Grand Ayatollah Shirazi: Grand cities follow same ruling as other cities; two or more connected cities, follow same ruling as one city
The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Friday and Saturday, the 27th and 28th of Rabi al-Awwal. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Supreme Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discussed the ruling of grand cities (bilad kabira), and said: the author of Urwa al-Wuthqa and some contemporary religious authorities have determined the neighborhood as the measure in the discussion of ruling for grand cities. However, grand cities also existed during the time of the Imams (peace be upon them), but there is no mention of neighborhood in the hadiths. So, the ruling of major cities is the same as other cities.
He cited the verse 101 of Surah Al-Nisaa: “And when you are on a journey, there is no sin for you to shorten the prayer,” and said: This honorable verse does not apparently talk about the prayer being shortened while moving from one neighborhood to another in a city. Rather, it means that if you travel from one city to another, the ruling of a traveler is applied to you.
His eminence also pointed out to the connectedness of some cities such as Tehran and Shahr-e-Ray, Baghdad and Kazemain, Dezful and Andimshek, and explained: Cities like these, which were actually two different cities, but over time, due to the expansion of housing and urban developments, become connected as the houses of two cities meet, are considered a single city in terms of this ruling. Even if they are different in name, and they have two different titles in terms of administration.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi emphasized common practice and belief (Urf) as a determiner, and said: If the distance between two cities is reduced due to the expansion of residential areas, and according to Urf, a connection is established between the two, they follow the same ruling as a single city. However, if there is a space of desert or plain between the two cities, they do not follow the ruling of a single city.
