 Salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Welcome to Ahkam SOS, the show that discusses Islamic duties and practices by His Eminence, the Grand Ayatollah Sayed Saadik Shirazi. This season, inshallah, we'll be also looking at other Marajah and their verdicts on the same topics. Now, the month of Muharram is amongst us and it is a time that we at Imam Hussain TV would first of all like to send our condolences to the Imam of our time and also to the ummah on the tragic, tragic events of Karbala and the tragedies that befell upon Aba Abdullah al-Hussain. Inshallah, to discuss more we'll be Sheikh Ali Ma'a. Salamu alaikum sheikhna. Sheikhna, Muharram is one of the most important and significant months in the whole of the Islamic calendar, especially for the sheers of millions all over the world come together to commemorate the tragedy of Aba Abdullah al-Hussain and also to perform aza and there's different types of aza and azadari we have dressing in black, holding majalis, even giving out food in the name of Imam Hussain. There's different methods. One method is also latim or matim as they say, the chest beating with the yulijis and the latimiyat and the noha. According to Sheikh Waheed Khursani, is it permissible to have these nohas and these latimiyat with musical instruments, sometimes a flute, sometimes a drum, sometimes there's good trumpets and guitars and such. Can we incorporate music with nohas and latimiyat or was sheikh Waheed Khursani? I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the accursed, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace be upon Muhammad and his good people and the pure ones. All praise is due to Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. I seek refuge with Allah from our sins and your sins, Imam Hussain, peace be upon you. Of course the month of Muharram is the month of grief, the month of aza, the month of remembering the heroes of Karbala, those who stood for the cause of Allah SWT, stood for the cause of reviving the religion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW that he brought as a messenger of Allah, Azza wa Jal, to the humanity after it was almost demolished by the Umayyah Caliphate, the so-called Caliphate, rulers and tyrants. So Imam Hussain, peace be upon him, along with his companions and family members, gave the blood of their heart in the Ziyara of Arba'een, we hear this part, wa baddala muhjatahu fiqh, he gave a wave for the cause of Allah, the blood of his heart in order to guide the humanity, to guide them and to bring them out from the ignorance and the darkness of ignorance, thus the Imam, peace be upon him, sacrificed even his six month old baby as well for this cause and of course the aftermath of Ashura as we know, the journey of the captives from Karbala to Kufa and from Kufa to the Sham and then back to Karbala and then back to Medina. So this long journey was really painful on the family of Al-Hussain, peace be upon him, and it seems to be one of the greatest miseries and calamities that poured on the Ahl-Bait, peace be upon him, in which Imam Sajjad, peace be upon him, was asked about which masa'ib and calamities was the most severe and difficult, the Imam three times repeated Ash'am, Ash'am, Ash'am, which means being in captivity and being in this long journey and to see this adab and you can say even torture, throwing stones, throwing fireballs and so forth on the heads of the, not only the men, but also the women of Ahl-Bait, peace be upon him, Zaynab, Umkulthum, Ruqayya, Sukaina, peace be upon him. So it was a great sacrifice even after the event of Karbala. Now with regard to your question about the Hukum of the Az'a and the Matem, which we all, Alhamdulillah, attend every year, if it was associated with music. According to Ayatollah Wahid Khurasani, he would clearly state that as a fatwa that is haram to use music absolutely in the Az'a and even outside the Az'a. So in the opinion of Ayatollah Khurasani, you cannot use music at all even if you have let's say, it's not Az'a but you want to do for example a small party, let's say, a birthday party and you want to play music, you can't use it for example, you can't play that music, wedding, you can't play that music. According to Ayatollah Khurasani, it's haram to use music. Ayatollah Shirazi would also go and follow a similar fatwa that he says if these instruments were music instruments, then it is not allowed to use them because we have other instruments that can be used in the Az'a, which is the, as it's called in Arak-ud-Dammam or the drum, which is similar to the hexagon shape. In that case, you can use this type of, in other words, war drum as they say, to basically raise the issue of ashura and the sacrifice of Ahlul Bayt alaykum as-salam that beatings would show the misery in which this great holy family of Ahlul Bayt alaykum went through. So yes, you can use this type of war drums but you cannot use the instruments of music in the Az'a and even outside of the Az'a. Ahsen, thank you very much, you know, Insha'Allah during this month, may Allah accept all the Amal, all the Amal and all our viewers as well. Shaikhna, topic for today, backbiting and I mean this is a serious disease within our community, unfortunately. Now, what should an individual do if, you know, a Muslim is backbiting? Let's say I'm there with my friends and we're talking, my friend starts to backbite about someone, me as a Muslim, what