 In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon Muhammad, the Ameen. And all the people of his house, the doctors, the doctors, the prisoners, the prisoners. And we have prayed for them to gather from now on until the Day of Judgment, Ameen. Dear viewers, peace and blessings of Allah be upon you. Welcome to the first episode of this new program, which is your show. From the laws of Fatima al-Zahra, aleyhi salam. The show is initially based upon one of the great encyclopedic works of one of the great ulama of the Shi'a. One of the greatest ulama to have appeared in history, namely al-Imam al-Rahil, al-Sayyid, ayatullah al-Ovma, Muhammad, Ibn Mahdi al-Husayni al-Shirazi. May Allah have mercy upon his soul, and may Allah continue to spread the teachings of Islam and the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt, aleyhi salam, through the great muassasat and through the great foundations and institutions established under his name and through his prominent students. Before we begin analyzing the work from the laws of Zahra, aleyhi salam, allow us to first analyze some brief details of the great life of this anim, this scholar who left behind a tremendous influence on the Muslim world. A scholar who perhaps undoubtedly within the 20th century was most probably an alim who contributed the most to the spread of Shi'ism within the largely non-Muslim world. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is when we look to the institutions of Shi'ism, the Shi'i institutions within non-Muslim parts of the world, for example, Africa, we find that many of these institutions were originally established under the name of Imam Muhammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi. We find that this is a great man who had a tremendous influence on the world and therefore it would be a great injustice for me not to introduce this man to you all. Unfortunately, I feel humbled in having to do this task for I am not someone who is worthy of introducing the great personality of Imam Muhammad al-Shirazi. And indeed, I feel that it is not befitting of someone in my own shoes with the amount of mistakes and sins I have in my own life to present to you such a great man, one of the revered servants of Allah, and certainly one of the servants of Imam al-Husayn. But because I am sitting in the blessed holy city of Karbala al-Muqaddisa and within this holy city, besides the precincts of the shrine, there is a special memory dedicated to the great personality of Imam Muhammad al-Shirazi. I feel that I am obliged to some degree due to the greatness of this sacred gathering to introduce this man to you so that you may not only be familiar with his work from the laws of Zahra, alaihi salam, but indeed you would also become familiar with this great momentous scholar of Islamic philosophy, theology, jurisprudence and indeed all disciplines of the Islamic sciences and indeed you would be able to appreciate the context in which the work from the laws of Zahra was initially written. The great al-Muhammad ibn Mahdi al-Husayni al-Shirazi was born in the year 1928 in Iraq in the holy city of Najaf, the very resting place of Amir al-Mu'mineen, alaihi salam and indeed the very seat of what has now become the main hausa of Iraq after the death of the great reviver of the Islamic sciences, Sheikh Attaifa, Sheikh Atusi, who of course is the writer of two of the four books, namely, At-Tahweeb al-Ahkam and Al-Istibsar. Although Muhammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi was born in the holy city of Najaf, he would primarily become known as a figure whose thought process, whose influence culturally over the entire Islamic world had spread initially from the holy city of Karbala al-Muqaddisa and that's why one finds that when they come to visit the holy city of Karbala, they often find when they visit the markets, when they visit the shops, when they visit even places which have no relation to Islamic studies such as travel agents, they might indeed find the picture of Imam Muhammad al-Shirazi placed on the walls of these places because indeed the people of Karbala have a great degree of respect for Imam Muhammad al-Shirazi and it is with great unfortunate that unfortunately this great alim who exerted much effort in spreading the teachings of the Ahl al-Bait was oppressed in his own time. What do I mean by oppressed? Unfortunately it is not something we like to do to engage in discussions pertaining to the fitna, the trials and tribulations of the Muslim Ummah and particularly amongst us the Shia. But one of the factors which influenced the oppression of Imam Muhammad al-Shirazi within his own lifetime was the very fact that he was a scholar who had studied predominantly in the holy city of Karbala. One might be surprised how could someone judge a scholar for the fact that he had studied in Karbala's house. Surely the house of Karbala, the very city in which Imam al-Hussein the master of all the martyrs is buried is no doubt a place where knowledge can be sought and no doubt a place where many of the great olama before our time have been buried and had studied people like Ibn Fahad