Shafaqna English- Questions on Muslims issues in the West and answers from the Grand Ayatollah Sistani based on the text of the book: “A Code of Practice For Muslims in the West” by ‘Abdul Hadi As-Seyyed Muhammad Taqi Al-Hakim.
Question & Answer
Question 1: Is it permissible to praise erotic poetry, or in prose, an unspecified woman or women in general?
Answer: If it is devoid of intent to commit Haram or similar acts and entails no other harm [in moral and ethical sense], then there is no problem in it.
Question 2: Is it permissible to talk to women without lustful intention for the purpose of gaining satisfaction with one of them and then to propose temporary marriage to her?
Answer: If the talk is devoid of what one should be talking about to a stranger [i.e. non-Mahram] woman, then there is no problem in it.
Question 3: A new craze has spread in Europe in which men wear ladies’ earrings in one or both ears. Is this allowed for them?
Answer: It is not permissible if it is made of gold; rather not at all, based on obligatory precaution.
Question 4: If a person commits Haram by shaving his beard by razor baled on day one, is it permissible for him to do the same on the second, the third, the fourth day and so on?
Answer: It is precautionarily compulsory to refrain from it.
Question 5: At times the big companies in Europe discriminate —among those who come to them seeking jobs— between those who shave beards and those who don’t shave them. If this is true, then is it permissible to be clean shaven in order to get the job?
Answer: Shaving the beard —whose prohibition is based on obligatory precaution— would not become permissible just by the desire to get a job with these companies.
Question 6: Is it permissible to shave the two sides of the face and leave the hair on the chin?
Answer: Shaving the beard is Haram based on obligatory precaution, and this includes the hair that grows on the sides of the face. However, there is no problem in shaving the hair that grows on the cheeks.
Question 7: Is it permissible to play games of chance of all kinds on electronic machines (computers) without betting or with betting?
Answer: It is not permissible, and it is treated the same as normal [non-electronic] gambling instruments.
Question 8: Some permissible games use dice in them. So is it allowed to play with it?
Answer: If the dice is not from the tools that are exclusively for gambling, then there is no problem in using it in non-gambling games.
- Religious questions in Graph
- The Grand Ayatollah Sistani’s Fatwas
- Religious questions and answers
- Shia answers
- Read more: Shafaqna Directory
Source: sistani.org