skills/sistani-guidance/references/books/worship/pages-001-012.md

# Summary of the Rules of Worship

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## PDF PAGE 1

```text
Summary of the Rules of
Worship
According to the Verdicts of the Esteemed
Religious Authority
Al-Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani
Translated by
Jawid Akbari
```

## PDF PAGE 2

```text
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate the Merciful
```

## PDF PAGE 3

```text
3 | S u m m a r y  o f  t h e  R u l e s  o f  W o r s h i p
In the Name of Allah, the Most High
This treatise (Summary of the Rules of Worship) is in accordance
with the verdicts of the esteemed religious authority, al-Sayyid
al-Sistani (may he live long). Whosoever acts upon the Sharīʿa
rules contained herein, shall be fulfilling his religious obligations.
Office of Al-Sayyid Al-Sistani
The Holy City of Najaf
```

## PDF PAGE 4

```text
Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................... 6
Rules of Taqlīd (Emulation) ................................................................ 7
Rules of Purity (Ṭahāra) .................................................................... 11
Chapter One ....................................................................................... 12
Purification from Minor Impurity ...................................................... 12
1. Wuḍū (Ablution) ............................................................................ 13
2. Ghusl (Bathing) ............................................................................. 16
Rules for Ghusl with Bandages (Ghusl Jabīra) ......................... 17
Causes Requiring Ghusl ............................................................ 17
A) Janābah .................................................................................... 18
Causes of Janābah ..................................................................... 18
Acts Requiring Ghusl Janābah .................................................. 18
B) Menstruation (Hayḍ) ................................................................. 19
C) Postnatal bleeding (Nifās) ......................................................... 20
D) Istiḥāḍa (Irregular Bleeding) .................................................... 21
E) Death ......................................................................................... 22
F) Touching a Dead Body .............................................................. 22
Recommended Ghusls ................................................................... 22
3. Tayammum ................................................................................. 23
Chapter Two ....................................................................................... 26
Purification from Impurities .............................................................. 26
Purifiers ......................................................................................... 27
First Purifier: Water ................................................................... 27
Second Purifier: Sun .................................................................. 29
Third Purifier: Removal of the Essential Impurity .................... 29
Fourth Purifier: Earth ................................................................. 30
Fifth Purifier: Subservience (Taba'iyat) ..................................... 30
Sixth Purifier: Converting to Islam ............................................ 30
Seventh Purifier: Absence of a Muslim ..................................... 30
Eighth Purifier: Transfer ............................................................ 30
```

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5 | S u m m a r y  o f  t h e  R u l e s  o f  W o r s h i p
Ninth Purifier: Transformation (Istiḥāla) .................................. 30
Tenth Purifier: Excretion of Blood ............................................ 31
Eleventh Purifier: Conversion (Inqilāb) .................................... 31
Twelfth Purifier: Confinement of Animal that Eats Impurities.. 31
Rules of Prayer .................................................................................. 32
Components and Obligations of Prayer ......................................... 37
Things Which Invalidate Prayers ................................................... 41
Doubts in Prayer ............................................................................ 42
Congregational Prayer ................................................................... 44
Traveler’s Prayer ............................................................................ 49
Qaḍā Prayer ................................................................................... 51
Prayer of Signs (Ṣalāt al-Ᾱyāt) ...................................................... 52
Friday Prayer ................................................................................. 53
Rules of Fasting ................................................................................. 54
Rules of Ḥajj ...................................................................................... 59
Rules of Zakāt .................................................................................... 62
First Category: Zakāt on Wealth .................................................... 62
Taxable limit for camels: ........................................................... 62
Taxable limit for sheep: ............................................................. 63
Conditions for Zakāt on Trading Goods: ................................... 65
Disposal of Zakāt ....................................................................... 65
Conditions for Recipients of Zakāt ............................................ 66
Second Category: Zakāt al-Fiṭr ...................................................... 66
Rules of Khums ................................................................................. 68
Rules of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil .................................. 72
```

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```text
Introduction
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and may peace and
blessings be upon the best of His creation, Muḥammad, and his
pure and noble family.
The following treatise is a summary of the rules of worship,
covering the most important rulings on the five acts of worship
(prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, Zakāt, and Khums). It also includes
selected rulings on purity, taqlīd, and enjoining good and
forbidding evil.
This treatise has been prepared and organized in accordance with
the fatwas of the esteemed religious authority, Al-Sayyid Ali al-
Husayni al-Sistani (may he live long), at the request of a group of
his followers.
We ask Almighty Allah that this treatise be beneficial for the
believers and that He grants us success in pursuing what pleases
Him.
```

