Grand Ayatollah Shirazi: Accepting Wilayah condition for validity of prayer based on hadith
The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Wednesday, the seventh of Jumadi al-Awwal. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.
In this meeting, Grand Ayatollah Shirazi explained the famous Qudsi hadith: The Wilayah of Ali bin Abi Talib is my strong fortress, so whoever enters that fortress, will be safe from the fire of my punishment. He said: There has been a dispute over the Wilayah being a condition for the validity of the prayer or a condition for the acceptance of the prayer, but from the past, the predominant opinion among jurists is that the Wilayah is a condition for the validity of the prayer, that is, without accepting the Wilayah, the prayer is not valid. There are many narrations in regards to this issue.
His Eminence continued: Of course, some jurists, who are not many in number, have also said that the Wilayat is a condition for acceptance of prayer, so this issue is a matter of dispute based on other traditions.
In relation to some of the supernatural wonders (Karamat) that some Momineen have been reported to exhibit, the Supreme Marja said: “The absolute and complete Wilaya Takwiniyyah is exclusive to the 14 Ma’sumeen, peace be upon them. But history has witnessed some Karamat attributed to some pious scholars and even righteous believers, including Ibn Fahd al-Helli.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi went on to say: The Wilaya Takwiniyyah may exist in a partial form even in some of the very pious, and there are many anecdotes in this regard. So, it is not necessary for a person to be in the position of Sayyida Zainab, peace be upon her, to have partial control over material creations. Sometimes, an ordinary person who cannot even read or write, but has achieved a high level of piety, is bestowed partial Wilaya Takwiniyyah by God, but the complete Wilaya Takwiniyyah is only exclusive to the 14 immaculate Ma’sumeen peace be upon them.
