His Eminence, Sayyed Ali Fadlullah, delivered the two Friday prayer sermons at the Imamain Al-Hassanain Mosque, Muharram 06th 1436 H. – November, 28th 2014. Several prominent religious scholars, dignitaries and thousands of believers attended the Jumu’a prayer.
“Surely your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six periods, and He is established on the Throne of Power. He makes the night cover the day, which it pursues incessantly. And (He created) the sun and the moon and the stars, made subservient by His command. Surely His is the creation and the command. Blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds” (07: 54).
Believing in bad luck
The month of Safar is associated in the minds of some people with bad luck, just as others believe that Wednesday or another day is a sign of bad luck. They narrate false traditions on the authority of the Prophet or the Imams that confirm this belief. What is worse is that the social media publishes these superstitions and many people tend to believe that they are doubtlessly true.
Believing in bad luck or superstitions is not confined to a certain nation or civilization, for even in the developed countries, we find that there are those who feel superstitious from a certain number, such as “13”, color or day… But such superstitious beliefs become more dangerous if they are turned into a religious belief or into an obsession that would paralyze those who believe in them.
The viewpoint of Islam
Islam’s stance from this matter is clear and straight forward. There is no place in Islam for believing in myth and superstitions. This can be proofed by the Quran, the Prophet’s biography and the intellect.
The Glorious Quran has considered superstitions as one of the features of the unbelievers. When Allah was afflicting Pharaoh’s people with years of hardship and failure of crops to drive them to contemplate, they used to see in that an evil omen: “So when the times were good to them they said: We deserve this, but when afflicted they would accuse Moses (Musa) and his companies of evil omen” (7:131). It is true that the Quran talked about bad luck in certain days: “Surely We sent on them a tornado in a day of bitter ill-luck” (54:19), but this bad luck is not a trait that is specifically associated to those days. The Quran has considered it to be a bad luck owing to the events that happened in those days, which means that it was considered bad luck as a result of what happened in them, and not because of bad luck per se. It is their deeds that brought bad luck, so to speak, on them.
When we look into the Prophet’s biography, we clearly see how the Prophet (p.) firmly fought these kinds of unbelief. The most prominent example would be when the sun eclipsed the day the Prophet’s son, Ibrahim, died and the people were saying that it eclipsed because of his death. The Prophet (p.) said: “The sun and the moon are two signs amongst the signs of Allah; they do not eclipse on the death or life of anyone. So when you see the eclipse, remember Allah and say Takbir, pray and give Sadaqa”.
He also said that whoever postpones doing something due to superstitions would actually be ascribing partners to Allah. Nevertheless, we find in our Islamic heritage some who claim that Prophet Muhammad said: “There are three bad omens: the woman, the mare and the house.” Some even allege that Imam As-Sadiq (a.s.) said: “Do not seek to fulfill an errand on Friday”. Is that logical? Such Hadiths do not even need to check whether they are authentic or not by tracing back their chains of authority or the like. It is enough to say that they contradict the Quran and the Sunnah, and even the biography of the Members of the Household.
Moreover, if we want to judge how logical these Hadiths are, we will find out that if we were to believe in them, then nine days in each month, in addition to a whole month constitute bad omen. This means that man has to stay in his house for five months every year feeling extremely cautious of marrying in a certain period, buying and selling in another, moving to a new house in a third... etc.
Islam has rejected these beliefs, which we should also do because they contradict several basic principles of faith. Firstly, the universe is controlled and governed by the One and Only Allah; were it truly subject to luck, the universe would have perished a long time ago. Secondly, the principle of Divine justice; were the fortunes attained by luck and not by hard work, then the entire principle of Divine justice would have been negated. Thirdly and most importantly, such beliefs contradict the principle of relying on Allah Who is the source of all good and Who governs everything.
How could one believe that a certain time has a certain power on him and claim at the same time that he believes in God and relies on Him! This needs a profound review, lest all man’s deeds would be frustrated.
Treatment
Superstitions and believing in good and bad omens are not purely intellectual. Rather they might be the result of a psychological condition of panic, anxiety and depression that develop as a result of educational and security pressures, as well as poverty and the like. This psychological condition usually uses ideology or faith superficially as a cover to gain legitimacy.
Thus, treatment is also divided into two components. The first is intellectual, which compares these beliefs or [fabricated] Hadiths with the Quran and the biography of the Prophet (p.) and his Household members, as well as letting the intellectual arguments judge their validity. The other component is psychological and educational and it is the principle component since the first component, although important, remains secondary.
The family is the first unit in the process of developing individuals who would not fall into such traps. It is inside the house that ordinary reactions play a role in creating such beliefs, as in feeling superstitious when all the family members start laughing or not choosing certain dates for their occasions. Such behavior would create fear and anxiety in the souls of children and would pave the way for creating mentalities that would readily accept the notions of bad luck and superstitions and even fortunetelling later on. This disease often begins from inside the house and that is where its cure should start from.
The saying “be optimistic about the good and you will get it” is neither a slogan that is put on a poster, nor a pill that relieves the nerves when in need. It should be turned into a program and a code of conduct. It is interesting that this saying, which has been in our cultural heritage for a long time that even some claim that it is a Hadith by the Prophet, has been adopted by the Western psychologists and sociologists who claim that it is one of the most important reasons for success…. Whether we have reservations on the methods and theories they formulated or not, the important thing is to teach the pessimists and the believers in bad luck how to become optimistic and turn the slogan into a practice. The psyche is like the child; suggest pain to it, and it will be painful, suggest optimism, it will be happy and optimistic…
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