Question: Is there a common trap we Shi'as tend to fall into in terms of increasing the status of the Ahlul Bait (as) and decreasing the status of Allah (swt) which leads some of us to commit Shirk without realizing it?

Maulana Baig: If we define what is shirk, we will see that it is different than what is now known to Muslims as shirk.  If we see Allah’s example in the Qur’an of Adam and the angels, we see that it wasn’t seen as shirk for the angels to prostrate before Adam because it was Allah who ordered them to do it. So even making sajda to other than Allah can be a sign of faith if He ordered to do it.  So the same way Allah has ordered obedience and love Ahlul Bait (as). He has not restricted this love.  He allows us to love them to the height of love.  Because Allah said so, to love and obey them is not only okay, but is also a sign of faith.  This is why we see a lot of people, sunni’s especially have this idea that because we praise them so much and talk so highly of them we are doing shirk even though this is what Allah wants us to do.  By knowing Ahlul-bait (as), that’s how you know and understand Allah. You understand the details and attributes so we can truly appreciate Allah. So it is not something that leads us to shirk.  Of course, when Ahlul bait (as) are misrepresented or not understood by the people.  But this is because of lack of knowledge.

Question: we’re supposed to be only praying to Allah swt. But many people go to grave and pray to the people at the grave. How can we be allowed to pray to the imam at the grave?

Maulana Baig: When you do dua, you are seeking help, asking for advice.  These people are seeking a means to Allah.  Allah says in the Qur’an to seek a wasila, a means to Allah. Now we need to see what waseela Allah swt sent to us.  This was the Ahlul bait (as).  The only thing that we need to consider in this regard is that Allah allows us to ask for help from others.  When the help comes, in our belief it is Allah who the help is emanating from.  So you can ask dua from anyone, but you can only believe that Allah is the one who gives and everyone is just a medium.  If the Ahlul bait (as) give us knowledge, it is emanating from Allah, not the Ahlul bait (as).  When the means are there, you can ask them because they are the means and not just the source.  Allah is razik for example, but we go to work and get our paycheck from our boss.  It doesn’t make our boss razik

Question:  How can we take full advantage of the month of Ramadan in a way where it does not only become a month where we change our daily routine and habits, but that it carries on after Ramadan and the rest of the year with an permanent (versus temporary) improvement of aklaq, prayer, and tazkiyat al nafs?

Maulana Baig: People have dreams to become something.  They wait for an opportunity. When they get the opportunity they are not able to take advantage of it.  They have the dream and vision to achieve something but they fail to use the opportunity because they were not prepared.   If you are prepared then you can make use of the opportunity that comes to you.  Allah gave Ramadan as an opportunity. The only people who benefit are the ones who prepared for it before the month.  For example when you go to shop, you go to the mall and start thinking, what do I need to get from here?  They will have a harder time to remember what the need and will forget something.  But the person who thinks out, makes a list and then goes shopping, they are able to achieve more and don’t miss things because they are prepared.  Just like this, people who are prepared for this, they are able to benefit more from Ramadan.  In terms of fasting, we need to be doing this before Ramadan so we can get used to fasting during Ramadan.  We waste a week just trying to adjust to the fasting and we lose opportunities to benefit from this month. 

The other thing is that before this time comes, we know it’s a times where Allah has blessed the believers and they have more will power to change themselves, they need to look at themselves and make a real profile for themselves so they can see what are the sins you commit, what are your weaknesses and see how those can be changed.  Prioritize them after identifying them and maybe you can’t fix all of them, but if you can focus on two or three of them that really need to be changed, then you should really focus on these things during the month of Ramadan. And then you will see you will be able to eradicate weaknesses or pick up virtues. But you need to first identify the problem and focus on the issue.

Question: Can you elaborate more on the concept of Wilayat-e-Faqih? There are certain people who don't believe on this concept. What should be done in that regard? Is it permissible to go in the Center where they don't believe in this concept on a big picture? Is it okay to have relationships (friends) with them?

Maulana Baig: As far as maintaining friendships even if they don’t believe in WF you can be friends obviously.  It’s been there for a long time but it has been reintroduced to us, so it’s something new to us.  Some people are not ok with it because they think Iran has a monopoly on it.  But what is wilayate faqih is an important question.  Wilayat is with Allah.  Who has opportunity to have authority over you?  Allah is the wali, then the prophet, then the imams.  So now, the imam is not here but they gave the authority and leadership to those who have knowledge.  He explains this when he appointed Adam as the khalifa, the representative. The angels made a case against this saying that they praise Allah more and their actions are better, etc.. Allah didn’t argue against this and said you do praise and worship me more, but Adam has more knowledge.  Since Adam has more knowledge, it means that knowledge is the criteria of leadership.  He gave knowledge higher than being muttaqi, etc. So in the ghaybat of the imam (aj), who has the authority?  Does the alim have authority over the jahil, or the jahil has the authority over the alim.  Islam says wilayat is for the alim.  If we say no it’s not, then it means we are saying it is with the jahil. 

