The Role of the Ahl al-Bayt in Building the Virtuous Community Book Two: General Rules and Fundamentals

Preface

When the Holy Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) started building a virtuous community inside Muslim society, they first set up a group of strong, compact bases and foundations to establish it. These bases and foundations were derived from the message of Islam, the seal of all divine religions, to express an accurate concept of this message and achieve the previously mentioned goals and characteristics.

The characteristics of these bases and foundations are universality, genuineness, accuracy, and confidence. They are thus a mixture of dimensions and aspects possessing adequate cohesiveness to enable the virtuous community to undertake its historical role in maintaining and defending Islam and the Muslim nation on the one hand, and being excellent exemplars for human society throughout history on the other.

These bases and foundations correspond to the doctrinal, moral, cultural, and mental aspects as well as the common facets of policy. Thus, I have divided this book into five chapters. The superstructure and the various systems of managing the affairs of the virtuous community will be discussed in future volumes.

It is worth mentioning that each chapter can serve as an independent, documentary, historical or analytical field of study.