Grand Ayatollah Shirazi: traveler’s prayer is complete in the entire city of Karbala
The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh Hosseini Shirazi was held on Sunday, the 17th of Safar. In this session, like the previous meetings, he answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.
Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq Hosseini Shirazi discussed the positions of choice to perform complete or shortened prayer, naming four places: cities of Mecca, Medina, Kufa and Karbala.
The Marja then explained that there are several hadiths about performing complete prayer in Karbala, with the difference being only in the limits specified; some narrations have mentioned only Ha’er, that is, 25 cubits equal to twelve and a half meters distance from each side to the holy grave of Imam Hussein and not to the Zarih, because the holy grave of Imam Hussein, peace be upon him, is 20 cubits away from the Zarih.
His eminence went on to say: But a group of jurists have made this ruling about the entire city of Karbala, because there are authentic traditions which say that the entire Karbala is the shrine of Imam Hussain, peace be upon him, and so it’s not just the Ha’ir.
Pointing out that there is division of opinion between fuqaha on this issue, the Marja continued to say: “The author of Urwa al-Wuthqa, a group of scholars and myself are of the opinion that this ruling applies to the whole of Karbala, and one can perform complete prayer in the hotel, street and house within the perimeters of Karbala.
