Question:

A love for Ayatollah Khomeini and his Iranian Shiite revolution has spread among the Muslim youth in Nigeria. These young people believe that there is no country in the Islamic world that rules by what Allah has revealed except for the Iranian state, and that there is no Muslim head of state except for Ayatollah Khomeini. Now, their dawah (propagation) has begun to spread in Nigeria.

Therefore, we request from you a sufficient and clear explanation regarding the reality of the Iranian Shiites, the head of this state, Ayatollah Khomeini, and what he calls to. If Allah wills, once we receive this, we will try to translate it into our Hausa language and into English so that we can rid our country of this ideology; this is because the Iranian Republic sends many books to the Muslims in Nigeria every month.

Please give us a religious ruling (fatwa), may Allah reward you with goodness and bless you.

Answer:

What these young men have claimed—that there is no country in the Islamic world that rules by what Allah has revealed except for the Iranian state, and that there is no Muslim head of state except for Ayatollah Khomeini—is a false claim. In fact, it is a lie and a fabrication, to which the reality of the Iranian state and its leader, in both creed and knowledge, bears witness.

The Twelver Imamah Shiites have recorded in their books, narrating from their Imams, that the Qur’an compiled by Uthman ibn Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) through the memorizers of the Qur’an among the Companions is distorted by additions, omissions, the altering of some of its words and phrases, and the deletion of certain verses and chapters. Anyone who reads the book Fasl al-Khitab fi Tahrif Kitab Rabb al-Arbab (The Decisive Word on the Distortion of the Book of the Lord of Lords), authored by Husayn ibn Muhammad Taqi al-Nuri al-Tabarsi regarding the distortion of the Qur’an, or similar works written to support the Rafidah and reinforce their school of thought—such as Minhaj al-Karamah by Ibn al-Mutahhar—will know this.

Furthermore, they turn away from the compilations of authentic Sunnah, such as Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. They do not consider them references for deriving rulings in creed (aqidah) or jurisprudence (fiqh), nor do they rely on them for interpreting and clarifying the Qur’an. Instead, they have innovated books of Hadith and established flawed foundational principles for themselves to determine what is weak, in their estimation, from what is authentic. They have made it one of their foundational principles to refer to the sayings of their twelve “infallible” Imams, as they claim.

So, from where would they acquire the knowledge of the mutawatir (mass-transmitted) Qur’an, the authentic Sunnah, and the established rules and rulings of Sharia to apply to the affairs of the Iranian nation they govern?!

How can it be said, despite all of this, that “there is no Muslim head of state except for Ayatollah Khomeini,” when he himself states in his book Al-Hukuman al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Government) under the chapter title The Universal Guardianship (Wilayah Takwiniyyah), page 52:

“Indeed, the Imams have a praised station, a lofty status, and a universal caliphate to whose guardianship and control every atom of this universe submits. And it is a necessity of our school of thought that our Imams hold a station that no proximate angel nor any sent Prophet can reach.”

This is indeed a blatant lie and a manifest slander.

We advise you to read the book Mukhtasar al-Tuhfah al-Ithna Ashariyyah by the scholar Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi, the treatise Al-Khutoot al-Aredah (The Broad Outlines) by Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib, the book Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah fi Naqd Kalam ash-Shiah wal-Qadariyyah by the scholar Sheikh Ahmad ibn Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah, and the book Al-Muntaqa min Minhaj as-Sunnah by Al-Dhahabi.

And with Allah lies all success. May Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his companions.