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```text
7 | S u m m a r y  o f  t h e  R u l e s  o f  W o r s h i p
Rules of Taqlīd (Emulation)
 Issue 1: The sacred Sharīʿa law includes obligatory acts
(wajibāt) and prohibitions (muḥarramāt). Every duty-bound
person (mukallaf) must adhere to these laws and ensure his
actions align with them. For most non-jurists (non-mujtahids),
acting upon Sharīʿa law is usually possible through one of two
methods:
1. Taqlīd (emulation): This means the duty-bound person
performs his actions according to the fatwa (juridical opinion) of
a qualified mujtahid.
2. Iḥtiyāṭ (precaution): This involves acting on such precaution
which should assure him that he has fulfilled his religious
obligation. For example, if there is a possibility that announcing
the call to prayer (Iqāma) is obligatory, one must perform it.
Similarly, if one suspects that smoking is forbidden and wants to
be cautious, he must abstain from it.
In other cases, precaution might require performing an act in
multiple ways. For instance, a traveler who wants to be cautious
might need to perform the Ẓuhr prayer both in its shortened (qaṣr)
and complete (tamām) forms.
It is worth noting that understanding the methods to exercise
precaution often requires extensive knowledge of jurisprudence,
which is not accessible to most people in the Islamic community.
Additionally, precaution can often be difficult or sometimes
impossible. These factors make taqlid the best option for most
mukallafs to fulfill their religious obligations.
 Issue 2: The age of religious obligation (taklīf) begins for girls
after they complete nine lunar years (approximately eight years,
eight months, and twenty days in solar years) and for boys when
they complete fifteen lunar years (approximately fourteen years,
six months, and fifteen days in solar years). However, if a boy
exhibits any of the following signs before reaching fifteen lunar
years, he is considered to have hit puberty:
1. Growth of coarse hair below the navel, above the genital area.
2. Emission of semen, whether awake or asleep.
```

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```text
3. Growth of coarse hair on the face or above the lips
(moustache).
 Issue 3: A mujtahid who meets the following criteria is qualified
for taqlid:
1. Be of legal age (bāligh).
2. Be of sound mind (ʿaql).
3. Be male.
4. Be of legitimate birth, i.e., he should have been born in
accordance with Islamic laws, not from adultery.
5. Be a believer (muʾmin), i.e., follow the Ithnā ʿAsharī Shīʿa.
6. Be just (ʿādil), meaning he is steadfast in the ways of Islam,
performing obligatory acts, and refraining from prohibitions.
7. Not make frequent mistakes, forget, or be negligent in matters
related to jurisprudential expertise.
 Issue 4: If multiple mujtahids meet the aforementioned criteria
and have differing fatwas in many jurisprudential matters, as it is
usually the case, the following scenarios apply:
First Scenario: If it is proven to the duty-bound person that one
mujtahid is more learned (aʿlam) than the others, he must follow
him.
Second Scenario: If it is proven that two mujtahids are more
learned than the others but are equal in knowledge, or it is
unknown which one is more learned, and if it is also proven that
one of these two is more pious -- he is more precise and exercise
more precaution in the sense that he applies all his faculties to
find out what in all probability is the law -- then it is obligatory
to follow the more pious one. If this is not proven, the duty-bound
person can follow the fatwa of either one, except in certain
specific cases as explained in Islamic Laws.
Third Scenario: If it is proven that one mujtahid is the most
learned but the duty-bound cannot identify who he is, he must
exercise precaution among the fatwas of the mujtahids of whom
one is believed to be the most learned. Exceptions to this rule are
also detailed in the book of Islamic Laws.
Issue 5: The preeminence in knowledge (aʿlamiyya) of a
mujtahid can be established through one of two ways:
```

