Question and Answer

QUESTION AND ANSWER reformer must know the difference between one thing and another. He must understand that his responsibility is to only peacefully convey the message; it is not his responsibility to issue definitive judgments about people or declare someone a polytheist. A reformer should leave the matter of who is a polytheist to God and confine himself to sincere advice. Those who lack this ability should not enter the field of reform at all, for doing so is itself a serious wrong. The numbered answers to your questions are as follows: 1. The responsibility of a reformer is only to explain the issue of shirk with seriousness and goodwill. It is not the task of a reformer to declare a specific person a polytheist and attempt to enforce the rulings of shirk upon him. The first task is permissible; the second is not. Those who do the latter are corrupters, not reformers. 2. A polytheist is not the name of a community or a race. Any person may commit a polytheistic act. But the right to definitively declare someone a polytheist belongs only to God, not to human beings. 3. No follower prays the prayer of the imam. Every follower prays his own prayer. The imam does not make the prayer of any follower acceptable