al-Helli who until today his hausa remains intact. Yet one finds that unfortunately due to the squabblings of some people who were jealous of Imam al-Shirazi there was a particular slander campaign to try and belittle him, to try and demean him purely based on the fact he had studied and brought his message from the holy city of Karbala. One finds such a thing surprising for surely anyone who is familiar with the institution of the hausa knows that the hausa has never been confined to the holy city of Najaf. Indeed one who studies the history of the Shia will know that at one point the hausa was an institution found in many different cities of the world sometimes including cities that would surprise us today such as Halep. Halep in Syria, one of the areas which is of course now under much scrutiny due to the current situation we live in was at one point a Shia center of learning likewise we find that the hausa at one point was based in Jabal al-Amal in Lebanon or even at another point when the situation under the Ottoman Empire had reached such a point in which Shias were being persecuted the hausa was eventually moved to Lucknow of course existing in other places but Lucknow in India at such a point became the main seat of the institutions of education for the Shia clerics. Back to the life of Imam Muhammad Ashirazi unfortunately as I said he was an individual who was slandered often by people who did not understand him people who were jealous of him yet when we look towards this great thinker we find that he was a thinker in numerous dimensions allow me to introduce some of his intellectual feats some of his intellectual achievements he was a man who successfully published 1,200 books according to that which we know and indeed there may indeed be some works which have not been published until now in fact his great set the Encyclopedia of Fiqh, the Encyclopedia of jurisprudence don't be confused by the name when we say Encyclopedia of jurisprudence Imam Muhammad Ashirazi was not concerned with restricting himself to the typical abwah the typical chapters of jurisprudence which we concern ourselves with now namely muamalat and ibadat or transactions in addition to worship indeed he did write about these things but in addition to that he wrote this magnificent Encyclopedia covering the jurisprudence of everything from the jurisprudence of Hadith as it's known as the book of Fiqh of the purified sunnah in which he talks about how one engages with narrations to jurisprudence of dealing with the Quran this great mursura, this great Encyclopedia is 150 volumes and unfortunately today one finds it an extremely rare Encyclopedia to get hold of but such an Encyclopedia shows the great intellectual achievements reached by Imam Muhammad Ashirazi should we confine him however to works of traditional olama is he someone who merely focused upon usul the science of deriving laws is he someone who merely focused on jurisprudence absolutely not when we turn back to the works of Muhammad Ashirazi we find that he was what we would know what we would refer to in Arabic is Al-Mursali he was someone that had a message that he felt should be brought to the entire world Sayyid Muhammad Hussaini Ashirazi was someone who believed that Islam is not just something which encompasses the very basics of jurisprudence our relationship of Allah as a job he was someone who believed that Islam encompassed our relationship with others in society he is someone that believed that the message of the Ahl al-Bayt alayhum as-salam could be imposed, could be used to deal with everything that we encounter in our lives not someone who decided to reduce the Ahl al-Bayt and their role to one of merely well this is the time for religion and this is the time for the rest of my life and I'm going to be secular no Sayyid Al-Imam Muhammad Ashirazi was someone who placed a great emphasis on the impact of the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt when we refer back to some of his other works we can see he was a great scholar who was particularly well read not only in the traditional classical Islamic sciences but also well read in general what do I mean by this when we look at books such as the philosophy of history we see that Imam Muhammad Ashirazi was someone who was well engaged with the western philosophical tradition do I mean solely the western philosophical tradition which can be isolated to the time of the deviated Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato and Socrates no absolutely not Muhammad Ashirazi may God have mercy upon his soul and may he reward him for the great works he has done was someone who was familiar with even contemporary western philosophy dialectical philosophy, Marxist philosophy and in fact one finds in his book the philosophy of history that he engages with many of these views he engages with the views of the secular western historians and philosophers in order to refute them and demonstrate that no, Islam or the Quran and the Rwaita of the Ahl al-Bait but more particularly the Quran give us a specific insight into what Allah Azawajal would be giving us as the accurate