Grand Ayatollah Shirazi: Making fun of others is not a license to commit a forbidden act

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

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi stressed that making fun of others is not a license to perform a forbidden act, and said: Of course, distress and harm allow for exceptions in all rulings, and sometimes, if there is distress and harm involved, it may be permissible to perform a forbidden act in such circumstances.

Pointing out that in two cases distress and harm do not allow for exceptions in rulings and under no circumstances can one perform the forbidden act, the Marja said: The first case is where the Sharia ruling is based on distress and harm, such as, jihad, zakat, khums, and fidya, in regards to which distress and harm are specific, and thus they are not included in this exception.

In relation to the second case which is not included in this exception, the Marja said: The second case is where the general opinion of the devout believers considers something as haram and inappropriate to do, avoiding it under any circumstances. This general opinion is Hujjat to the jurists, therefore, in such a situation, since the believers’ abstinence from doing that act is specific, it is not included in this exception.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi mentioned the declaration of immorality like adultery as one of the examples of this case and said: In such a situation, even if a person suffers from insomnia, pain and problems like that, even though he/she has suffered harm and been in distress, the ruling of distress and harm does not apply to them, and the haram status of their act will remain as it is, because in the general opinion of devout believers and religious people, the haram status of this act is not removed by distress and harm. So, in these two cases, distress and harm do not make it permissible to perform the forbidden act.