Grand Ayatollah Shirazi remarks on addressing religious issues during occultation
The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Tuesday, the 20th of Jumadi al-Awwal. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discussed the levels of Wilayah and its necessity. He mentioned an example and said: If a woman’s husband is imprisoned for twenty or thirty years and she cannot be with her husband, if this woman is in desperate distress, and the man has no possibility of divorce, and there is no access to him, in such a situation, Islam has clarified a solution for her. The rule of “La Haraj = no distress” applies to her situation, as stated in verse 78 of Surah al-Hajj: And God has not placed hardship and suffering on you as a duty in the religion of Islam.
His Eminence also pointed to the rule of “La Dharar = no harm”, which is derived from the narration attributed to the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his family: There is no harm to yourself or to others in Islam. He said: Since any kind of harm is prohibited in Islam, if this woman is poor, and there is no husband to take care of her, and she has no income to cover her expenses, then Islam takes care of her situation based on the rule of “no harm” for anyone.
He went on to say: Therefore, based on the rule of “no harm to yourself or to others”, the Ruler of Sharia can vicariously divorce this woman. It is certain that the Ruler of Sharia has the authority in this matter, and no one other than him has the right to divorce. This right is initially reserved for the Immaculate Imam, peace be upon him, but during his major occultation, based on the evidence from hadiths of Wilayah, the right lies with the perfectly qualified faqih. There is consensus of opinion in this regard, and both the jurists who believe in general wilayah and those like Sheikh Ansari who believe in limited-to-essentials Wilayah, agree to this ruling.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi further said: When there is no access to a perfectly qualified mujtahid, the matter should be referred to the just believers, and if there was no access to them, the non-just believers can also be resorted to in this regard as they have some degree of Wilayah. Islam does not intend for a woman like this to remain undecided and trapped in distress.