philosophy of history is there a philosophy of history and indeed if there is can we find it within the scriptures now of course there are people out there who would believe that no unfortunately the Ahl al-Bait only came to give us religious injunctions they only came to give us injunctions particularly pertaining to worship there were people who gave us solely injunctions pertaining to worship rituals and dealings with others no, Muhammad al-Sirazi argues that indeed the Quran as the word of Allah Azawajal as that which describes itself as an explication for everything would naturally include details of the philosophy of history and that's why when you refer back to such a work you can find in detail the engagements of Imam Muhammad al-Sirazi with these western philosophers responding to them using Ayat of the Quran using verses of the Quran which other scholars when they engaged with them believed that they were restricted to solely one context a context of giving us laws a context of giving us stories and parables they did not derive a general trend from these stories in the same way that Imam Muhammad al-Sirazi has done you find that the oppression of Sayyid Muhammad al-Husayni al-Sirazi has continued and perpetuated even after the great Alam's death which occurred in the month of December in the year 2001 according to the Gregorian calendar unfortunately there are those in the world who, due to a rather simplistic view believe that Muhammad al-Sirazi was someone who was concerned with things that bring the Muslims and particularly the Shia backwards allow me to engage with unfortunately this disgusting slanderous effect which has come from particular groups wishing to be mean belittle this great personality we find that Muhammad al-Sirazi contrary to what is claimed by his opponents opponents who have never read a book of his in their life is not someone who considered himself to be dealing with solely issues such as the Husayni rituals yes, the Husayni rituals according to Muhammad al-Sirazi were of the great and utmost importance to the religion of Islam no Alam would deny this for certainly Sayyid al-Shuhada was the very embodiment of Islam someone who sacrificed his life in order that this religion would preserve and through his revolution it is thanks to it that we are today Shia and we even have heard of the Quran have heard of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi have heard of the Ahl al-Bayt but one finds that there are some people who wish to so should we we could say restrict the message of Imam Muhammad al-Sirazi to being one solely of dealing and promoting the Husayni rituals one who reads the books of Muhammad al-Sirazi one who even reads a list of the books of Muhammad al-Sirazi a list of the names, titles offered by Imam Muhammad al-Sirazi would know that this is a great slander and that the Sayyids worked on writing many more books on things other than the Husayni rituals and indeed was busy trying to promote the idea of a global state under the name of the Ahl al-Bayt a global state with no borders in which the Muslims would have self-determination and be able to combat enemies such as the Zionist entity Dear viewers you've been listening to some of the glimpse of the life of the great Alim Imam Muhammad al-Husayni al-Sirazi the author of the work we will be going through namely from the laws of Zahra alayhi salam Insha'Allah ta'ala after the break we will continue with going through some of the details surrounding the life of the great Alim Muhammad al-Husayni al-Sirazi Insha'Allah ta'ala you'll join me all after the break Grand Ayatollah Muhammad al-Sirazi was the religious authority merged to millions of Shi'a Muslim around the global a charismatic leader who is known for his high moral values modesty and spirituality he is a mentor and source of aspiration to the millions and the means of access to authentic knowledge and teachings of Islam he has made extensive contributions in fields of learning ranging from jurisprudence and theology to politics law and sociology Sayyid Muhammad al-Sirazi was born in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq in 1374 after Hijra 1927 AD he belongs to a distinguished family deeply rooted in Islamic science literature and virtue his followers are found in many countries in the global Grand Ayatollah al-Sirazi was distinguished for his intellectual ability and holistic vision he was recognized for his clear ideas and realistic solutions to issues of concern to mankind he has written various specialized studies that are concerned to be among the most important references in the Islamic sciences of beliefs and doctrine, ethics politics, economics, sociology law, human rights, etc he has enriched the world with his staggering contributions of some 1300 books, treaties and studies on various branches of learning his works range from simple introductory books for the young generations to literary and scientific masterpieces deeply rooted in the holy Quran and the teachings of the prophet of Islam his visions and theories covers areas as politics, economics government, management, sociology theology, philosophy