Grand Ayatollah Shirazi remarks on mercy-dominated governance of Holy Prophet, Amir al-Mo’mineen, peace be upon them

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Saturday, the 23rd of Dhu Qa’dah. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudential issues.

On the Sirah of the Messenger of God and the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon them, in their governments with regards to requiring people to fulfill the laws of Shariah, Grand Ayatullah Shirazi said: The action of a Ma’sum is Hujjat (Proof) just as their words are, and both the Messenger of God and the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon them, who established governments, never forcefully required people to perform obligatory duties or to abstain from haram, as testified by traditions and agreed upon by all Muslims.

In relation to the governance of the Holy Prophet and the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon them, his Eminence said: During the government of the Messenger of God and the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon them, no prisons were observed, nor any torture or beatings and killings of people were seen, and in some cases, only verbal threats were used for the purpose of guidance.

Referring to verse 84 of Surah al-Tawbah: “And do not ever perform Prayer of death for any of them [hypocrites], and do not stand in praying over their graves, for they disbelieved in God and His Messenger and died in the state of transgression and debauchery”, his Eminence said: Despite the instruction of the verse, we see that the Messenger of God turned up at the corpse of the leader of the hypocrites and performed the Prayer of the Dead over his body, so it is clear that this verse was meant as a threat to the hypocrites.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi further said: It is also mentioned in the Book “Ma’alim” that an instruction has different purposes, one of which is threat, and there are many verses in the Holy Qur’an with the same application. However, all the verses of the Holy Quran need to be closely contemplated and studied by jurists as a basis for deduction, because ijtihad and jurisprudence are open chapters.