Discharging mazalim

Priority: c, Quality: b
From wikishia

Discharging mazālim or Radd al-mazālim (Arabic: رد المظالم) refers to discharge of properties and debts which a person is supposed to return. In Shi'a hadiths, discharging mazalim is mentioned among the conditions of acceptance of repentance by God. According to the fatwa of Shia jurists, discharging mazalim is obligatory. In discharging mazalim, properties with unknown owner should be given as charity to poor people, by the permission of the marja'. In jurisprudence references, discharging mazalim has been mentioned in discussions regarding khums, enjoining good and prohibiting the evil, rulings regarding a dead person, will and usurpation.

Different Definitions

Discharging mazalim refers to discharge of properties and debts which a person is supposed to return.[1] However, different definitions have been proposed regarding which the properties and debts are meant:

Asad Allah Shushtari, among the scholars of 13th/19th century, wrote that, "mazalim is the plural form of mazlama meaning properties and debts of others upon a person to return; such as a property acquired through usurpation or theft.[2] Nasir Makarim Shirazi considers mazalim as forbidden properties which are with a person, and he does not know the owner of them."[3]

According to Aqa Muhammad Ali Kirmanshahi, son of Wahid al-Bihbahani, mazalim are those properties and debts mixed with a person's properties and neither their measure, nor their owner is known.[4] Al-Sayyid Ali al-Sistani defined mazalim as properties which a person has caused their loss or has acquired out of injustice, whether or not their owner is known.[5]

In definition of Lutf Allah Safi Gulpayigani, mazalim refer to properties which are specified, but their owner is unknown.[6]

Significance in Hadiths and Jurisprudence

In Shi'a hadiths, discharging mazalim is mentioned among the conditions of acceptance of repentance by God[7] and abandoning it is considered among the sins which bring about afflictions.[8] In jurisprudence references, discharging mazalim has been mentioned in discussions regarding khums,[9] enjoining good and prohibiting the evil,[10] rulings regarding a dead person,[11] will and usurpation.[12]

Religious Ruling

Shi'a jurists consider discharging mazalim obligatory, the same as khums and zakat.[13] Some jurists including Muhammad Ishaq Fayyad have considered it immediate obligatory;[14] but, some others including Imam Khomeini said that if the person sees the signs of [imminent] death in himself, he should immediately discharge himself of mazalim.[15]

Method

According to marja's, if there is any property with the person, the owner of which is unknown or inaccessible, the person should get permission from the religious authority and give that property or its price (if it has been lost) to poor people as charity.[16] The fatwa of some marja's including Safi Gulpayigani is that it should be given only to those who are not Sayyid.[17]

There is no consensus among jurists regarding the ruling for the case when the owner is found after giving the property or its price as charity. According to Imam Khomeini's view, the obligatory precaution requires that the person pays its price to the owner; but, according to Ayatullah al-Khoei’s opinion, it is not necessary to give the owner anything.[18]

According to the fatwa of marja's, if the amount of property is not known, the person should make sulh with the owner;[19] meaning that they achieve each other's consent; but, if the owner does not give consent, only the price the person is definite of being in charge should be paid. However, recommended precaution requires to pay more.[20]

Notes

  1. Kirmānshāhī, Maqāmiʿ al-faḍl, vol. 1, p. 105.
  2. Tustarī Kāzimī, Miqbās al-anwār, p. 264.
  3. Makārim Shīrāzī, Istiftāʾāt-i jadīd, vol. 3, p. 561.
  4. Kirmānshāhī, Maqāmiʿ al-faḍl, vol. 1, p. 105.
  5. Question and answer: Discharging mazālim (Persian).
  6. Ṣāfī Gulpāygānī, Jāmiʿ al-aḥkām, vol. 1, p. 161.
  7. Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 16, p. 52; Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 41, p. 113.
  8. Tamīmī Maghribī, Daʿāʾim al-Islām, p. 270.
  9. Anṣārī, Kitāb al-khums, p. 268; Khomeini, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 1, p. 363.
  10. Ḥillī, Mukhtalaf al-Shīʿa, vol. 4, p. 461.
  11. Ibn Ṭāwūs, Falāḥ al-sāʾil, p. 64.
  12. ʿĀmilī, Miftāḥ al-karāma, vol. 23, p. 290.
  13. See: Anṣārī, Ṣiyagh al-ʿuqūd wa l-īqāʿāt, p. 141; Khomeinī, Tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil, p. 578; Bahjat, Risāla-yi Tawḍīh al-masāʾil, p. 436.
  14. Fayyāḍ Kābulī, Risāla-yi Tawḍīh al-masāʾil, p. 119.
  15. Banī Hāshimī Khomeinī, Tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil-i marājiʿ, vol. 2, p. 676.
  16. See: Khomeini, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 1, p. 363; Ṣāfī Gulpāygānī, Jāmiʿ al-aḥkām, vol. 1, p. 161; Makārim Shīrāzī, Istiftāʾāt-i jadīd, vol. 3, p. 561.
  17. Ṣāfī Gulpāygānī, Jāmiʿ al-aḥkām, vol. 1, p. 161.
  18. Banī Hāshimī Khomeinī, Tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil-i marājiʿ, vol. 2, p. 49- 50.
  19. Khomeini, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 1, p. 363.
  20. Banī Hāshimī Khomeinī, Tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil-i marājiʿ, vol. 2, p. 48.

