Some Lessons from Jurisprudence (Fiqh)

Now, in the order first used by Muhaqqiq Hilli, we will look at the different sections and chapters of the issues of jurisprudence.

Worship

There are ten books of worship:

The Book of Cleanliness (kitab ut-taharat).

Cleanliness is of two kinds: being clean of external, non-inherent, material filth and pollution; and being spiritually clean of inherent pollution. The first type of cleanliness means the body, clothes and other things being clean from the ten types of filth which include urine, faeces, blood, sperm, corpses and carcasses and so on and which are termed as najasat. The second type of cleanliness means entering the state of purity by performing the partial ablution, or total ablution or earth ablution, that is a condition of certain forms of worship like prayer and circumambulation of the Ka'ba and certain other things, and which is annulled by a series of natural things like sleep, urination, sexual intercourse and simple sperm discharge, and which must thereafter be re-entered.

The Book of Prayer (kitab us-salat).

In this book the obligatory prayers, i.e. the five daily ritual prayers, the prayers of 'id ul fitr and 'id ul ahza, the prayer for the deceased, the prayer of special signs such as earthquakes and eclipses, etc. and the prayer of the circumambulation of the Ka'ba; the nafilah prayers, i.e. the desirable prayers such as the daily desirable prayers; the conditions, preparations, essentials, preventions, delayers and annulers of prayer; and the qualities of prayer, such as the prayer of a person at home and the prayer of a person ruled as travelling, individual prayer and congregational prayer, the prayer offered at the right time (ida) and the prayer missed and made up for after its time (qaza), are all discussed in detail.

The Book of Zakat.

Zakat is a way of paying wealth that is similar to a tax and which is due from nine things :gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates, grapes, and animals of the cow family, animals of the sheep family, and animals of the camel family. In jurisprudence the conditions for zakat being due from these nine things; the amount of zakat due; and the ways it is to be spent are all discussed and, from the authentic sources and in the recognised ways, determined. In the Quran, zakat is mostly mentioned along with prayer, hut only that it is to be given and the ways it is to be spent has been explained; the rest is known from the Sunnah .

The Book of Khoms.