Another example...

Another example, which we would like to cite here, is that when this individual is asked about the reason why he justifies gambling, he immediately seeks to justify it by saying that Imam al-Khomeini (aa) contradicted the consensus when he regarded playing chess as permissible, and that chess is gambling...!

But the Sayyid Imam did not declare chess, which is a gambling game, as permissible; rather, he, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “Chess, if it is outside the gambling tools, may be played.” This issue is conditional. Satisfying the condition does not mean satisfying both of its ends. Yet it is quite obvious that issuing a verdict by saying something is permissible if it satisfies a condition does not mean that it contradicts those who issue a verdict without tying it to a condition.

When someone hoards a heap of verdicts which are quite unusual to a noticeable extent, we find him justifying all of that by claiming that so-and-so from among the scholars has issued such a verdict and that the other scholar said such-and-such about it, and so on...!

But we do not know why such an individual can be right with regard to specific issues wherein he became the exception to the rule and regarding which he agreed with other scholars, yet some make errors in their verdicts and this famous individual goes along with their error in other verdicts the judgment in which is contrary to his own, let alone their error in what they became the exception to the known rule and were not endorsed by the same individual!

Yet the collection of many odd verdicts issued by one person may lead to this person getting out of the circle of the sect’s fiqh , the sect to which he belongs. One Faqih may be endorsed in some of his odd verdicts which are very few in number and which are harmless and do not get him out of the mainstream of the sect to which he belongs.

Such is this introduction, and now let us enter the subject on which we must focus and say: Consensus Regarding Oppression There are some people who say that there is a consensus of some sort that al-Zahra’ (sa) was oppressed, beaten and even caused to miscarry, but someone cast doubt about such a consensus and was not convinced by the summary provided by al-Shafi derived from the text of the sect’s Shaikh (mentor), namely al-Tusi, that there is no argument among the Shi’as that Fatima (sa) was subjected to beating and miscarriage.