Grand Ayatollah Shirazi: In history of Holy Prophet and Commander of Faithful, they never forced people to do anything

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Thursday, the seventh of Dhu Qa’dah. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.

On the ruling of forcing people to perform duties such as observing hijab, Grand Ayatollah Shirazi said: In the history of the Holy Prophet and of Amir ul-Mo’mineen, it has never been mentioned that people were forced to do anything.

His Eminence went on to say: Rather, such practice is the opposite of the traditions, as the Prophet has said: If you want to collect zakat and someone says that I do not have it, even if he is lying, he should not be forced, and this concept applies to all obligations, and the jurists are in consensus over this matter.

Referring to a narration from the Holy Prophet, the Marja said: Although the implementation of divine Hudud is one of the obligations, and not only their suspension, but even a delay in their implementation, is one of the grave prohibitions, and the fact that delaying the implementation of a ruling, even for one day, is considered among the great sins, according to this narration, the Holy Prophet has said that I suspended the implementation of Hudud in many cases, so that people would not say that this prophet is disloyal, referring to polytheists and not Muslims.

His Eminence also emphasized: During the time of the Holy Prophet, many people became apostates, and like the hypocrites, they even used the worst insults in the face of the Prophet, but the Messenger of God did not implement the hudud of apostasy for any of them. Even during the time of Amir ul-Mo’mineen, there were those who fought the Imam, and if they could, they would have martyred the Imam, like Ibn Muljam, but Amir al-Mu’minin did not execute the Ahkam and Hudud for them.