Rafed English
site.site_name : Rafed English

Adopted from the book : "The Faith of Shi'a Islam" by : Allamah Muhammad Ridha al-Muzaffar"

We believe that Unity of Allah (tawhid) must be in all respects, just as for His Unity of Essence (tawhid dhati) we believe that Allah must be One in His Essence and in their Necessity of His Existence (wujub al-wujub). Secondly, His Essence must be one with His various attributes, as we shall explain below. Likewise, nothing is similar in trs attributes to Him. His Knowledge and Ability are unparalleled and He has no partner in Creation nor in Providing for His creatures; therefore none is like Him in any of His Perfections. Thirdly, His unity must exist in the worship of Him, and worship of any other than Him is not permitted. Nothing must be made a partner to him in worship, whether the worship be obligatory (e.g salat) or not (e.g. du'a'). One who ascribes a partner to Him in worship is a polytheist, like one who pretends to be worshipping for the sake of Allah but is in fact worshipping for the sake of some other being. In the eyes of Islam he is kin to an idolater, and both of them are polytheists.

However, pilgrims to scared place, such as the graves of the Holy Prophet (S.A) or the Imams (A.S), and mourning are not kinds of polytheism, as some people who have attacked the shari'a have alleged. These people have not looked to the reason behind the pilgrimages, for they are a way of approaching near Allah through good deeds, in the same way as we can approach near to Allah by the performance of such goods acts as visiting the sick, escorting a funeral, visiting our brothers in Islam and helping poor Muslims. For example, visiting a sick person is a good act through which a believer obtains nearness to Allah. It is not for the glorification of the sick person himself; therefore it is not an act of polytheism the same way, other good acts, such as pilgrimage, mourning, attending a funeral and meeting with our brothers are not kinds of polytheism. Moreover, it is known from religious jurisprudence ('ilm al-fiqh) that pilgrimage and mourning are among the good deeds of the religion, but this is not a place to go into an exposition of this. In brief, these actions are not kind of polytheism as some people suppose, neither behind them that of worshipping the Imams (A.S). Rather, their meaning is to bring the deeds of the Imams (A.S) to life again, to renew their memory in the minds of the people and to glorify the rites of the religion.

And whoever venerates the rites of the religion, that is of the godliness of their hearts. (22,32)

It has been shown in the law (shar') that these acts are mustahab. If a man performs these actions with the intention of pleasing Allah, he deserves to be rewarded for them.