Grand Ayatollah Shirazi: Rulings are determined by Sharia, but Urf determines subjects and instances

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Wednesday, the 19th of Rajab. In this session, just like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of those present in the meeting about various jurisprudence issues.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi said: The rulings are determined by the Shariah, but Urf determines the subjects. What is meant by Urf is “general opinion or customary practice”, and that does not have to represent the devout religious people or even Muslims.

In relation to the ruling of gambling instruments, His Eminance said: The criterion is the same as what exists in the custom of each city, and the ruling on this issue is different in each city. Because the general ruling is that gambling is haram. So, if an instrument is customarily used for gambling, it is haram in that city. But, if the same instrument is not customarily used in gambling in another city, it is not haram there.

Regarding the criterion of practices constituting usury, the Marja said: According to the jurists, Urf determines the applicable instances of usury, for example, if a commodity such as eggs is traded in a city in the form of mekyal (i.e., measure) and is weighed, but in another city is traded in numbers, in the former, it is considered usury, and in the latter, it is not considered usury [to trade one egg of a type for two eggs of another type, for example].

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi also commented on the example of desecration of the Quran, and said: Let’s say a person is reading the Quran and someone enters, the person closes the Quran and rises to their feet. Now, if such an act is customarily considered desecration of the Quran, it is not permissible to do so. But, if it is not considered an insult to the Quran, then there is no issue.