▪️ Religious and political circles have circulated the text of a message addressed to His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mojtaba Khamenei, signed by 72 scholars, thinkers, and religious and social figures from several countries. It calls for a jurisprudential and strategic reconsideration of the fatwa prohibiting the production, stockpiling, and use of weapons of mass destruction, and for studying the issue of the “nuclear doctrine” of the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of current security developments.
▫️ According to the text of the message, the signatories — including muftis, scholars, and figures from Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen, Senegal, Malaysia, and other countries — praised the religious and moral basis of the fatwa prohibiting weapons of mass destruction. However, they argued that the accelerating transformations in the Islamic world, Israeli crimes in Gaza and Lebanon, the American-Israeli aggression against Iran, and the Minab massacre require a jurisprudential and strategic reconsideration of certain major issues related to the security of the Ummah and deterring threats.
▪️ The message noted that the Zionist entity’s possession of strategic and nuclear capabilities without appropriate transparency and international oversight, and reports and concerns regarding the use of munitions containing radioactive materials, including depleted uranium, confirm the need to study the humanitarian, legal, and security dimensions of this issue.
▫️ The message cited verse 60 of Surah Al-Anfal:
`“And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy…”`
and verse 194 of Surah Al-Baqarah:
`“So whoever has assaulted you, then assault him in the same way that he has assaulted you…”`
while stressing the need to observe definitive Sharia principles, including the prohibition of injustice, the prohibition of transgressing the limits of Allah, and the protection of the lives of the innocent.
▪️ The message called for studying legitimate and effective ways to ensure sustainable security and strengthen deterrence capability, while preserving the noble principles of Islam in protecting human life. It expressed the hope that jurisprudential guidance would contribute to taking into account the legitimate concerns of believers and Islamic peoples.
From possession for deterrence to limited use: dimensions of the jurisprudential debate
This text comes amid a growing jurisprudential and strategic debate that is not limited to the issue of possessing nuclear weapons for deterrence purposes, but extends to reconsidering the classification of nuclear weapons themselves and the scope of Sharia prohibition.
While the previous fatwa prohibits the use of weapons of mass destruction because of the mass killing of innocents they entail, some scholars and researchers — most notably the martyred scholar Dr. Fereydoun Abbasi — argue that technical progress has now made available types of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons that can be used against specific military targets and may not necessarily lead to comprehensive destruction or widespread indiscriminate killing of civilians.
Therefore, classifying all of them as prohibited “weapons of mass destruction” requires precise jurisprudential review.
On this basis, the demand addressed to the current Supreme Leader, Sayyid Mojtaba Khamenei, is not limited to reconsidering the basis for possession for deterrence, but also includes examining the definition of a weapon of mass destruction and the extent to which the prohibition applies to the limited use of tactical nuclear weapons, while stressing that definitive Sharia principles must not be violated, foremost among them the prohibition of killing innocents, injustice, and transgressing the limits of Allah.