentance does not depend on the enormity of sin. Every kind of sin, whether big or small, lends itself to repentance provided the Penitent is serious in his or her intention .

  1. Paying all the dues of the people so that when he meets God-Almighty on the Resurrection Day, he does not have any pending claim against him;

One of the two conditions for the acceptance of repentance is to return what belongs to others, whether it is something that is seized or a right that has been trampled on. It must either be returned itself or, at least, the rightful owner must be given satisfaction. If you have nothing left to give back and for example the rightful owner is no longer living, seek forgiveness from God. God willing, He will make that person satisfied.

  1. All the religious obligations (Wajibat) which have not been performed in the past should be discharged as makeup (Qadha) obligations;

Similarly, heavenly rights must also be restored. What are heavenly rights? If you have failed to observe the fast or perform your ritual prayer or failed to make your obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca in spite of being able to bear it physically and financially, you must make up for all these failuresbecause this is the second condition for the acceptance of your repentance.

  1. The person Should feel so sad about his past sins that all the bodily flesh formed as a result of eating forbidden (Haram) should be melted in a manner that skin touches the bare bones until the new flesh is reformed again;

The next point Imam Ali (peace be upon him) mentioned about the condition for the acceptance of repentance is to rid oneself of all the flesh that has grown on one by illegitimate means. This requires the mortification of the flesh, abstinence and self-discipline. It means benefitting from what is legitimate, honest and proper.

  1. The inconvenience and hardship of worshipping should be imposed upon the body as a compensation for the pleasures it fasted because of past sins.

The last condition is to let the body which has tasted the sweetness of sin, also taste the pain of deviation and worship. Fasting is not an easy matter especially if you spend the night in prayer.

What is the philosophy behind the prohibition of some kinds of music and songs in Islam?

/in , /by

headphone_music_fire_by_thales_imgIn Islam listening to some of the music or some kinds of songs like those who make sexual appeals of human to be turned on, is Haraam and prohibited. Of course there are conditions for a music or song to be Haraam, but it is a jurisprudential discussion that we do not talk about it now.

Some people think that Islam is against happiness or pleasure, and for this very reason has prohibited some music and songs, but in the religion of Islam, we have legal happiness and joy and we are advised to make others happy through different ways like solving their daily problems or joking with them (of course through allowed ways, not by sneering at others or bad jokes) and if Allah has prohibited an action, He ready does not take benefit from that ruling, but because the harms or benefits of that, reach to the servants, He has decreed so, and one of them is this decree, so let’s talk about the philosophies of this ruling:

1) A lot of times, it drags the listeners, to seek their sexual appeals or the corruption of morality.

2) It is a cause for negligence from Allah and our responsibilities that we have toward Him, Allah said in the holy Quran chapter Lughman verse 6:

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَشْتَرِي لَهْوَ الْحَدِيثِ لِيُضِلَّ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ وَيَتَّخِذَهَا هُزُوًا أُولَئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مُّهِينٌ

“There are some people who would purchase distracting talk, to lead astray from the path of Allah without knowledge, and take it in mockery; for those is a humiliating punishment.”

 

The word لهو” “which has been used in the above verse, is defined as something which makes the human busy and through that, keeps the human away from the greater and more important affairs.

In Islamic sources, this phrase of

لهو الحدیث””is described as illegal and Haraam songs.

3) It has dangers on the nerves and psyche of the listener.

One of the scientific researchers says something interesting: there are some kinds of narcotic, sometimes they enter the body from drinking, like the wine, and sometimes from smelling, like Heroin, and sometimes from injection like Morphine and sometimes from listening, like listening to some music and songs, and it has been proved that some of music and songs remove the power of thought and reflection, because it is natural that some of them attract the people so deeply.

And the last point, as one of the Islamic experts said, nothing is like some music and songs in weakening the willpower, it means that after a while of listening and being addict to it, the willpower, will be weak and taking the suitable decisions in different parts of the life, gets hard for such a person, for example he/she wants to leave a sin but it is hard for him/her to do it.

