ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Bible and Christianity (an Islamic View) Foreword In the search for the truth, two main approaches may be adopted to help reach the goal aspired, one is to purely use reason and clear rationale to arrive at what one is reaching for, or, two, sift through the various beliefs, ideologies, and schools of thought, checking one against another – with the aid of reason and rationale – to identify the set of teachings or the school of thought that gives, beyond any reasonable doubt, the best means to access the truth.

Presented in this book, are brief works of the author concerning the two religions, each of which muster some two billion followers – Islam and Christianity. In the first part, a few examples of encounters between the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, as well as the Imams of his progeny, and other individuals are presented. These reflect the conduct and approaches the prophet had towards others. In the second part of the book, debates and discussions the author had with Christians are presented.

In these debates the author adheres to the same approach and adopts the same attitude as those of the prophet of Islam and the Imams of his progeny, briefly referred to in part one of this book.

Various issues of concern, ranging from general and legal, to historic and scientific are addressed, in a calm and a rational environment, taking lead form the Qur’anic verse {Invite (the people) to the Way of your Lord (Islam) with wisdom and good exhortation, and argue with them in a manner that is best.} 16:125 Those who had come with an acquired perception of Islam, which usually was distorted and incorrect, were in a better position to see the truth of Islam at the end of these debates with the author, so much that they were able to embrace Islam as their own way of life.

The Muslim side in these debates was the most eminent authority on Islam in recent times, the late Ayatollah al-Udhma Imam Muhammad Shirazi. The debates presented here were conducted at the time when he was in Iraq.

Needless to say that the late Imam Shirazi continued this approach of rational debate and scientific dialogue with others throughout his life, and throughout his stay in Kuwait (1970-1979) and in Iran (1980-2001) during which thousands entered into debates with him about Islam, many of whom subsequently embraced islam, not to mention those who embraced Islam through listening to his lectures or reading his many books that vi exceed 1000.