In Friday’s sermon held at the Imam Hussain Shrine on January 18, 2019, the representative of the Shia Muslim Supreme Religious Authority, sheikh Abdul-Mehdi ElKerbela’i, talked about the types of obloquy.
ElKerbela’i said that religious obloquy is one of the types of obloquy—and the most dangerous one. He added that there are three types of religious obloquy: defamation of intellect, defamation of religious denominations, and defamation of clergy.
He also said that defamation of intellect is excersized by those who fail or cannot defame renowned clerics; those who are righteous and followed by many, – they, instead, target epistemic and ideological concepts by carefully counterfeiting theme or giving them different interpretations, that are suitable with their ideology – in a way that defames the targeted clerics, or strip away virtues from the creed a religious denomination believes in in order to render it ostracized. In addition, ElKerbela’i noted that defamers do that in order to “steal the spotlight.”
He warned of the perilous use of social media in terms of excersizing social obloquy, saying, “Lies and deceptions – if used to defame an entity on social media – reach a large number of people, and they are able to make gullible people believe them,” noting that defamers also attempt to underestimate the intellectual leaders (clerics) and isolate the society from them by causing them to lose their social values and significance.
He then called on people to make certain of any material before sharing it with other people on social media, for there are those who disclose people’s private secrets.
ElKerbela’i called on people to not be oblivious and disclose their private secretes, especially women’s private secretes, some of which are dangerous, if they are disclosed, because they concern women’s honor—and disclosing them threatens men’s and women’s reputation to the extent that it may lead to bloodshed.
ElKerbela’i concluded, citing the words of advice of Imam Ridha (Peace Be Upon Him) to sayyid Abdul-Edheem ElHeseni: “O Abdul-Edheem, send my greetings to my followers and tell them to not be submissive to the satan, and command them to be voracious, render trusts to whom they are due, and remain silent—in doing so, there is nearness to me. Command them to not be preoccupied with rupturing each other; I have, therefore, taken it upon myself to pray for God’s severe punishment upon those who exasperate any of my followers, and they will be among the losers on the Day of Judgement.”
Editing: Wela’ EsSeffar
Translation: Mohammed ElObaidi
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