Akhlaq al-A’imma, Morals & Manners of the Holy Imams

Aim of this Book

The aim of this book is to present the perfect morals of the Holy Imams. In the course of our discussion we would come across some philosophical discussions but we would touch upon them only as far as they serve our aim. We would refrain from profound philosophical theories that stump the human intellect.

Scholars have initiated many unnecessary discussions with regard to the human character just to prove their own expertise. For example:

What is the position of the soul?
Is it corporeal or otherwise?
Is it annihilated or not?
Is it created or eternal?
Whether it is material or abstract?
Whether the human body is a vessel of soul or not?
Does the moral sense deserve degradation?
Are good morals earned or gifted?
Are good morals related to the heart or the intellect? Etc. etc.

We are not concerned with any of the above topics. Only those bestowed with a lot of free time can afford to indulge in such discussions. Our aim in this book is also not that one can become a professor of ethics by studying it.

Our aim is to present the practical examples of the perfect morals of our Holy Imams and encourage the readers to walk in their footsteps.

The book discusses the perfect morals of those personalities regarding whom people tried to conceal their perfections using all means and encouraged by ruling powers. They opened up the royal treasure for achieving this end. Those who dared to relate their merits were beheaded, lynched and their tongues pulled out. They were imprisoned and their freedom of speech restricted. In such a situation there is no question of exaggeration. Rather it is an established reality that cannot be concealed even if the whole world tries to suppress it.

Whatever we shall discuss in the following pages can also be found in the books of those do not accept the Twelve Imams as their guides, and those who under compulsion of the ruling powers made a mountain of a molehill. The reality is so strong that floods of oppositions cannot dislocate it, and the fact is always confessed by those who have tried to conceal it. What can be said of the merits testified by ones enemy?