ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Quran Per Islam Acknowledgements We wish to express our thanks to all who contributed toward making this book possible: Assadullah ad-Dhaakir Yate , translation; David Elisha , editing; Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, indexing; and Blue Cliff, cover design. Special gratitude is expressed to Seyyed Hossein Nasr for his contribution of the foreword to this book.

Foreword Over a quarter of a century has passed since this book was written by 'Allamah Tabataba'i in Persian - with the express purpose of being translated into English, as part of a trilogy whose aim was to make Shi'ism better known in the Western world.' Commissioned originally by Professor Kenneth Morgan of Colgate University in New York, who came to Iran with the aim of launching the project, this trilogy was written and assembled in a short period by 'Allamah Tabataba'i in Persian and - in the case of the sayings of the Imams - Arabic.

But it is only now, with the appearance of this translation, that the goal of the project is finally achieved, long after the author has left this abode of transience. It was our task to collaborate with the 'Allamah, to achieve the completion of the two works of this trilogy which he had set out to write himself, namely Shi'ah dar Islam and Qur'an dar Islam.

Our role was to point out to this venerable master the questions which a Western audience needed to have treated and the types of discussion that such works needed to consider, while he himself set out to compose these books in his masterly and at the same time unassuming style. Only after the composition of these works did he begin to select the sayings of the Imams, which were to be collected and translated in the anthology.

The completion of Shi'ah dar Islam - after many journeys made by us between Tehran and Qom, where the 'Allamah resided, as well as meetings in the cool mountain retreats surrounding Tehran - turned out to be a major event for the study of Shi'ism, not only in the West but also within Iran itself Even before we completed the edition and translation of the work in English, the Persian edition with our humble introduction appeared in Iran, and soon became one of the most widely read works on Shi'ism.

It seems that a work written with a Western audience in mind also bore a message of great significance for Shi'ites themselves.