————————–

Source:

Porseman.org

What is the philosophy behind “Doa” or asking from Allah?

/in , /by

adult-and-child-making-duaOne of the things that are so much recommended in Islam is the matter of Doa or asking from Allah.

In the dictionaries, the word of “Doa” has been defined as calling or asking.

There are different motives for Doa, like gaining a benefit or being away from a harm in the material or spiritual matters or cursing or asking for forgiveness etc.

When the human knows that he/she is in a very deep and complete need of his/her Lord the All-Mighty Allah, and Allah is needless of everyone or everything and He is the most powerful and the most knowledgeable and the wisest and the most merciful one, and there is a constant and inherent need to such a being, it makes the human to ask from Allah because Allah is in charge of everything.

Asking from Allah is in the innate nature of human, the holy Quran has mentioned it in chapter Isra verse 67:

وَإِذَا مَسَّكُمُ الْضُّرُّ فِي الْبَحْرِ ضَلَّ مَن تَدْعُونَ إِلاَّ إِيَّاهُ فَلَمَّا نَجَّاكُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ أَعْرَضْتُمْ وَكَانَ الإِنْسَانُ كَفُورًا

“And when misfortune befalls you at sea, all except He of those to whom you supplicate forsake you; yet when He delivers you safely to the land, you turn away. The human is unthankful”.

we can understand from this verse that at the time of emergency and the time of getting disappointed from everything other than Allah, the human refuges to Allah, but at the other times, many humans forget their Lord and refuge to everyone other than Him.

Doa or asking from Allah, teaches us to remember that there is a lord that He is the only one who can really do everything even though the other people does not want that thing to happen, and this is called  in the theology “التوحید الافعالی” witch mean there is only one being who is independent in His actions and He needs nothing and no one for doing an action, of course this does not mean that we believe in predestination (which means that we are obliged to do anything which Allah wants and we have no will), but this means if Allah wants something to do, no one can overcome His will.

The other philosophy of Doa is that this action is a cause for Zikr or remembrance of Allah and Zikr is the means that gives us tranquility, Allah said in the holy Quran chapter Raad verse 28:

أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

“Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest.”

Another philosophy of Doa is that it is a way to talk to our beloved Lord, it is very obvious that the one who has fallen in love with someone, always wants to be with his/her beloved and wants to talk to him/her and he/she enjoys this talking so much.

We can ask Allah through Doa to fulfill for us the material wishes or to give us the hereafter bounties and help us to be on the straight path, the path that He is satisfied with us.

Another benefit of Doa is to remove the coming problems from us.

The other philosophy of Doa is that through it, we ask Allah to pay attention to us. Allah said in the holy Quran chapter Forghan verse 77:

قُلْ مَا يَعْبَأُ بِكُمْ رَبِّي لَوْلَا دُعَاؤُكُمْ

“Say: my lord would not concern Himself with you but for your prayer”.

it is good to mention that some people think that if we ask Allah for solving our problems, it means that it is against the system of cause and effect, the system that is prevalent in this world, but we say as the answer to that: let’s imagine an illness, it can be cured through two ways, the first, through using the medical treatments and the second, sometimes through asking from Allah to heal that, so it is not against that scientific system of the world i.e. cause and effect, because the cause can be several.

Imam Sadiq peace be upon him said:

“I advise you to do Doa, because you don’t get near (to Allah) through anything like Doa.”

Let me mention very important topic, and that is the common question, is there any condition for Doa to be fulfilled or let’s say in this way: why some of our Doas are not fulfilled?

For answering this question we must notice that sometimes some of our wishes are not suitable for us to be fulfilled, and because Allah is so much wise and merciful, He does not fulfill that, imagine when a child is ill and eating the cake is harmful for him/her, it might happen that this child asks the parents to give him/her that the cake and he/she may cry and insist on that, but the parents do not give him/her that, in your idea, is this reaction of the parents, a good reaction or not? Can anyone blame the parents because of that and call them stingy or unmerciful?