history and Islamic law his work on Islamic jurisprudence for example, contributes 150 volumes which run into more than 55,000 pages through his original thoughts and ideas he has championed the causes of issues such as the family, human rights, freedom of expression political pluralism non-violence and surah or consultative system of leadership Grand Ayatollah al-Sirazi believes in the fundamental and elementary nature of freedom in mankind he calls for freedom of expressions, political plurality debate and discussion tolerance and forgiveness he strongly believes in the consultative system of leadership and calls for the establishment of the leadership council of religious authorities he calls for the establishment of the universal Islamic government to encompass all the Muslim countries Dear viewers, thank you for enduring with that short break now let us return to analyzing the great life of the author of the work from the laws of Zahra namely the great Ayatollah al-Ovma Imam Muhammad Ibn Mahdi al-Hussaini Shirazi as I had mentioned prior to the break this oppression done to the personality of the great Imam is one which has continued and persisted even after the great alims passing away and it is with great unfortunate that such a persecution such a critique has been leveled against his great and blessed personality allow me to engage with some more of these critiques in order that we might understand the life of this great alim and whenever you hear someone tell you some of these critiques question why is it that he wishes to say these things why is it that he is speaking of a great alim in such a way and indeed we all seek refuge with Allah Azawajal from speaking against the great ulama and I take this advice upon myself before anyone else we seek refuge with the fitna that exists amongst our community indeed we see that we live in a time in which the shea of Iraq, the shea of Pakistan are being slaughtered irregardless of who they are and yet we find that the shea of themselves are busying themselves with saying he is a maqallid of X he is a maqallid of Y he follows this train of thought and he follows that train of thought and we pray that Allah Azawajal saves us from such deviation and such a derivation from the true teachings of Islam back to the slander which is leveled against the personality of the great saeed we find that some people try and claim that the saeed was busying himself with sowing the seeds of disunity amongst the Muslims as opposed to dealing and tackling the main enemy of the time namely the Zionist entity such could not be further from the truth when one returns back to the books of the saeed one finds that the saeed was extremely emphatic was extremely placing a lot of detail on refuting the Zionist entity on refuting the existence of Israel and placing an emphasis on combating such an opponent to the shia we find that the saeed was someone who talked constantly about the need for Muslims to unite of course the saeed like all other great scholars of Islamic sciences was someone who placed an emphasis on unity built and based upon the correct foundations a unity which involved us returning back to the message of the Quran and indeed the message of the Ahl al-Bait the saeed was no apologist in that regard and indeed when one returns back to the book from the laws of Zahra the saeed demonstrates such a position using the very speech of Sayyid al-Fatima al-Zahra herself but isn't fair to say that the saeed was by any means this takfiri that is made out was someone who derived the real intention of and focus of the Muslims from the real outer enemy towards focusing on an inner enemy this is by no means correct and for those who wish to read further the approach of the saeed in regards to sectarianism they can refer back to his booklet Salahuddin al-Ayubi may God separate him from his mercy the great tyrant the title of the book is called Salahuddin al-Ayubi and the problem of sectarianism in which the saeed deals specifically with the issue of sectarianism and how it is an issue which has plagued the Muslim world and what the solutions to this are and how we should distance ourselves from certain historical personalities in regards to other works of the saeed I myself was an individual who had not heard of the great saeed until I relocated to London the capital of the UK indeed I am originally from Scotland and whilst I was in Scotland one of my friends who I met via some mutual context after reverting to the true faith or converting to the true faith as I prefer to say introduced me to the office of the saeed and indeed one of the Scottish converts was a prominent translator of the works of the saeed through coming to read these works they served as the basic introductory collection of books which I used to derive my basic knowledge of Islam many of the books of the saeed have been translated into the English language books such as the Quran when and how was it compiled books such as the family all these books are very useful introductions to the faith useful introductions at the point of view to in common polemics leveled against the belief of the true