Archive for category: Philosophy of Islamic Laws

In Islam there are about ten Najes objects, by Najes we mean something that we are not allowed to eat them or if we touch them, we must wash the part of our body which has touch them (of course with its conditions, like being at least one of them wet to the extent that its wetness certainly transmits to the other).

Among the Najes things, is dog and pig which live in the land (not in the sea).

Some unbelievers blame Islam because of having this rule and they say that Islam is against the animals. But let’s see is it true or not?

When we say a thing is Najes, it means that it is unclean superficially, but in reality, do we claim that the dog is unclean in its innate nature and is without any use? We cannot claim that, we are aware of the good characteristics of a dog, like faithfulness, and it is interesting that there is a Narration that says: good for the one that his/her life is like the life of dog, and in the description of this sentence, the Narration goes on that there are some good characteristics in dog like not sleeping all the night.

And another witness is that we believe that among the Najes things, is the blood of human and some animals, do we really claim that it is an unusable material? Or do we mean by decreeing on blood as a Najes thing, that we really want to belittle the blood?

Or another example:

You know wearing the pure silky shirt is Haram and forbidden for the men in all times i.e. in the time of performing prayer and in the other times, do you really think that Islam wants to belittle the silk?

So we must differentiate between the superficial Nijasah (being Najes) of a thing and between the real essence of that.

In Islam we have been so much advised and ordered to have good treatment toward the animal, and it is very interesting that in a situation that we have few water and if we want to perform Wodu with that water, there is a dog beside us that will die out of thirst, in some cases we are ordered to give that few water to the dog and perform Tayammom instead of Wodu, and you can find many Narrations about the treating the animals, so we realize till now that Islam is not against animals rights.

Another point is that the meaning of respecting animal is not to play with it and take it as a partner or make it the owner of some of your properties or let it sleep in your bed etc. respecting the animal means not to do cruelty to it, to give it enough water and meal etc. and by doing these treatments, you have observed its rights.

The other point is that we have mentioned in the other essays that the obligations and prohibitions of Islam are beneficial for the human and it is not necessary to know all the philosophies of a rule before doing that, because it is like when you refer to the doctor and he/she prescribes for you some medicine, you do not say: until I do not understand the reason of  prescription of every pill in detail, I do not take it,  and it is just like our subject, although there are some harms and dangers or some problems for letting the dog to be in your house and bed which have been proved scientifically, but we submit to the commands of the Lord of the world because we have proved the existence of Him and the attributes of Him like mercy, knowledge, wisdom, not being in need of anyone or anything, etc.

There are some philosophies that can be mentioned for the Nejasah of a dog, like:

Due to the faithfulness of a dog, this rule might be a way for preventing the human from being so much attached to this animal and being negligent of the remembrance of Allah and our duties towards Him.

And the other philosophy can be the illnesses that can be created through dogs like rabies that is one of the most dangerous illnesses.

It has been proved by scientific researchers that there is a small worm which is four millimeter in length, called ” Taenia Echinococcus ” that when the stool of dog comes out, many eggs of this worm come out with stool of dog and get stuck to the vicinity around the anal of dog, and the dog through its tongue, transfers those eggs to different parts of its body and if one of these eggs enters in the bowel of human, it produces many illnesses that in some cases it leads to the death of human.

These are some mentioned philosophies of that rule, and there may be some other philosophies that are not known for us till now.

But it must be mentioned that in Islam, keeping the dog is not Haram and forbidden, and even keeping some kinds of dogs that are taught to be as a hunter is accepted and the prey of this kind of hunting is Halal and legal (of course under its jurisprudential conditions).

Yes. There is an exception, the holy Prophet of Islam has ordered a kind of dog to be killed and that is the dog which irritates the people, like the wild and stray dogs that always attack people and this order is something logical.

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Sources:

Hawzah.net

Islamquest.net

soalcity.ir

In Islam there are some rules regarding eating the meat of the animals, according to Islamic rulings the meat of some animals are allowed to be eaten, like the meat of sheep, cow, fish, etc.

The eating of most of these Halal and legal meats is provided to be slaughtered according to Islamic way of slaughtering, otherwise i.e. if the animal is dead or if it is slaughtered not according to Islamic way, we are not allowed to eat them.

We don’t want to mention the way of slaughtering according to Islam and other detailed rules because they are related to the jurisprudential discussion, but let’s talk about the philosophy behind this rule.

The main and exact philosophy of this rule might not be absolutely clear for us but we proved before, that after proving the existence of God and His attributes by various logical argumentations, we accept His rules even though it might not be so obvious for us, but the scientific research can help us in this regard.

You might know that according to Islam, there are some conditions for a slaughtering to be valid, among them, is this condition that the slaughterer must cut four vessels of the neck of the animal. It has been proved even among Non-Muslim researchers that when an animal is slaughtered according to Islam, when the vessels of the neck of an animal are cut, the animal goes to coma and does not feel any pain anymore.

Someone might ask: isn’t the shaking of the body of animal (after slaughtering) because of pain? We reply that the reason that the animal shakes and moves its legs and body, is because at the time of cutting those vessels, the food contact between the brain and blood gets cut and by this cutting of the connection, the brain orders the heart to bring the blood form different lambs as soon as possible and when the hearts pumps the blood from different lambs, it is a kind of sacrifice that different lambs do for the life of brain, so the lambs shake and move on that time, and it is interesting that when the blood comes out from that cut vessel, it prevents the blood from remaining inside the body and getting clot, but if we kill the animal through other ways like hitting the animal by for example wood or other materials, it makes the white corpuscle to be semi-active, and then it causes the activation of the bacterial things and the corruption of the tissues and it makes the blood (because of not coming out on that time) to be clot and a source for the growth of bacteria.

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Source:

Pasokhgo90.lxb.ir

One 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).

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Source:

Maaref.porsemani.ir

In 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.

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Source:

Porseman.org