Imamate and Leadership

About the Author

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Sayyid Mujtaba Musawi Lari is the son of the late Ayatullah
Sayyid 'Ali Asghar Lari one of the great religious scholars and
social personalities of Iran. His grandfather was the late
Ayatullah Hajj Sayyid 'Abdu 'l-Husayn Lari who fought for
freedom in the Constitutional Revolution. In the course of his
lengthy struggles against the tyrannical government of the
time he attempted to establish an Islamic government and
succeeded in doing so for a short time in Larestan.

Sayyid Mujtaba Musawi Lari was born in 1314/1935 in the
city of Lar where he completed his primary education and
his preliminary Islamic studies. In 1332/1953 he departed for
Q um to continue his study of the Islamic sciences studying
under the professors and teachers of the religious institution
including the main authorities in jurisprudence (maraji').

In 1341/1962 he became a collaborator of Maktab-i-Islam a
religious and scientific journal writing a series of articles on
Islamic ethics. These articles were later collected into a book
published under the title A Review on the Ethical and
Psychological Problems. Twelve editions of the Persian original of
this book have been published and it has also been translated
into Arabic Bengali Urdu Swahili Hausa French and
English under the title Youth and Morals.

In 1342/1963 he travelled to Germany for medical
treatment and returning to Iran after a stay of several months
he wrote a book called Western Civilization Through Muslim

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Eyes. The book includes a comparative discussion of Western
and Islamic civilization and in it the author seeks to prove by
way of a comprehensive reasoned and exact comparison the
superiority of the comprehensive and multi-dimensional
civilization of Islam to that of the West. This book has recently
been reprinted for the seventh time. In 1349/1970 it was
translated into English by a British Orientalist F. G. Goulding
and it aroused much attention in Europe. Articles concerning
the book appeared in several Western periodicals and the BBC
arranged an interview with the translator iii which the reasons
for translating the book and the reception accorded it in
England were discussed. The English version of the book has
up to now been punted three times in England eight times in
Iran and twice in America.

About three years after the publication of the English
translation Rudolf Singler a German university professor
translated it into German and the version lie produced proved
influential in Germany. One of the leaders of the Social
Democratic Party informed the translator in a letter that the
book had left a profound impression upon him causing him to
change his views of Islam and that lie would recommend the
book to his friends. The German translation has now been
reprinted three times.

The English and German versions of the book were
reprinted by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance for wide
distribution abroad through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and the Islamic Students' Associations abroad.

At the same time that the first printing of the German
translation was published an Indian Muslim scholar by the
name of Mawlana Rawshan 'Ali translated it into Urdu for
distribution in India and Pakistan. This Urdu translation has
now been reprinted five times.

This book has also been translated iii to Japanese Spanish
Arabic and French languages.

Sayyid Mujtaba Musawi Lari has also written a pamphlet
on Tawhid (divine unity) which was translated in England
under the title Knowing God and published several times in

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America. It has also been translated into Spanish Russian
Polish Norwegian and Urdu languages.

In 1343/1964 he established a charitable organization in
Lar with the purposes of propagating Islam teaching Islam to
rural youth and helping the needy. This organization
remained active until 1346/1967. Its main accomplishments were
the dispatch of students of the religious sciences to the
countryside to teach Islam to children and young people;
providing thousands of school children with clothing books
and writing equipment; building a number of mosques
schools and clinics in towns and villages; and the provision of
miscellaneous services.

Sayyid Mujtaba Musawi Lari pursued his interest in
Islamic ethics writing new articles on the subject. In 1353/1974
a collection of these articles revised and supplemented
appeared in book form under the title The Role of Ethics in
Human Development. The book has now been reprinted six
times and the English translation is underway.

In 1357/1978 he travelled to America at the invitation of an
Islamic organization in that country. He then went to England
and France and after returning to Iran began writing a series of
articles on Islamic ideology for the magazine Soroush. These
articles were later collected in a four-volume book on the
fundamental beliefs of Islam (tawhid divine justice
prophethood imamate and resurrection) under the title The
Foundations of Islamic Doctrine.

This four-volume work has been translated into Arabic
some parts of it having already been punted three times. The
English translation of the forth volume of this work forms the
present book. Urdu and Hindi translations are also underway;
four volumes of the French translation have already appeared.

In 1359/1980 Sayyid Mujtaba Musawi Lari established an
organization in Qum called Office for the Diffusion of Islamic
Culture Abroad later renamed Foundation of Islamic Cultural
Propagation in the World. It dispatches free copies of his
translated works to interested persons throughout the world. It
has also undertaken the printing of a Qur'an for free

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distribution among Muslim individuals institutions and
religious schools in Africa and distributes English French
Russian and Spanish translations of the Qur'an.