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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Islam and the Contemporary Man Chapter 9: Miscellaneous Questions The Question of Imprecation Question In “ Al-Tafsir al-Mizan ” you say that even in this age any believer who encounters the appropriate situation may perform imprecation [ mubahalah ]. Can just any believer undertake this grave task?

Answer There are indications in the Qur’anic verse in which the issue of imprecation is mentioned (3:61) from which we may deduce that it is a general practice, not a one-time event that happened between the Prophet and the Christians of Najran. Moreover, there are hadith s narrated from the Imams that clearly indicate that all believers may perform imprecation when the circumstances call for it.

In a debate that Imam al-Baqir had with ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umayr Laythi on the question of temporary marriage, the Imam invites his opponent, when neither succeeded in convincing the other, to engage in mutual imprecation. In another hadith , the Imam advises a Shi‘ah, who had been engaged in theological debates with some Sunni scholars, to call his opponents to enter upon mutual imprecation.

Thus we can conclude that imprecation is a general solution that God has established in support of the defenders of truth. The Inviolability of the Qur’an Question What is your view on whether the Qur’an has been distorted or not? Considering the fact that a certain Shi‘ah scholar has written a book, contending that the Qur’an has been distorted, there are two questions that I would like you to address. One, what can we say in response to the Sunnis who condemn us for such issues?

Two, how can the hadith s recorded in that book—averring that the Qur’an has been distorted—be justified? Answer The hadith s regarding the distortion of the Qur’an are numerous, relayed through both the Sunni and Shi‘ah chains of transmission. Some traditionists [ ahl al-hadith ] have accepted these hadith s. The problem with these hadith s, however, is that they are self-defeating: to accept them would lead to rejecting their validity.

For, the authenticity of hadith presupposes that the Imams are valid Islamic authorities. That in turn depends on the authority of the Prophet’s words (as we believe that the Prophet appointed the Imams as his successors). The authority of the words of the Prophet derives from the Qur’an as the most fundamental proof of his ministry.