In the Name of Allah, the most Compassionate, the most Merciful
The everlasting praise and the endless gratitude is specified for Allah, the Honorable and Exalted, who, with His amounting wisdom, created the existence from the mere extinction and dressed it up with the garment of life.
Then, among those worlds of creations, He picked the man for his immense sense and wisdom – honoured him the responsibility and authority.
As it is stated:
وَ لَقَدْ كَرَّمْنا بَني آدَمَ وَ حَمَلْناهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَ الْبَحْرِ وَ رَزَقْناهُمْ مِنَ الطَّيِّباتِ وَ فَضَّلْناهُمْ عَلى كَثيرٍ مِمَّنْ خَلَقْنا تَفْضيل
‘…We have certainly dignified the Children of Adam and carried them over land and at the sea, and We provided them with clean and pure things and bestowed them specialty over many of those whom We have created. (Qur'an: 17/70)’
Therefore, the endless praise and benediction and boundless honour belong to the instructing leaders of the human race who, by hosting the banner of the Divine Praise, transfigured the brightness of belief in the hearts of men. They lighted the torch of Unity and the Governorship in the souls of men so that the giant existing power and the talent of them carry out His command in condescends.
Especially the Holiness Seal of the prophets, Muhammad bin Abdullah, and his respected Guardian, the Master of the inheritors, Ali ibn Abī Tālib, peace be upon them, who are the bearers of the ‘Banner of Praise’ and the main owners of the position of intercession; and also the immaculate Imams up to the Remainder of Allah on the earth, ‘Hojjat ibn al-Hassan’ may Allah hasten his noble advent – he who is the entire sign of the Divine Attributes. He is the sign of beauty, majesty, and the complete signs of the Unity Lights, the Illumination of the Everlasting Light upon the beings, the certain Guardian for the Honourable and Exalted and so is he the means of blessing.
He is the ever-existing Governor, and he is the Divine reflection and the sign of Allah’s Majesty, he is the shining pearl, he is the blissful Light of Unity casting all over the world, he is the Divine nominated Governor and he is the receiver of the orders from the source of the Truth.
As the question of the Imamate and Governing is of the most important vital subject, by knowing this fact, the whole talent of man starts growing, but by not knowing this fact and resisting to follow the Truth the talent and ability get astray and they are ruined in the deviated path of lust and passions.
Therefore, Allah, the Honourable and Exalted, honoured me to allocate my time in the companion of some religious friends and bothers in the Ramadan of one thousand, three hundred and one Lunar month of Hejirate to discuss about the question of Imamate and the Government-ship.
It was decided that the basis of our discussion to be on the verses of the Qur’an; however, for the importance of the subject for the common, we decided to debate the subjects, to get benefit from the narrations and the histories – and also to use the special narratives in our discussion.
At first, we thought that we could bring up a complete course of this discussion in the month of Ramadan, however, although we were working hard through the month, the Ramadan came to an end but we did not fulfill a sixth of what we had assigned.
By the favour and the aid of Allah, I separately at home, wrote down and made a compact volume of whatever we had discussed in our gathering.
Almost three years passed of our discussions on the different subjects and collecting the subjects about the Imamate, but still I was hopeless to get the result. Once again, in the month of Ramadan, one thousand, three hundred and ninety-five Allah cast more favour upon me and I started the semi-finished discussion of us with my religious brothers.
At the end of the month, we brought up another one sixth of our discussion. In result, during the two months of Ramadan we brought up one third of our discussion and wrote it down.
After a period of time, now, four volumes have been completed and they are ready to be studied by the bright; with the hope that, Allah, the Honourable and Exalted, will favour me to finish the rest – for the sake of Muhammad and his Descendant.
All these discussions are going to be in twelve volumes which includes the whole ‘Knowing the Imam’ in the course of Islamic knowledge and understanding; it is going to be about one hundred and eighty lessons.
Although these lessons are specialized on the Imamate, the Government-ship and the Leadership, and also the chastity of the Imams, upon them all be peace, the condition of the prophecy and the necessity of the chastity for the messengers will be discussed. In fact, this is a complete discussion on the Imamate which includes the prophet-hood – it frees us from want of other references.
We would like to thank Allah for His great favour to us that we, the humble, have become so daring to fulfill this hard task. After years of struggling, we have brought up these discussions and lessons and now we are ready to present them to brothers in religion.
So, praise be to Allah, and the thanks are for Him, and our last appealing is that: “Praise belongs to Allah” and O Allah, bless Muhammad and his pure Descendants.
Sayyid Mohammad Hussein Husseini
Tehrani