Jurisprudence

Fatwās of the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei (d.)

1- If one does not know or forgets that one’s clothes are usurped and he/she prays with them, his/her prayer is correct. But if one oneself had usurped these clothes and then forgot about it and prayed with it, he/she must, by obligatory caution, repeat that prayer.

1- If a person does not know or he/she forgets that his/her clothes are usurped and he/she prays with them, his/her prayer is ruled correct.

2- Wearing golden ornaments by men, like hanging golden chains on the chest or wearing a golden ring on one’s finger or a golden watch on one’s wrist is ḥarām and offering prayer with these things is void.

2- For men it is ḥarām to wear a gold chain, ring, or watch and by obligatory caution wearing any of them in prayer invalidates the prayer.

3- Question: In the tawḍīḥ al-masā’il from the issue 831 through 833, it is stated that a man should not wear clothes made of gold while offering prayer. By gold is it meant the yellow gold or does this rule include red/white gold, too (as you maintain that it is permissible to wear platinum ornament)? Will you tell us what the criterion is, is it the color or the substance?
Answer: Wearing platinum is no problem but wearing the usual gold, even if its color has been changed, is not permissible.

3- Question: What is the ruling on a ring of white gold worn by men?
Answer: If it is gold alloyed with something else to give it white color, it is ḥarām to wear. As for wearing platinum or a blockade thing which contains such a small amount of gold that in common view is not considered as gold, it is no problem.

4- A man’s clothes worn in prayer must not be of pure silk. Moreover, it is ḥarām for them to wear such clothes, even when they are not praying. Concerning the things with which prayer is not rendered perfect [i.e. they are not large enough to cover the private parts], for example trousers braces or caps, they should not, by obligatory caution, be of pure silk either.

4- During prayer a man’s clothes including things like a cap, stockings, lining, etc., must not be of pure silk. It is ḥarām for a man to wear them even when he is not praying. However, if a silky handkerchief or the like is inside a man’s pocket while praying, it is not problematic and does not render his prayer void.

5- If a blood spot on the body or clothes is less than dirham in size and moisture reaches it, then if the mixture of the blood and moisture become a dirham or more in size and they stain the surrounding area as well, praying with it is void. Moreover, if the size of the mixture (blood and moisture) remains less than a dirham area and does not stain the surrounding area, praying with it is still problematic. But, if the moisture is mixed with the blood and disappears in it, prayer is correct.

5- If a moisture reaches a blood spot, whose area is less than that of the tip-phalanx of the index finger, and it mixes with, and disappears into, the blood so that the area of the mixture does not exceed the excused one, i.e. that of the tip-phalanx of the index finger, praying with it is correct; otherwise, the prayer offered with it is, by obligatory caution, void.

6- If the body or the dress of a person offering prayer is stained with the blood of ‘puerperium’ or menses even as little as point of a pin, the prayer is void. By obligatory caution, it should not be stained with istiḥāḍah blood either. As far as other kinds of blood are concerned, e.g., the blood from a person’s body, an animal whose meat is ḥalāl, a dog, a pig, a non-Muslim, an animal which is not ritually slaughtered, or an animal whose meat is ḥarām, there is no objection to praying with it, even if different places of the body or dress are stained with, provided that it is altogether less than a dirham (approximately equal to an ashrafī) in size. However, by caution, one does not offer prayer with the blood of a dog, a non-Muslim, an animal which is not ritually slaughtered, or an animal whose meat is ḥarām.

6- If the body or dress of a person is stained with even a little bit of menstrual blood, one’s prayer is void. This rule is, by obligatory caution, applicable to the blood of ‘puerperium,’ istiḥāḍah, and that of intrinsically najis, ḥarām meat, or not ritually slaughtered animals. Rather, as far as the blood of above-mentioned animals is concerned, this rule is strongly probable.