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9 | S u m m a r y  o f  t h e  R u l e s  o f  W o r s h i p
1. Testimony from a reliable person with sufficient expertise in
this area, such as qualified mujtahids and experts, or individuals
with knowledge close to ijtihād. This testimony is valid unless
contradicted by others of the same qualifications, in which case,
the testimony of those with greater expertise and specialization is
preferred.
2. The mukallaf (duty-bound person) attains knowledge or
certainty about the mujtahid's preeminence in knowledge through
generally accepted rational means, such as widespread
acknowledgment among scholars or by personally evaluating the
mujtahid's scholarly level if he himself the necessary expertise.
 Issue 6: If a person believes that a certain mujtahid is more
learned and follows his rulings, but later becomes convinced of
the scholarly preeminence (aʿlamiyya) of another mujtahid, he
must switch his taqlīd to the second mujtahid.
 Issue 7: If the mujtahid whom the mukallaf follows passes away,
and the deceased mujtahid is more learned than all the living
mujtahids, the mukallaf should continue following the deceased
mujtahid. This applies regardless of whether the mukallaf has
acted according to the deceased's fatwas or learned them.
However, if over time a living mujtahid becomes more learned
than the deceased mujtahid, the mukallaf must switch to the living
mujtahid, as the validity of taqlīd is based on following the most
learned.
Issue 8: It is not permissible to begin following a deceased
mujtahid, even if he is more learned than all the living mujtahids.
Issue 9: If the most learned mujtahid has no fatwa on a specific
issue, or the mukallaf cannot access his opinion when needed, it
is permissible to refer to another mujtahid, making sure he is the
next most learned one.
Issue 10: The rulings in this treatise that are expressed as
"obligatory precaution" are those cases where one can refer to
another mujtahid, observing the hierarchy among the mujtahids
in terms of preeminence in knowledge. It should be noted that
"obligatory precaution" is expressed in various ways in this
treatise:
1. Sometimes it is explicitly stated, such as "as an obligatory
precaution, one should wipe the feet up to the ankle joint."
```

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```text
2. Sometimes it is implied, as in "if one washes the face starting
from the bottom or the middle, the ablution is problematic."
3. Sometimes a ruling or fatwa is conditioned with the phrase
"based on precaution," such as "one who travels after the call to
noon prayer must, based on precaution, complete their fast."
4. In some cases, only the term "precaution" is mentioned without
specifying a ruling or fatwa, such as "if a dog's saliva falls into a
container, the precaution is to first rub the container with earth
and then wash it three times with water."
```

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```text
11 | S u m m a r y  o f  t h e  R u l e s  o f  W o r s h i p
Rules of Purity (Ṭahāra)
The sacred Islamic law places great emphasis on cleanliness and
purification, which extends beyond merely defining impurities; it
also does not content itself with explaining the methods of
cleansing from them—referred to in Islamic jurisprudence as
"purification from khabath (filth)." It encompasses the spiritual
purification of a person as well. This is because humans can
experience states of spiritual darkness (najāsat) where they are
not fully prepared to turn their attention towards their Lord. This
state in Islamic jurisprudence is called "hadath" and it is divided
into two types: minor (ḥadath aṣghar) and major (ḥadath akbar).
Each type has its causes and means of purification.
Islamic law has designated ablution (wuḍū) as the means to
remove the effects of minor impurity (ḥadath aṣghar) and the
ritual bath (ghusl) as the means to remove the effects of major
impurity (ḥadath akbar). In certain special circumstances where
these two are not feasible, dry ablution (tayammum) is prescribed
as a substitute.
Given the importance of spiritual aspects, Islamic law encourages
the mukallaf (legally responsible individual) to perform ghusl in
certain states and times, even if no impurity has occurred. These
ritual baths are considered mustaḥabb (recommended), such as
the Friday bath (Ghusl al-Jumuʿah) and the baths on the nights of
Qadr in the holy month of Ramaḍān.
With these principles clarified, we will now present the laws of
purification in the following two chapters.
```

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```text
Chapter One
Purification from Minor Impurity
```