Peace be upon you, our Sayed. How is your health?
Our Sayed, I encounter many people from other schools of thought who ask about the reason for our praying on the soil of Imam al-Husayn (a), and I do not have a sufficient answer to convince them of the correctness of what we do. So I hope you will clarify that for me. And may you be rewarded.
Why do we prostrate on the Husayni soil?
Translated from Arabic — the Arabic original is the authoritative text.Read the Arabic original
Question
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful
Brother / Sister, may Allah the Exalted protect you
Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings
Regarding prostration on the Husayni soil (turba),
we must first distinguish between two matters, namely:
prostrating on the soil
prostrating to the soil
The Shiʿa prostrate on the soil, not to it. If anyone who prostrates on something were considered to have worshipped it, then every Muslim who prostrates on a carpet would have worshipped the carpet, and this is not correct.
Prostrating on the Husayni soil is, in the first place, prostrating on the earth, because the Messenger (s) used to prostrate on the earth and not on manufactured carpets. The Muslims are unanimous that the Messenger of Allah said: (The earth has been made for me a place of prostration and a means of purification), as it appears in Sahih al-Bukhari of the Ahl al-Sunna, vol. 1, p. 60
For the earth is what it is permissible to prostrate on.. Numerous narrations have come indicating the permissibility of prostrating on a mat (ḥaṣīr) and the like, and that is because the earth also comprises what it grows, other than things that are eaten and worn, such as cloth, cotton and so on..
What is unanimously agreed upon is the permissibility of prostrating on soil (turāb), and the Husayni turba is, in the first place, soil from the earth, so it is permissible to prostrate on it from this aspect.
But because we take our jurisprudence and our rulings from the Ahl al-Bayt (a), they have taught us a set of special properties of this soil, and they said that prostrating on it is better than on anything else, because of the greatness of this soil, which even the Messenger of Allah (s) kissed.
The Sunnis narrate a hadith about the soil on which Imam al-Husayn would be killed, and it is reported in the hadith that the Messenger kissed it.. that is, he showed it respect and esteem
The hadith is:
Al-Hakim al-Naysaburi narrated in (al-Mustadrak ʿala al-Sahihayn, vol. 4/398) from Umm Salama (r) that the Messenger of Allah (s) lay down one night to sleep, then woke up perplexed. Then he lay down and slept, then woke up perplexed, though less than what I had seen in him the first time. Then he lay down and woke up, and in his hand was red soil that he was kissing. So I said: What is this soil, O Messenger of Allah?
He said: Gabriel (a) informed me that this one will be killed in the land of Iraq—referring to al-Husayn—so I said to Gabriel: Show me the soil of the land in which he will be killed; and this is its soil. .. .
So the Sunnis ought to ask themselves—and you should ask them—where did they get prostrating on furnishings and on carpets from?
As for us, we prostrate on the soil and what comes out of it, other than what is eaten and worn, but the best is prostrating on the Husayni soil because of its nobility.
May Allah the Exalted grant you success in good deeds
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