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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Shiite Apologetics Question Thirty-one What criterion is there for Dissimulation ? Answer: Taqiyyah, i.e. dissimulation which means keeping ones heart felt belief in secret has the Quran as its source and is a religious duty of every Muslim to employ it in order to prevent the adversaries from causing physical, spiritual and religious harms.

Dissimulation as Viewed by the Quran The Quran contains various verses in regard to dissimulation, two of which are as follows: Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends - rather than the believers for whoso does that belongs not to God in anything unless you have a fear of them.

3:28 Whoso disbelieves in God, after he has believed excepting him who has been compelled and his heart is still at rest in his belief but whosoevers breast is expanded in unbelief, upon them shall rest anger from God, and there awaits them a mighty chastisement. 16:106 The exegesists mention the following occasion as the foreground for the revelation of the above verse: The infidels who had arrested `Ammar ibn Yasir and his parents demanded that they deny their faith and pronounce disbelief.

`Ammar's companions pronounced their faith in God and in the Prophethood of the Holy Prophet; some of them were, as a result, killed. Contrary to his heartfelt conviction, `Ammar, did not disclose his belief, but outwardly uttered what the pagans had told him to and was set free. Deeply worried and unhappy about what he had said, `Ammar returned to the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his descendants, who comforted him.

The above verse was then revealed on this occasion.[1] This sacred verse and the interpretations that the exegesists have made reveal the fact that dissimulation was recognized at the time of the Prophet and was practiced to prevent physical and spiritual harms.

Dissimulation as the Shiites View it Due to the history-long animosity the despotic Umayyad and `Abbasid rulers showed against the Shiites and the attempts they made in massacring the Shiites,[2] the latter group concealed their true faith as the Quran had ordered them to and were thus able to survive those difficult conditions.

It is clear that in such a suffocating and oppressive atmosphere as the one mentioned above no other solution could be conceived of to save the Shiites from the devastating hurricane of the tyranny that threatened to [1] Al-Durr al-Manthur, vol. 4, p. 131.