Al-Ilahiyyat Volume 1

Author's Foreword

In the Name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

Blessed and praised is the best of His (SwT) creation, Muhammad (S), and so are the elites from among his progeny and the selected ones from among his companions.

The need of public and private Islamic circles, I mean those interested in knowledge and sciences, for editing the principles-related requirements on which the Islamic creed is based and for purifying them from impurities, after views about them had spread here and there according to the diversity of inclinations and desires.

The truth in issues relevant to the creed's beliefs has almost been buried and its candles put out, except in the chests of special ones from among those who bear it, who are its bastions, those who purged their souls of their own unholy desires, cleansing their hands of the dirhams (cash) of the men of authority.

In order to fill this terrifying vacuum, His Holiness the allama, our mentor, Professor Jafar Subhani Tabrizi, may Allah (SwT) protect him and elevate him to a high station, undertook a serious task, drawing a curtain on his comfort and rest, so he was equipped for lofty undertakings. He labored for years, actually decades, during which he abandoned his soul's desires and pursuits till he achieved what is recorded in psalms’ verses, diving deeply in pursuit of everything that is veiled till he reached it.

Then he over-poured the gist of what he inhaled of the fountain of the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Prophet (S) and his guiding progeny, as well as the sublime rules of philosophy and wisdom. Through the grace of Allah (SwT), Praise belongs only to Him, and His boon on myself, I received it with full awareness, exerting in controlling its pursuits my very best efforts, so much so that it came out in your hands a tablet shining like Venus in the sky as high as Capricorn. It is a book in which the roots of pursuits related to the creed and its branches are compiled. It solves problems and dispels doubts. It is deep in thought, solid and clear in statements, precise in classification and definition.

Allah (SwT), Praise belongs to Him, is the One to Whom we plead to accept this deed, to enable the offspring of our generation and of those of the coming ones to benefit from it, to make it a lantern leading to what is right, a lighthouse for guidance, through His boons, favors and greatness; Allah (SwT) blesses Muhammad (S) and the pure progeny of Muhammad (S).

Hassan Muhammad Makki Holy Qum on the 4th of Holy Month of Shawwal, 1408 (May 21, 1988)