teachings of Islam namely the Shia leveled against us by others who claims to be following the religion of Islam and if only these books would be paid attention more of only these books would be paid more attention to we would find that the Muslim would be in a much better situation today the media has a focus on the religion of Islam today when the media talks about Islam what do you expect them to think the main voices of Islam the main proponents of Islam according to the view of media and I don't deny that there clearly is a media agenda at times to present Muslims in a negative light but who are the more vocal voices of Islam in the world today we look at the media and we see that the focus is now placed on revivalist Wahhabi groups such as ISIS or ISIL as it's occasionally known a group spreading its filth and vile corruption in the blessed nation of Iraq such a group claims to be speaking in the name of the Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala claims to be speaking in the name of the religion of Islam claims to be speaking in the name of the Quran yet we find that such people take the verses of the Quran and the teachings of Rasulullah out of context in addition to spreading fabricated teachings attributed to the messenger of Allah may peace and blessings be upon him and his holy family when we turn back to the books of Imam Muhammad al-Hussein we find that he had placed an emphasis on countering such a movement and emphasis on countering the propaganda which had spread to the west of Islam how? he did so through writing books books which brought the true message of Islam now indeed that's a very generic thing for me to say every aalim writes books and particularly if he follows the true mafhab of Islam, if he follows the true path of Islam, the Ahlul Bayt then inshallah he is also writing books which bring the truth of Islam to other people when we look at the revolutionary spirit of Imam Muhammad al-Shirazi we find he was writing books such as Islam peace and non-violence emphasising that Islam is not intrinsically a violent religion emphasising that the main aim of the religion of Islam is peace indeed the sayids in such books places an emphasis on the need to spread peace and how Islam under no circumstances justifies violence except in retaliation in defence that's why the sayid in his mousu'at of fiqh in the book of jihad proves that the jihad, the wars of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa ala were all defensive our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa ala was not this vile warmongering individual as is claimed by those speaking in the name of the messenger of Allah those deviated groups who are killing every community here in Iraq under the name of Islam we find that through such works the sayids had emphasised a return to the true Islam the Islam of the Ahlul Bayt and more importantly through doing such we find that the sayids was continuing the mission of Sayyid al-Fatima al-Zahra alayhi sallam and of course I don't mean to liken the sayid to a mousoon I don't mean to liken the sayid to an infallible for indeed none can be compared with Ali Muhammad as the Rwayat say but let's compare the focus of the book of fiqh al-Zahra what it is studying to the work of the great sayid the work of fiqh al-Zahra is a work analysing two narrated one could say documents but two narrated narrations or parts of speech on the authority of Sayyid al-Fatima al-Zahra alayhi sallam namely the famous hadith al-Qisa the hadith or the narration of the cloak as is narrated by Fatima al-Zahra alayhi sallam to Jabra the great sayid Imam Muhammad al-Shirazi himself narrated directly from his own chain of authorities all the way back to Sayyid al-Fatima al-Zahra and indeed the great khutbah of Sayyid al-Fatima al-Zahra in which he refutes the claims of those speaking in the name of Islam it is in this the khutbah of Sayyid al-Fatima al-Zahra which we will be analysing in a few episodes of Sayyid's work from the laws of Zahra in which Fatima al-Zahra alayhi sallam challenges a deviated claimant to authority she challenges this authority using the Quran and the narrations and proves as the daughter of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi that such people are a deviated sect a deviated corrupt group of militants speaking in the name of Islam attributing things in the name of Rasulullah in which they have no authority to speak likewise, the Sayyid in writing such works was challenging the authority of the modern day Saqifah party people such as ISIS people speaking in the name of Islam with no authority I pray dear viewers that you benefited from this short introduction to the lifetime of Sayyid Muhammad al-Shirazi Rahmatullah alayhi and I would pray that you all investigate more into this great scholar's life and more importantly, those who are familiar with him and have benefited from his works I pray that we all recite a fatah upon his blessed soul and I pray that you will join me for the next episodes in which we will continue by analyzing the personality of Sayyid al-Fatima al-Zahra alayhi sallam sallamu alaykum wa rahmatullah