ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Pearls and Corals (lu’lu Wa Marjaan) Treatise On the Condition of Sincerity Required By Religious Speakers ABOUT THE TRANSLATION The present book is a partial translation of the book Lu'lu wa Marjān (lit. Pearls and Corals) written by Muḥaddith Mirza Ḥusayn Nūri (d. 1902), covering the introduction and the first chapter that deals with sincerity. The original Farsi book used in this translation was published by Bani Zahra Publications.

The published book itself was a rephrased version, slightly revised and modified from the original by Jabir Riḍwāni due to the original book making use of vocabulary that even native Iranians were struggling to understand. The book not only explicitly deals with the phenomenon of non-scholars reciting, preaching and orating from two distinct perspectives, but scholars who do not abide by the moral conduct required of them are also clearly implied.

The first section of the original book deals with sincerity, and the second section deals with truthfulness. Martyr Murtaḍa Muṭahhari praises the book and says this specifically about the second section that deals with honesty and truthfulness: The second requirement is honesty and truthfulness.

Here, he (Muḥaddith Nūri) elaborates on the topic of false and true narration, discussing various forms of lying in such a thorough-going manner that I do not think there is any other book which deals with lying and its various form in the way that it does, and perhaps there is no such other book in the whole world.

In it he exhibits a marvelous learning and scholarship.2 I chose to only translate the introduction and the first section on sincerity as that is what I felt was directly relevant to the phenomenon the Western Muslim communities are facing today - particularly where English is used as a medium of preaching. This is not to say that honesty is not as important, however the author of the book was concerned primarily with falsehood being spread on the pulpits that relate to the tragedy of Karbala.

Within the communities where English is the medium of lecturing, I have not yet found this to be a serious issue, as it may be in communities where more traditional languages such as Urdu, Arabic or Farsi are employed to relay the tragedy of Karbala.