Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discusses some recommended acts for Nowruz

The scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Wednesday night, coinciding the ninth day of the holy month of Ramadan. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.

Regarding the view of the Infallibles, peace be upon them, on Nowruz according to the hadiths, Grand Ayatollah Shirazi said: There are two groups of hadiths; in one group, some of the pure Imams, peace be upon them, have given silent approval of Nowruz, and in contrast, there are also hadiths disapproving it. All of these are Mursal hadiths.

In relation to the validity of the aforementioned traditions, His Eminence said: If someone does not accept the rule of ‘Tasamuh’, they should not accept these narrations, neither the hadiths that approve nor those rejecting Nowruz. But, if someone accepts the rule of ‘Tasamuh’, which is accepted by famous jurists, then based on this rule, some jurists, including the late Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad al-Shirazi, have reconciled between the two sets of hadiths by saying that negation means negation of Eid, but recommended actions for this day have been actually introduced according to some hadiths.

Referring to some of the traditions disapproving Nowruz, the Marja said: These traditions of Nowruz indicate that Nowruz is not an Eid, and there is no objection to carrying out some recommended acts, such as prayer and fasting on this day, because the Zoroastrians considered this day as Eid. These traditions negate this day being an Eid like Eid al-Fitr and Qurban. So, this day has not been introduced as an Eid in Shia jurisprudence, but some narrations have stated recommended actions such as prayer and fasting, just as recommended actions have been mentioned for some other days of the year.