ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Attributes of the Noble Introduction In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful Immeasurable thanks are due to God, Whose reality no intellect can fathom and the knowledge of whose Being no thought or science can apprehend.

Any expression describing Him, if affirmative, does not enter the conceiving mind without the traces of anthropomorphism, and if negative, is not conceived by it in a manner secure from the scandalous negation of attributes (ta'til). Therefore, the leader of the elect, the exemplar of the saints (awliya') and the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad Mustafa, may God bless him and his Household, said: I cannot reckon Thy praise.

Thou art only as Thou hast praised Thyself, and Thou art above what the describers say (in describing Thee). 1 May a myriad fold greetings, kudos, and blessings be upon his sacred soul and on the spirits of the pure ones of his Household, especially the Infallible Imams, as well as the elect of his , by Thy right, O God!

After writing the book entitled Nasirian Ethics (akhlaq-e Nasiri), which discusses the noble dispositions and the sound policies of moral conduct according to the way of the philosophers (hukama'), the writer of this treatise and the author of this discourse, Muhammad al-Tusi, had it in his mind to write a concise treatise describing the ways of the awliya' and the methods of the seers according to the principles of the wayfarers of the Path (tariqah) and the seekers of the Truth (haqiqah) and one based on the principles of reason and tradition, containing the subtle theoretical and practical points that constitute the kernel and essence of that discipline.

However, countless preoccupations and vain obstacles did not permit him to carry that out, and what he had in mind could not emerge from potentiality to actuality, until this moment, when this idea materialized at the compelling behest of his honour ...