For the Muslims it’s a source of pride that they agree on...

For the Muslims it’s a source of pride that they agree on the fundamentals of their religion and divinity is regarded with utmost sacredness; they believe in resurrection; they believe in prophethood and mankind’s need for it and that Muhammad, the son of Abdullah (‘a), the lord of the offspring of Adam, is the seal of the prophets; they believe in the veracity of the Holy Qur'an and the Prophet’s sound traditions.

All these precepts occupy, in the minds of Muslims, a position which other religions do not enjoy among their followers. I mentioned all this and more in my book Bayn al–Shi’ah wa Ahl al–Sunnah ( Between the Shi’ah and the Sunnis ), although I did not entirely pour out my mind in it because of the prevailing circumstances regarding printing.

Now I feel glad to have the opportunity to write a preface for this book Al–Shi’ah wa Funun al–Islam ( The Shi’ah and Islamic Disciplines ) in which the honorable scholar Sayyid Hasan al–Sadr follows a way that may seem unusual to the Sunnis. I wanted to study the book objectively to ascertain, with proofs and references, the veracity of the subject it is treating, but I realized that it is beyond my ability to do that.

The writer–(may Allah be pleased with him)–is an erudite scholar who, with authority discusses the Islamic and Arabic sciences, the factors responsible for their emergence and the various stages of their development. To study these factors and stages requires a team of experts in different fields so that each scholar deals with his or her area of specialization and finally agrees or disagrees with the author, based on the evidence at hand.

Since I have failed to undertake an objective treatment of this topic because I expected diligent specialists to treat it with the care and seriousness it deserves, I will not miss the chance to add that the author claims that the Shi’ah have precedence over others in founding the sciences of religion and Arabic and he presents evidence to justify his stand. In fact his book is an espousal of this claim and its proofs.

In respect to this claim and the reactions it may give rise to, people fall into two groups: Learners: The members of this group are not much concerned with the identity of the ‘founders’ of these sciences, what is of interest to them is the disciplines. The founders could be exclusively Shi'ah or Sunni, or from both sects.