ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Qur'an in Islam, its Impact and Influence on the Life of Muslims Foreword Over a quarter of a century has passed since this book was written by Allamah Tabataba’i in Persian- with the express purpose of being translated into English as part of a trilogy whose aim was to make Shi’ism better known in the Western world.[^1] Commissioned originally by Professor Kenneth Morgan of Colgate University in New York, who came to Iran with the aim of launching the project, his trilogy was written and assembled in a short period by Allamah Tabataba’i in Persian and – in the case of sayings of the Imams- in Arabic.

But it is now, with the appearance of this translation that the goal of the project is finally achieved, long after the author has left this adobe of transience. It was our task to collaborate with the Allamah, to achieve the completion of the two works of this trilogy which had set out to write himself, namely Shi’ah dar Islam and Qur’an dar Islam .

Our role was to point out to this venerable master the questions which a Western audience needed to have treated and the types of discussion that such works needed to consider, while he himself set out to compose these books in his masterly and at the same time unassumingly style. Only after the composition of these works did he begin to select the sayings of the Imams which were to be collected and translated in the anthology.

The completion of Shi’ah dar Islam – after many journeys made by us between Tehran and Qum, where the Allamah resided, as well as meetings in the cool mountains retreats surrounding Tehran- turned out to be a major event for the study of Shi’ism, not only in the West but also within Iran itself.

Even before we completed the edition and translation of the work in English, the Persian edition with our humble introduction appeared in Iran, and soon became one of the most widely read works on Shi’ism. It seems that a work written with a Western audience in mind also bore a message of great significance for Shi’ites themselves.

While we were translating and editing Shi’ite Islam , Allamah Tabataba’i terminated Qur’an dar Islam ; on his advice it was decided to have this also published in Persian as soon as possible. This work, likewise, became instantly popular and, like Shi’ah dar Islam has gone into numerous editions besides being translated into other Islamic Languages.