ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Kamaaluddin wa Tamaamun Ni’ma Vol. 1 Preface In the Name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful A Brief Biography of the Author The author is the venerable Shaykh Abu Ja’far Muhammad bin Ali bin al-Hasan bin Babawahy commonly known as Sadooq. He was among the Shia scholars of the 4th century Hijri.

He was also the chief of the clan, a minaret of truth and religion, a leader of his time and in general such a personality that no praise is sufficient to do justice with his actual status. The whole Muslim community is unanimous about his leadership and lofty status.

He was born through the prayers of the Imam of the time (a.t.f.s.) and a written certificate was also issued by the Holy Imams (a.s.) in his favor: “He is a very righteous and blessed jurisprudent.” After this holy testimony whatever may be said or written about him will definitely be less than what befits his position. His bounties have surrounded all and his writings and books have benefited the scholars as well as laymen.

Each and every example of his knowledge and action testifies to his lofty stature and greatness. And one who undertakes a deep study of biographical books will conclude that Shaykh Sadooq, on the basis of his merits and intellectual excellence was the leader of all those who succeeded him. He is the standard bearer of jurisprudence; he is the leader of tradition scholars, the Imam of hadith narrators and a master of scholastic theology.

All the qualities of excellence in knowledge, perfection of intellect, goodness of understanding, a remarkable memory and sharp perception had gathered in his person. He traveled far from the place of his birth in order to collect traditions from the narrators of traditions and he stayed with them to obtain the narrated reports from them. Among the places he traveled to included Astarabad, Gurgan, Nishapur, Marawalruz, Samarqand, Farghana, Balkh, Hamadan, Baghdad, Faid, Mecca and Medina.

It should be remembered that travel has many benefits. It is the best way of perfecting the intellect and developing knowledge. In addition to this it also includes spread of knowledge, propagation of religion and dispersal of facts. And if there had not been such great personalities in this community, who first acquired knowledge and then undertook to spread it among others, a great many people would have remained ignorant and mired in misguidance and deviation from religion.