Criteria for the Legitimacy of the Rituals of Honoring the Ahl al-Bayt (AS)

Rituals in any culture are an opportunity to objectify the beliefs, values, and norms that people have learned and believe in that culture. Religious rituals have an important share of the rituals of any culture, in Islamic culture, especially Shiite, the rituals honoring the Ahl al-Bayt have a special place among religious rituals, and they are considered as the most important socio-cultural assets. Muslims should, always respect the Ahl al-Bayt of the Prophet (pbuh), who have a high status and sanctity in Islamic culture. The commemoration of these holy personalities is in the form of rituals that are held on the occasion of: feasts and deaths, prayers, blessings, pilgrimages and memorials related to them. This cultural asset, due to the dynamics of culture, is constantly evolving and developing. However, like other social reserves, it needs protection and prevention of plague. There is no doubt that these rituals must be practiced within the form of religious standards. In order to be safe from personal and unprofessional dealing with cultural developments in the rituals of commemoration, we need to set some criteria. This current paper tries to extract the criteria of legitimacy of the rituals of honoring the Ahl al-Bayt (PBUH) through using verses (of the Qur'an) and hadiths. These criteria are: Being compliant with monotheistic beliefs as well as the rules and regulations of Sharia, having content and structural stability, indication of the beauty and pride of the Ahl al-Bayt (PBUH), being compliant with nature and intellect, having harmony with the conduct of righteous, based on knowledge and awareness, appropriateness with the dignity of the Ahl al-Bayt (PBUH), considering the possibility of being abused by enemies, having harmony with the norm and custom of society.