References

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  • Anṣārī, Murtaḍā. ṣiyagh al-ʿuqūd wa al-īqāʿāt. 1st edition. Qom: Majmaʿ andīsha Islāmī, 1421 AH.
  • ʿĀmilī, Sayyid Jawād. Miftāḥ al-karāma fī sharḥ qawāʿid al-ʿallāma. Edited by Muḥammad Bāqir Khāliṣī. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1419 AH.
  • Bahjat, Muḥammad Taqī. Risāla-yi Tawḍīh al-masāʾil. 92th edition. Qom: Shafaq, 1428 AH.
  • Banī Hāshimī Khomeinī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥasan. Tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil-i marājiʿ. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1424 AH.
  • Fayyāḍ Kābulī, Muḥammad Isḥāq. Risāla-yi Tawḍīh al-masāʾil. 1st edition. Qom: Intishārāt-i Majlisī, 1426 AH.
  • Ḥillī, Jaʿfar b. al-Ḥasan al-. Mukhtalaf al-Shīʿa fī aḥkām al-sharīʿa. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1413 AH.
  • Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt, 1409 AH.
  • Ibn Ṭāwūs, ʿAlī b. Mūsā. Falāḥ al-sāʾil wa najāḥ al-masāʾil fī ʿamal al-yawm wa al-laylah. Qom: Daftar-i Nashr-i Farhang-i Islāmī, 1406 AH.
  • Kirmānshāhī, Mūhammad ʿAlī. Maqāmiʿ al-faḍl. 1st edition. Qom: Muʾassisa ʿAllāma Wahīd Bihbahānī, 1421 AH.
  • Khomeini, Sayyid Rūḥ Allāh. Taḥrīr al-wasīla. Qom: Dār al-ʿIlm, [n.d].
  • Khomeinī, Sayyid Rūḥ Allāh. Tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil. Edited by Muslim Qulīpūr Gīlānī. [n.p], 1426 AH.
  • Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Istiftāʾāt-i jadīd. 2nd edition. Edited by: Abu al-Qāsim ʿilyān nijādī. Qom: Intishārāt-i Madrasa-yi Imām ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (a), 1429 AH.
  • Najafī, Muḥammad al-Ḥasan al-. Jawāhir al-kalām fī sharḥ sharāʾiʿ al-Islām. Edited by ʿAbbās Qūchānī & ʿAlī Ākhūndī. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1404 AH.
  • Ṣāfī Gulpāygānī, Luṭf Allāh. Jāmiʿ al-aḥkām. 4th edition. Qom: Intishārāt-i Haḍrat-i Maʿṣūma, 1417 AH.
  • Tamīmī Maghribī, Nuʿmān b. Muḥammad. Daʿāʾim al-Islām. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt, 1385 AH.
  • Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Tahdhīb al-aḥkām. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1407 AH.
  • Tustarī Kāzimī, Asad Allāh. Miqbās al-anwār wa nafāʾis al-asrār fī aḥkām al-nabīyy al-mukhtār wa ʿitrathih al-akhyār. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt li-Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth, [n.d].
  • پرسش و پاسخ رد مظالم (Question and answer: Discharging mazālim (Persian)). Accessed: 2024/02/19.