Wilayat e faqih is a natural concept that has been in our books and because we are shias and oppressed, it never came out that we could actually have a place where we can rule.  So now that we have a place, it is being understood and written about and known, so it will take time to sink in to the people.  So the people who say they don’t believe, just need education, there is no need to argue and fight.  This is a concept that’s relatively new and will take time to sink in.  People used to deny the concept of ijtihad. They didn’t want to follow average people who are not masoom.  It doesn’t mean that the people who don’t accept this are somehow out of Islam.  Our job is to educate and inform these people.

Question: Instead of supporting unmarried youth as they reach their mid to late 20's (and older), and giving them spiritual nourishment to increase their patience and tawakul, our elders and even friends nag these individuals by hurting comments such as "So when are you going to get married?" or "You should lower your standards", etc.. These comments have been seen to lead to feelings of depression. How do we address and solve these issues?

Maulana Baig: Obviously everyone gets married at different ages and this is an individual thing, even though Islam has generally told us to get married early, here is the thing that happens.  How can we solve this issue of nagging?  We are talking about many people who ask these questions.  There’s nothing you can do about what people say.  When prophet Musa (pbuh) used to preach to people, he used to be ridiculed.  He asked Allah swt that if they don’t accept what I have to say can you at least make it so they don’t ridicule me. So Allah swt replied back that this is one dua I cannot accept because if you think they are talking bad about you, more than that is that they are saying bad about me.  The mouth of people you cannot stop.  As individuals you can work on them but you can’t make one rule for everyone.  Islamically you shouldn’t hurt or say hurtful things to other people.  But even though what people say is hurtful, but the issue is that sticks and stones can break your bones but words can’t hurt you.  This is cliché but there is truth in this. If a person knows himself really good, then whatever a person says doesn’t matter because they know themselves better.  But if people say things, we need to analyze their words because maybe they might have some point about it.

Question:  What are some of the predicted deceptions and crimes Muslims (those who will at first join his army) will commit against the Imam (AJ) after he returns? How can we prepare ourselves to make an unwavering allegiance to him unlike majority of the Shi'as during the other Imam's (as) times?

Maulana Baig: During the Imam (aj)’s time there will be shias who come to him first.  The first mistake they will make is that they will be with him without being prepared for him.  So right away they will start disagreeing with him and start disobeying him because they were never used to obedience in their lives.  They always made their own decisions and always made themselves their own master.  If you go back to when you used to have teachers and students and your job was to be obedient to your teacher, it is easier for those people to be under the Imam.  They are used to taking orders.  A person who has never been in an army, it’s hard for them to take orders from others, especially if they don’t agree.  A lot of people are used to living their own lives and not this obedience.  That is why it is important to obey a leader, it teaches obedience to your leader.  Any alim, for example, if they say something there are people who will right away write him off and will make jokes about ulema.  Anyone who makes these jokes about the ulema, it will be impossible to be with the Imam.  The way that you are dealing with Ayatollah Khamenei right now is the way you will be dealing with the Imam when he comes back.  The whole idea of WF was to keep the people in track and not let them go helter skelter.  But the people who are on their own will be off track.  Our mosque needs to be working like a unit, like a house or an army.  You should be following orders and the position of orders can be handled by you one day.  If you don’t know how to follow orders now, then you won’t know how to give them later on.  The leader right now is not demanding at all.  But the Imam (aj) will be demanding a lot more from our lives.  So if we aren’t used to it, we won’t do it.  It’s an illusion to think that we’ll change over night when he comes.  If you are not used to it you will be in trouble. 

Another thing is that Imam pays attention to the soul and the spirituality of the people.  There are those people who give importance to physical aspects. For example,  people say that if you want to be with the imam, you need to learn martial arts.  The imam won’t be concerned with these things.  He wants to know a person’s spiritual closeness and his love for Allah and his piety and humility and humbleness.  This is what is really going to help a person be with the Imam. These issues of spirituality and are attributes which we need to improve.

Question: Do any sunni scholars mention wilayate faqih?

Maulana Baig: If they never accepted imammat, how can they accept wilayate faqih?  Hence we got wilayat e faqih in the ghaybat of the Imam (aj). After the Prophet (s) they went to khilafat.  Now it went bad and they want to reinstate the khilafat now.  Khilafat is that they saw a worldly leader who they accept.  It’s hard for them to get an honest person.  When it comes to political power, everywhere in every system, it’s hard to get anyone truly sincere to go that far up the ladder without compromising his faith.  Even when you see in Iran, you see with Ahmadinejad becoming president, you can’t see someone down to earth and sincere becoming the president.  So when they speak of khilafat, the problem they have is that every time, the people who reach that height are people who are corrupted.  To us, because the criteria for us if first in knowledge, it’s hard for people to really try to learn for 30 years in order to gain power, and that too they don’t know if they want to reach there or not.  For people to become leader in the shias are so strict.  It’s not just knowledge either; the whole life is looked at. Becoming a marja is also not easy.  If the rules of marja are changed based on popularity, then all America has to do is give someone an imama and put him in the media than he will become the most famous person. But with sunnis, they dont understand the concept of wf because they don’t understand the concept of wilayat.

