Goal of Life

Translator's Preface

The martyred scholar, Murtadha Mutahhari was born in 1918 in the village of Fariman of Mashad in Khorassan. He studied for 16 years at the Divinity College of Qum in the branches of literature, philosophy, jurisprudence and some other Islamic subjects, Then, for several years, he acted as professor of theology and philosophy in the same college and at Tehran University.

Then he turned his attention to research which resulted in the publication of many books on religious, philosophical and social topics.

He was an erudite and versatile scholar, as is proved by his numerous lectures, pamphlets and books, a total of 35 published works, the most well-known of which are “Islamic World Vision”, “Man in the Qur'an”, “Islamic Revolution”, “Man and Faith”, “Divine Justice”, “Society and History”, “Revelation and Prophethood”. He was assassinated in the year 1980 in Tehran.

This book contains the five following lectures:

  1. The Goal of Creation

  2. The Basis of Individual and Social Ethics

  3. Faith, schools of Thought and World Vision

  4. Islamic Faith and Human Perfection

  5. Summing up Islamic Monotheism

These lectures are closely connected in this way that they offer various ideas offered by various schools and particularly Islam concerning the goal of life and human perfection.

In this book the letters (S) and (a) stand respectively after the name of Muhammad and other prophets and Imams, as abbreviation for the following two phrases: “Greetings upon him and his household” for the Prophet, and “Peace be on him” for each Imam.

I wish to express my thanks to Mr. M. Khurshid Ali, editor of the Be'that Foundation for his co- operation in reading the manuscript and making helpful suggestions.

A.P