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Umra - Important Information and Update |
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The place where we perform our Saee – the walk between Safa and Marwa in Umra – is currently closed for renovation. They have built a new corridor for people to walk between Safa and Marwa adjacent to the old corridor and have diverted all traffic to this new corridor.
Clarification has been sought from Ayatullah Seestani's office who has ruled as under:
QUESTION:
What is the rule for a person in the state of Ihram (a Muhrim) during these times when the old corridor of Saee is closed and Saee is allowed only in the new corridor.
ANSWER:
This has several scenarios:
ONE:
That a person knows for certain that the two mountains (Safa and Marwa) are not large enough to be part of the new corridor. In this the case, the person can remove Ihram and treat oneself as a person prevented from doing Saee. Such a person (prevented from doing Saee) has to, according to compulsory precaution (Ihtiyate Wajib), slaughter an animal in Makkah before Taqseer. This is if a person did not have prior knowledge before wearing Ihram that he/she will not be able to easily perform Saee. Otherwise, it is indeed a problem (to allow one) to remove Ihram – and people can refer to other Maraji in this issue maintaining the law of referring to the next more learned.
TWO:
That a person is certain that the two mountains (Safa and Marwa) are large enough to extend into the new corridor. Or if it is proven to him - even with the rulings of certain Maraje- that there is enough expert opinion to indicate that as long as there is no expert opinion contradicting it, the, in such a case, one would perform Saee in the enw corridor and it would suffice.
THREE:
That a person has no proof either way – whether the two mountains are large enough or not to be part of the new corridor. In this case, a person will perform a combination of both the above rules (ONE & TWO) – One will perfrom the Saee in the new corridor as well as sacrifice an animal in Makkah before Taqseer.
To see the original text of the question and answer, in Arabic, click here
Pursuant to receipt of the ruling above, The Islamic Cultural Affairs Committee have made enquiries to discuss the issue with offices of different Maraje. The key point here to note, is that Ayatullah Seestani (May the Almighty grant him a long life) says if you had prior knowledge, then whilst wearing the Ihram for Umra is not prohibited, coming out of it could be a problem because one cannot remove Ihram until one has finished all the Arkaan (integral parts) of the Umra. Since he has problems with Saee in the new corridor, he can only rule that the Umra would be incomplete and thus not allow one to remove Ihram.
He also allows us to refer to any other Marja (provided we refer to the most learned of the rest) and we have asked the offices of Ayatullah Waheed Khorasani, who is widely accepted as the most learned of the rest and he has categorically refused accepting Saee in the new corridor.
It should be however noted that there are some Maraje who do accept and allow Saee in the new corridor and we would request momineen to undertake their own research.
There has been discussion with the offices of Ayatullah Seestani that this was 'prevention beyond control' (majburi) to which the response received was that 'beyond control' would only apply if the closure was permanent. Since the closure is a temporary measure, one can easily wait. Besides, Umra is not wajib.
ICA would like to thank the Islamic Education – Qum office and Sheikh Mustafa Jaffer for their guidance and assistance on this matter.
For further information, please contact
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