ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Al Kafi (volume One) Foreword In our continuous effort to propagate Islam through our numerous publications we have had a persistent desire to include amongst our publications translations of the most important reference books recog- nized by the Shi'ah. To be able to publish such key books in the Shi'ah heritage in foreign languages does not only give us great pleasure and pride but it conforms very well to our wishes and our true sincere objectives.

No doubt the non-Arab speaking researchers would now have better access to the true Islamic heritage since such books contain the ahadith (traditions) of the holy Im?ms (peace be upon them) and the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny).

Moreover, these books constitute the second source - the holy Qur'an being the first - whereby one would have better understanding of the Islamic ideology, jurisprudence, history, tradition, manners, Islamic laws pertaining to worship, business, Islamic considerations for the individual, family and society. . . One of the important books in question is al-K?fi whose author was ash-Shaykh Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni ar-R?zi ( 328/329 = 940/941).

We need not introduce either the book or its author since the introduction to the book takes care of that and also shows its religious significance and its status in our heritage, namely the heritage transmitted to us through Ahlu'l-bayt (the House-hold of the Holy Prophet - p.b.u.t.). -2- Our gratitude to All?h, the Almighty, for being able to commence the translation of al-K?fi to English.

So far, the translation of the section pertaining to the "Reason and Ignorance" ('aql and jahl) has been completed. No doubt we had to utilize all the means at our disposal and to rely on Allah's unlimited strength in order to accomplish this translation. As a matter of fact, we had to do a lot of screening before coming up with this version. Furthermore, we took every possible effort to make sure that the translation is satisfactory and acceptable in terms of accuracy and grammar.

We do not wish to claim perfection in this humble effort to trans-late one section of al-K?fi. Nevertheless, we have taken the first step and we are confident that subsequent steps would be taken, either by us or by somebody else, to both remove any errors and optimize the translation so that exactness in the narration process is improved.