should I do? Initially, if somebody, God forbid, performed this act of backbiting against Muslim brother, then he needs to go and ask for forgiveness from this individual. If that would cause some kind of embarrassment to this individual, he might be insulted, he might be kicked out from that place, let's say the house of that individual, any type of insult that he might face, humiliated for example, then what he can do, he can of course ask forgiveness, he does tauba astaghfirullah from this act and also to ask tauba and repentance for that individual that he spoke behind his back. So we have a narration which says whenever you remember that individual that you backbite, you say may Allah forgive his sins or may Allah forgive him. So whenever you remember him, you say Allah maqfirullah or Allah forgive this individual that I backbite. So you try to, if you can't, it's difficult to face that individual then you say Allah forgive him. Allah forgiveness for this individual and of course to work hard to avoid backbiting. So this is one lesson, we learn lesson, next time I don't backbite. I try to think twice before I talk. Some of the companions they used to put a pebble inside their tongue just to avoid talking nonsense or talking something haram. So that pebble would remind him that well should I talk or should I keep silent. So we have to educate ourselves to this level of taqwa and wara that we avoid talking unless it is useful for dunya and akhira. Shana what if you know I'm speaking with my friend, I had no intention of doing backbiting. I was talking and then someone's name mentions like is mentioned and then you know I mentioned a trait of this person and I had no intention of doing backbiting or something. Even when I said what I said, I wasn't doing backbiting but because I mentioned the trait one could assume or could render it to be backbiting. What about in that situation? Again you go back and you do istighfar and you ask forgiveness for him. So on his behalf you say Allah forgive him, again same process. So you try to first clean yourself from this act of backbiting and then you ask Allah swt to forgive him due to this act in which you've committed. Sheikhullah we are taught in our culture to respect our elders and sometimes our elders slander and backbite in front of us, you know could be one's father, one's uncle, one's grandfather. What should we do in that situation, I mean there's a level of respect, there's a level of that we don't really challenge our superiors, those who are older than us, our parents and so forth. In that situation what do we do? Well the individual shouldn't listen to the slandering or the backbiting of others by his let's say father or brother whoever the elder is to avoid listening because even to listen to a backbite by itself it is also a sin. So you have to either deter and advise the others to stop backbiting or you just leave the majlis. Some ulamas used to give that majlis in which there's aghiba backbiting, they would stand up and leave the majlis straight away because to listen to aghiba and backbiting and you don't show any kind of actions for example like nai anlamunkar to discourage them from this act then you also share with that individual this sin. So the best thing is to avoid listening and try to advise and deter the other side in somehow in a positive way that this is not right, it is backbiting, slandering and it's haram in Islam and it's hurting yourself and the others. So defaming the others and so forth. Shekhna, some people say that oh it's not backbiting, if the person was here in front of me I'd say it to their face. Now is backbiting when you mention bad traits about someone behind their back or in front of them or it doesn't actually matter whether they're there or not backbiting is backbiting. It is true that the meaning of backbiting or aghiba is to say something that in the back of somebody in which he doesn't like or he doesn't really like to be mentioned. So let's say he committed a sin and you know and you saw that sin and he doesn't want to tell others or show others what you try to spread it. That's of course backbiting but even though if let's say that in their presence it becomes some kind of insult even if it's not backbiting but it's an insult, you're insulting that mu'min when you're telling him or telling the others that you know this individual did such and such thing in his privacy. So in his being away from the sin you would backbite him that is a backbite if you backbite him if you do it in front of him or in front of others then that's some kind of insult. So we have to go back to Allah swt and seek forgiveness for ourselves and the others and he is the one in which conceals the faults. Allah is the one who conceals. We shouldn't expose and reveal other people's privacy and sins and faults. Allah swt he tries to, I mean that's one of the acts that Allah swt that he conceals these faults and sins of abad so he would forgive them in dunya and in the end as well. Ahsan, thank you very much. I'll tell you something to ask Allah inshallah forgive you for your shortcomings inshallah forgive me for my shortcomings and also all our viewers our brothers and sisters inshallah may Allah accept all your deeds in this holy month Muharram inshallah forgive you for your shortcomings inshallah we'll have a new episode next time and we'll see you then. Asalaamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.