Grand Ayatollah Shirazi remarks on ruling of Salaat with long toenails during daily scholarly meeting

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Sunday, the 21st of Sha’ban. In this meeting, just like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudential issues.

In relation to the ruling of a prayer in which the toe does not reach the ground due to the length of the toenail, Grand Ayatollah Shirazi said: If such a person prays in this way for years, a group of jurists have said out of caution to be accurate that the prayer of this person is invalid. But from a scholarly point of view, it is not established that Salaat in this condition is invalid. So, that fatwa should be considered as a precaution.

His Eminence further elaborated and said: There is a rule in jurisprudence, “had there been significance, it would have been mentioned”. Based on this rule and using analogy of exceptions, in some cases and with special restrictions, it is possible to understand from the lack of inclusivity of a ruling that the intention of the Divine Lawmaker is something else.

Regarding the application of this rule to the mentioned issue, the Marja said: In my opinion, this rule also applies here, that is, during the time of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his family, not all of the polytheists who converted to Islam would clip their toenails to allow toes to reach the ground while prostrating. So, if the prayer of someone whose toenails were too long was invalid, this issue would have been mentioned, and since it was not mentioned, there is no issue with their Salaat.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi went on to say: Therefore, the prayer of such a person is not invalid based on scholarly discussion, but in the position of fatwa, some fuqaha have given such an opinion out of caution. So, if the fatwa is given that such a person must redo his prayers even after years of praying in this way, this should be taken into account as a precaution, based on the rule that was explained.