The same example is applied to our discussion, sometime it is not appropriate for us to have something and for this reason Allah does not fulfill our Doa. But we because of our incomplete and limited knowledge insist on it.

The next answer can be this: how much do we listen to the commands of Allah? I mean how much we obey Allah, that now we except Allah to fulfill our Doa as soon as we ask Him?

But we must not get disappointed from asking Allah, because Imam Ali peace be upon him narrated a Narration from the Prophet of Islam that he said:

“No believer asks Allah except it will be fulfilled, and that happens in different ways, either it is fulfilled in this world or in the hereafter (through changing to the bounties or elevating the position of that person etc.) or it is a cause for forgiving the sins of that person.”

————————–

Source:

Tebyan.net

What is the philosophy behind the prohibition of Masturbation in Islam?

/in , /by

youthIn Islamic rulings, “Masturbation” is known as Haram and forbidden act and one of the greatest sins.

Imam Sadiq peace be upon him said:

“Allah, on the day of judgment will not talk to three persons and will not look at them mercifully … and one of them is the one who has committed masturbation in the this world.”

There are a lot of harms and dangers for the one who commits masturbation, like:

1) The physical consequences, like:

-It weakens the power of sight.

-It reduces the physical powers.

-It causes inability in reproduction.

-It causes the premature aging.

-It weakens the joints.

-It causes the hands to shake.

-It causes the face to be ugly and makes the freshness of the committer removed.

-It causes the body to be so much sensitive and weak for accepting different illnesses.

-It leads to anemia.

2) The mental consequences, like:

-It causes the power of memory to be weak.

-It causes the distraction and anxiety.

-It causes the committer to be isolated and away from the society.

-It causes the depression and not enjoying from the life.

-It causes the committer to be out of mood and aggressive.

-It causes the neurasthenia.

And it weakens the willpower.

3) Social consequences, like:

-It makes the person to be reluctant to his/her spouse.

-It makes the person unable to have (successful) intercourse with the opposite sex.

-It makes the person to be indifferent about the relation of his/her spouse with others (if there is any).

-It causes the marriages to be delayed and not enjoying from the life after marriage.

And a lot of other harms can be created through masturbation.

It might be asked that what is the difference between masturbation and autoerotism which the person gets satisficed in dream?

We answer this question that the orgasm in dream is a natural way for discharge of semen and when the bag of semen gets full, this state happens and it has no harm for the person.

The autoerotism is not like the masturbation which is an imperfect orgasm, because of being an unreal and false way of orgasm, because in such an orgasm, the committer tries to turn him/herself on, through imagination or looking at the sexual senses etc. so the mentioned above harms for the masturbation are not created through orgasm in dream.

But it must be said and remembered that we are not allowed to get disappointed from the ocean of the mercy and kindness of Allah, so if someone committed this sin, he/she must know (as we have mentioned in an independent discussion regarding Toabah and repenting to Allah) that it is mentioned in the Islamic sources that the sin of getting disappointed from the mercy and forgiving of Allah is greater than the sin of masturbation.

At the end let me mention very briefly some advices for those who cannot get married now, in order to be able to control their need of sexual matters:

-Being away from the scenes or the environments or friends or everything that make them think of sexual matters which lead to that great sin.

-Being busy with the healthy businesses like sport, reading beneficial books etc.

-Being in the environments that make them remember Allah, like in the religious gatherings, and with the righteous friends.

-Being in contact with Allah and the infallibles i.e. the holy Prophet of Islam and his immaculate progeny.

-Going to the toilet before going to bed.

-If they are not tired and ready to sleep, they are better not to go to bed and it is better to make themselves busy with good things like reading the book in order to get tired and ready to falling asleep.

-Fasting.

-And the last but not the least, asking from Allah sincerely to help them to be away from this very great sin.

——————————

Source:

Pasokhgoo.ir