We have decided to speed up the printing and publication of...

We have decided to speed up the printing and publication of the translated section of al-K?fi. The other sections, it is hoped, would be published in due course on individual basis; this process would be continued until all the sections of al-K?fi are translated and published. You will note that we have also included along with the English translation, the complete original Arabic version, this being placed at the top of each page with the corresponding English translation below.

-3- We believe, and so does everybody who studied it believe, that (22) al-K?fi is both of such a high status as a source of religious knowledge and so holy in the Shi'ah circles and that the author is considered highly honest and highly reliable.

However, we should emphasize that neither the ah?ad?th are equal in value and significance nor are the supporting evidence for the narrations or the persons relating the ah?ad?th equal in terms of reliability and credibility and in no way can one give them the same appraisal. A glance at the book entitled mir'?tu'l- 'ug?l (reflection of the minds) would reveal to the researcher this very point in more detail.

Mir'?tu'l-'uqul is an explanatory book to al-K?fi and is authored by the great scholar Muhammad B?qir al-Majlisi (1037/1628-1111/1700). al- Majlisi is one of the prominent scholars of h?ad?th (tradition) and one of the most loyal and faithful to the book (al-K?fi) and its great author and one of the most faithful and pious scholars of Islam.

Because of this - that is, the question of unequal credibility of the ah??dith, narrations and narrators - and for completeness we have retained the complete supporting evidence of the ah??d?th as in the original Arabic text. We have not omitted any original support for any ah?ad?th, neither have we omitted any of the links in a narration chain.

In order to reveal the credibility, or otherwise, of the support for a par- ticular h?ad?th, one has to refer to special books dealing with the biogra- phy and the religious and moral status of the narrator/s; such books also carry an appraisal of what the narrator transmits and relates. We would like to re-emphasize that the inference of any religious or ritual doctrine or any law pertaining to jurisprudence from these ah??d?th is a long process.

To start with, the researcher would have to refer the nar- rations along with their supporting chain of evidence - to the special biographic books referred to above.