Question: Why have the shia’ s lost the concept of wilayat e faqih?

Maulana Baig: Shia Islam was a basement religion.  Only recently, since Iran became shia that shias were allowed to have their own places of worship.  So for 1000 years we couldn’t even declare ourselves as shia or else we would be persecuted.  Now there are those people who went to villages in Pakistan and India and lived there.  They went there but didn’t have access to knowledge from the howzas in Najaf. If you look at this you will see that over the years we never had the opportunity to see if that this idea is practical.  Allah says this in Qur’an. We don’t need to go further. We never had the chance to practice it.

Question: There are problems in the Islamic Republic, just as there were problems in the government of Imam Ali (a). Some of our shia brethren like to point out these issues and focus on them here in the west. This is often used by the enemies of Islam against the Islamic Republic. Of course we want to point out all injustices, but given the political climate, is it wiser to keep this debate the speaking out against these injustices within the Muslim community rather than allow the enemies to take advantage of what we say on the matter?

Maulana Baig: Each one of us comes from a different Islamic center. Some are different in what they think.  In my center there are 250 people, in the Islamic republic, there are 6million people. We have a president in our community but he doesn’t have to deal with 6 million people.  The Islamic republic has set an example and a model for us.  When our center grows and becomes a nation, they are the role model.  Not the exact same thing, but the concept is the same.  The Islamic Republic, we will discuss it within our own selves. 

A lot of people who are naive will put these discussions online.  For example, I have a fight with my wife.  If I want to talk about this, I’ll go through my father or someone who can help.  I’m not going to go online and put my fight out there.  Having an argument wasn’t haram, but you don’t put it out there in front of everyone.  The issue is that everywhere you go, you have problems and you have issues, and there are certain forums which we can use to have these issues discussed, but not everywhere.  This is the reason why if you come to MC you are able to discuss these issues, and try to find answers and solutions. When you put it on the internet, it’s not to find solutions, but to create fitnah.  We need to be careful that our actions to lead to fitnah and misunderstandings against people and give them the ammunition to hurt Islam.

So in our masjids, we have issues but we aren’t going to take it to the church next door and ask them for help.  We can’t give the impression that Allah is not good enough to help us, maybe you can help.  It’s unwise to put these issues online and it leads to fitnah and a wrong environment. A mo’min is trying to pray on time but he misses his fajr. He put his alarm and everything.  You were at his house and saw that he missed his prayers.  Would you inform others about this?  The issue is that when you see a mo’min always trying to do good and he makes a mistake, to say that he’s not a mo’min because he doesn’t get up in the morning and pray would be wrong.  In Iran they are trying to practice Islam and they will make mistakes, but they are trying.  But to say bad things about them is the same is calling out a mo’min out who makes mistakes.  We have to make sure we aren’t accumulating sins for ourselves.

Question:  How can we get parents with children raised here in west to have religion and culture taught separately & not to have them both taught as one?

They are not against each other.  It’s only against if it is anti-Islam.  In Haiti for example, everyone smokes marijuana to be in the culture.  So this culture is anti-Islam and Islam will not tolerate this culture.  Another thing is that if the focus on culture is so much that religion is taken away, then in this case the emphasis has to be shifted back to religion.  Culture is a natural thing.  It emanates from the soul itself.  The issue is that religion should be the thing that is enhancing the culture, not the other way around.  Our deen should be making the culture; the culture shouldn’t be making the deen. If it is the latter then we have to worry about it.  But if our emphasis is on the deen and principle of religion then we have no worries, it’s fine.

Question: During marriages where men and women are mixed and said it’s part of the culture, how do you fight this?

Mixed gatherings, like marriage, where men and women are exposing themselves.  This is not good, it’ s haraam. Even if in general it’s not haram, it becomes haram because there is no hijab being observed.  If it was separate there would be no problem but women wear revealing clothes and it’s not good and haram to do that.  Islam is against these kinds of gatherings for sure and Imam’s fought their whole lives to be against these gatherings.  Shias should know that if they are taking part in these gatherings then they are on the wrong side of the battle with the imams.  So obviously what happens is that these people organizing these gatherings are becoming the enemies of the Imam (Aj).  We have to tell them about this. It has been introduced to us but we have to fight tooth and nail against these gatherings just like our Imams have done.  You are taking upon yourselves the animosity of the imam.  A time will come where openly people will be afraid to do this.  If we start doing nahi anil munkar, they will hide these events.  If they hide it it’s not our concern, but if it’s open and shia muslims doing it then that is what we have to fight against.  If we start to make a stand and write against these haram things and telling them that the imams have fought their whole lives against these gatherings, then you will see that those people will slowly start to come to their senses.  If you start writing to the host then you will see people will change their ways.  Amr bil maruf and nahi anli munkar.