Imam Jawad (as) answers the Question of Yahya

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Al-Ma’moon asked Imam Abu Ja’far al-Jawad (a.s) to explain the previous question that Yahya had asked him about.  al-Hasan bin Ali bin Shu’ba narrated, as in Tuhaf al-Uqool, that Imam al-Jawad (a.s) said, ‘If a muhrim kills a game while being free from his ihram and the game is a grown up bird, he has to pay a sheep[1] as penance. If he does that during his ihram, the penance is doubled. If he kills a chick while being free from ihram, he has to pay a lamb that is weaned and he does not have to pay its price because he is not in ihram. If he kills it in his ihram, he has to pay a lamb and the price of the chick. If the game is from beasts, he has to pay a cow or a camel for killing a zebra or an ostrich and if he cannot do that, he has to give food (a meal) to sixty poor persons and if he cannot do that too, he has to fast for eighteen days. If he kills a cow, he has to pay a cow and if cannot do that, he has to feed thirty poor persons, and if he cannot do that, he has to fast for nine days. If the game he kills is an antelope, he has to pay a sheep and if he cannot, he has to feed ten poor persons and if not, he has to fast for three days. If he kills the game while being in ihram, the penance is doubled as an offering to be brought to the Kaaba. He must slaughter the animal (of the penance) in Mina where people slaughter their sacrifices if he is in the great hajj and he must slaughter it in Mecca in the yard of the Kaaba if he is in the minor hajj. He should pay its price as charity so as the penance is doubled. In the same way, if he kills a rabbit or a fox, he has to slaughter a sheep and its price as charity. If he kills a pigeon from the pigeons of the Kaaba, he has to pay a dirham as charity and buy some grains to the pigeons of the Kaaba with another dirham. For a young one half of a dirham is paid and for an egg a quarter of a dirham is paid. Whether a muhrim kills a game knowingly or unknowingly, intendedly or unintendedly he has to pay a penance for it. If a slave commits that, his master has to pay the penance. A child who is not adult yet, does not have to pay penance. If someone guides another one to a game and that game is killed, he too has to pay a penance. He, who kills a game (during his ihram) intendedly and insists on that, shall be punished in the afterlife even after paying the penance in this life. A repentant one, after paying the penance, shall not be punished in the afterlife for that. If a muhrim kills a game in the night or he is obliged to do that, he does not have to pay a penance except if he intends to hunt whether in the night or the day; in this case he has to pay the penance. A muhrim in the hajj has to slaughter the animal (of penance) in Mina where people slaughter their sacrifices and a muhrim in the minor hajj has to slaughter the animal in Mecca.’

Al-Ma’moon ordered this explanation to be written down and narrated from Abu Ja’far al-Jawad (a.s). Then he turned to his relatives, who had denied marrying his daughter to Imam al-Jawad (a.s), and said to them, ‘Can any one of you answer this question in this way?’ 

They said, ‘No, by Allah we cannot even the judge…O Ameerul Mo’mineen, you are more aware of him (of Imam al-Jawad) than we are.’

Al-Ma’moon said to them, ‘Have you not known that the people of this house (Ahlul Bayt) are creatures unlike the rest of creatures? Have you not known that the messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had paid homage to al-Hasan and al-Husayn while they were children yet and he had not paid homage to any child other than them? Have you not known that their father (al-Hasan and al-Husayn’s father) Ali had believed in the messenger of Allah when he was just nine years old and Allah and His messenger had accepted his faith and no faith of a child other than him had been accepted, and the messenger of Allah had not pray Allah for a child other than him? Have you not known that they are a progeny one from the other and that which the last of them has (of knowledge and virtues) is as that which the first of them has had? ( Tuhaf al-Uqool, p.452-453, Wassa’il ash-Shia, vol.9 p.188. )

Reference : The Life of Imam Muhammad Al-Jawad