Hence the Imam speaks of `being employed in obedience' as the self's key right...

Hence the Imam speaks of `being employed in obedience' as the self's key right, since only that can bring about its deliverance. As soon as this wide context for attaining to the right of the self is envisaged, dozens of duties become obligatory upon the individual. The Imam makes clear that the primary duties are toward the various organs and activities of the self, since these determine man's relationship to God.

The organs have `rights' because they share in the individual's destiny; the `resurrection of the body' is taken for granted (cf. Supplication 31.22). Activities have rights because they shape the destiny of the soul. And other human beings have rights because they form the context within which activity occurs. Human actions can only be correct if the rights of all of God's creatures are observed.

This, in short, is the theme of the `Treatise on Rights', a theme which is reinforced by many of the supplications of the Sahifa , number 24 being a prime example. The treatise has been transmitted in two versions, one in Al-Khisal and Al-Amali , both by Shaykh al-Saduq (d. 581/991), and the other in Tuhaf al-`uqul , by his contemporary Ibn Shu'ba.

Perhaps one half of the text of the two versions is identical, but Ibn Shu'ba's version adds a good deal of material that shows it to be a later recension, perhaps by the Imam himself, or more likely by a later author trying to clarify the meaning. The translation follows the earlier version, with a minor addition from the second version which seems to be demanded by the context.[^4] [^1]: Bukhari, Sawm 51. Cf. Wensinck, Concordance, I, 487, under inna ‘alayka haqqan.

[^2]: Abu Dawud, Wasaya 6, Buyu’ 88; Tirmidhi, Wasaya 5; Ibn Maja, Wasaya 6, etc. [^3]: Shaykh Saduq, Al-Khisal, II, 6; and Al-Amali, p.20 (quoted in Bihar, LXXI, 222). For other relevant hadith, see Bihar, LXXI. [^4]: Both versions are provided in Bihar, LXXI, 2-21 (where they have been collated against the printed versions in Al-Khisal and Tuhaf al-‘uqul).

A far less satisfactory edition, with a number of errors and with a mixing of the two texts so that neither is complete nor clearly separated from the other, is given by al-Amin in A’yan al-Shi’a, V, 215-30. Previous…