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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Introduction to Kitab al-Irshad Al-Irshad In his biography of ash-Shaykhu 'l-Mufid, Dr. Howard, the translator of Kitab al-Irshad (The Book of Guidance), has reviewed the intellectual and social aspects of the author's life. On our part, we also have done so in the biographies of the Shi‘ah Imamiyyah theologians in the introduction to the English translation of "Kitabu 't-Tawhid" of Usul al-Kafi.

Therefore, we shall neither repeat anything here nor comment on what Dr. Howard has written – in spite of some points of disagreement that we have with him – because such differences can be seen by comparing the two discussions here, however, we shall only comment on some important points related to the book, al-Irshad, itself.

The Name of the Book The title of the book "al-Irshad" has been mentioned without any genitive construction in both al- Fihrist of ash-Shaykhu’t-Tusi and al-Fihrist of an-Najashi[^1] as well as in most of the later sources[^2] that apparently followed the former two bibliographical works. This is how al-Irshad became the famous title for the book.

However, in many ancient and later references, and also in many manuscript copies of the book, the title appears in a more complete form as al-Irshad fi ma‘rifat hujaji 'llah ‘ala 'l-‘ibad.

The same title also appears in the ijazah (permission) for narrating the book issued by the famous Imami traditionalist, Rashidu'd-Din, Abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn Shahrashub as- Sarawi al-Mazandarani (489/1096–588/1192)[^3] for as-Sayyid Muhyi 'd-Din, Muhammad ibn ‘Abdillah ibn ‘Ali ibn Zuhrah al- Husayni al-Halabi (566/1171–636/1239)[^4].

Similarly, the full title appears in another ijazah given to al-Halabi by the famous Shi‘ah jurist, ash-Shaykh Abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Idris al- Hilli (543/1148 – 598/1202).The author (r.a.)[^5], himself has not described the title in the book; yet the longer title is descriptive of the purpose for which the book was written as mentioned in the author's introduction.

The Readership Al-Irshad was written for the lay reader- ship, according to their requirements, and in a form appropriate for the general level of education prevailing at al-Mufid's time so that every reader and listener may benefit from it. Therefore, the writer (r.a.) was bound to write in brief and to the point as he himself has mentioned in the introduction, the epilogue and at various other places in the book.