ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Islamic Thought (Ma‘arif Islami) Book One Introduction All humans in this world are temporal beings whose lives have a beginning and end. Their past reaches oblivion and so does their future. The span between the beginning and end, which is the repository of one’s life, is surrounded by nihility. We experience life and existence but we have not experienced oblivion and never shall. Our experiences are restricted to our existence.

Thus, we learn from experience that, “No human life is permanent and it has a finish just as it has a start”. Even though we have not reached the end of our lives (i.e. death), we realize from the deaths of our fellow humans that there is no escape from this unavoidable juncture. The two points of start and finish draw our attention; two disparate and sensitive phases or rather—two extremities.

People see their inception as a transferal from inexistence to existence and the opposite point as a transferal from existence to inexistence. However, in becoming existent, we traverse an eternally long path—what distance is longer than the gap between nullity and reality? This apparently impassable distance brings up various questions. Such as, how is our genesis possible? Where have we come from? Who is our originator?

We cannot find the efficient cause for our existence and continuity either in ourselves or in the beings around us. The intellect drives us to seek the entity that has invited us into existence—an entity to which the whole world is indebted for their existence; an entity who is sufficient of all others and who is untainted by any restrictions and conditions.

Endeavoring to understand and contemplate our end makes the question of our origination more sensitive and important, and it suffuses every moment of our lives. The Master of the World has made all beings in existence His guests; He maintains this feast, and has made humans exempt from facing oblivion. This end has confronted us with oblivion and the span between existence and inexistence. It has made us aware that not only are we needy in our genesis, we are also needy in our continuation.

We humans believe that the gap between existence and nonexistence is miniscule. However, coming into existence out of the void is a miracle that has removed humanity’s genesis from the restrictions of nature. On the other hand, the eventide of our existence, as opposed to our dawning, is a terrifying and macabre juncture.