Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Fifty Lectures On The Principles Of Faith For Youth

Author: Ayatullah Makarim Shirazi
Publisher: Ahlul Bayt World Assembly
Category:

• Preface
• Prelude
• [Ten Lectures on God and His Attributes]
• First Lecture: Searching for God
• Why Do We Think And Study In Order To Know The Creator Of The Universe?
• 1. The love to be informed about and know the world is deep inside every one of us
• 2. A Sense of Gratitude
• 3. The connection of our benefit and loss to this question
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Second Lecture: The Consequences of Knowing God in our Lives
• 1. Theism and the Advancement of Knowledge
• 2. Theism, Endeavors and Hopes
• 3. Theism and the Sense of Responsibility
• 4. Theism and Peace of Mind
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Third Lecture: Theism from two Secure Paths
• The Approach from Within
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Fourth Lecture: The Answer to an Important Question
• The Question
• The Answer
• Fifth Lecture: A True Story
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Sixth Lecture: The Second Way to Know God
• A Way from Without
• The Relation of Order and Wisdom
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Seventh Lecture: Some Examples of the Order of Creation
• Order, purpose and planning are vividly observable in all of creation. Here are some striking examples
• The Headquarters of the Territory of Man’s Body
• The Cerebrum, the Most Amazing Part of the Brain
• Another Astonishing Section of the Brain is the Memory
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Eighth Lecture: A World of Wonder in a Small Flying Animal
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Ninth Lecture: The Friendship between Insects and Flowers
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Tenth Lecture: In the World of Microcosms
• From atoms we learn Lessons on Monotheism
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Further Discussion on the Tenth Lecture
• How Splendid are the Attributes of Allah
• His Attributes
• Divine Beauty and Divine Majesty
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Ten Lecures on God’s Justice
• First Lecture: What is Justice?
• Why is justice, above God’s other attributes, considered as one of the principles ` religion?
• To answer this question, we should take the following into consideration
• During the early days of Islam, a dispute arose over the issue of God’s justice
• What is Justice?
• Justice has two distinct meanings
• The Differences between Justice and Equality
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Second Lecture: The Reasons for God’s Justice
• Rational Goodness and Unseemliness
• Ignorance
• Selfishness and Revenge
• The Qur’an and God’s Justice
• Invitation to Justice
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Third Lecture: The Philosophy behind Disasters and Evils
• Man’s Relative Judgment and his Limited Knowledge
• Unpleasant Events and Warnings
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Fourth Lecture: The Philosophy behind Unpleasant Events in our Lives
• Man Matures when he Faces Difficulties
• Hardships Prepare Man to Return to God
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Fifth Lecture: More Discussion on the Philosophy behind Disasters and Evils
• Hardships and Life’s Ups and Downs Enliven Us
• Self-made Hardships
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Sixth Lecture: Determinism and Free Will
• The Origin of the Belief in Determinism
• The Basic Error of the Proponents of Determinism
• The Politico-Social Factors Involved in the Philosophy of Determinism
• Political Factors
• Psychological Factors
• Social Factors
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Seventh Lecture: The Clearest Proof for free will Man’s Conscience Categorically Rejects Determinism
• The Religious Opposition to Determinism
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Eighth Lecture: What is the Intermediate School?
• Delegation vis-à-vis Determinism
• The Intermediate School
• Another Example
• Determinism and Free Will in the Holy Qur’an
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Ninth Lecture: Guidance and Misguidance are in the Hands of God
• 1. Kinds of Guidance and Misguidance
• A crucial and important question
• God’s Eternal Knowledge an Excuse for Justifying Crime
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Tenth Lecture: God’s Justice and Eternal Chastisement (khuld)
• Through a simple example, we may visualize this fact
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Notes
• Ten Lectures on Prophethood
• First Lecture: Our Need for Divine Leaders
• The Limitations of our knowledge
• We Need Prophets for Educational Reasons
• The Need for Leadership in Social and Ethical Fields
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Second Lecture: Prophets are Needed to Provide us with Rules and Regulations
• Rules could solve three types of hardships
• The Relation between Monotheism and Prophethood
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Third Lecture: Why are Prophets Sinless [infallible]?
• Immunity against Sins and Wrongdoing
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Fourth Lecture: The Best Way to Recognize the Prophet
• Miracles and supernatural deeds
• Some Vivid Examples
• Miracles should not be mingled with Superstitions
• The Differences between Miracles and Other Extraordinary Acts
• There are two clear answers to this question
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Fifth Lecture: The Greatest Miracle of the Prophet of Islam
• The Eternal Miracle
• The Story of Walid Ibn Mughirah
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Sixth Lecture: A Brief Look at the Miracles of the Holy Qur’an
• Why the Discontinuous letters?
• Lack of contradiction and unrelated issues
• Eloquence and Clarity
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Seventh Lecture: The world view of the Holy Qur’an
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Eighth Lecture: The Holy Qur’An with Respect to the Scientific Discoveries of our Time
• The Holy Qur’an on Gravity
• The Discovery of the Rotation of the Earth around Itself and its Orbit around the Sun
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Ninth Lecture: Another Proof for the Legitimacy of the Prophet of Islam
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Tenth Lecture: The Prophet of Islam: the Seal of the Prophets
• The Real Meaning of the Seal of the Prophets
• The Reasons why the Prophet is the Last Prophet
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Notes
• Ten Lectures on Imamate
• First Lecture: When was Imamate first discussed?
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Second Lecture: The Philosophy behind the Existence of the Imams
• Spiritual perfection with Divine Leaders
• Protecting Heavenly Laws
• The Need to Make the Proof Irrefutable
• The Imam is a Great Medium for Divine Grace
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Third Lecture: The Imam’s specific traits
• 1. Infallibility or Sinlessness
• 2. Having Great Knowledge
• 3. Bravery
• 4. Piety and Austerity
• 5. Ethical Attractiveness
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Fourth Lecture: Who has the Responsibility to Appoint the Imam?
• Could the Muslim community appoint the Prophet’s successor?
• 1. Did not the Prophet Appoint a Successor?
• 2. Consensus and Consultation
• 3. `Ali (s) had the Greatest Merit for the Imamate
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Fifth Lecture: The Holy Qur’An and Imamate
• 1. The Holy Qur’An considers Imamate as an Appointment by God
• 2. The Verse on Delivery
• 3. The Verse on Obedience to Those in Authority
• 4. The verse on Wilayah
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Sixth Lecture: Imamate in the Prophet’s Tradition
• The Narration of Ghadir
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Seventh Lecture: The narration of Manzilah and the narration of Yawm Al-Dar
• The content of the Narration on Status
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Eighth Lecture: The Thaqalayn and Noah’s Ark Narrations
• The Recording of the Thaqalayn Narration
• The content of the Narration of Thaqalayn
• The Narration of Noah’s Ark
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Ninth Lecture: The Twelve Imams
• The Narrations Concerning the Twelve Imams
• The Content of These Narrations
• Distinguishing the Imams by Their Names
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Tenth Lecture: Imam Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam and the World’s Great Reformer
• The End of a Dark Night
• Innate disposition and the Appearance of the Great Reformer
• Rational Proof
• The Holy Qur’an and the Appearance of the Mahdi
• The Mahdi in the Traditions
• The Narrations on the Mahdi Relayed by Shi`ah Scholars
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Notes
• Ten Lectures on Eschastology
• First Lecture: One Crucial Question: Is Death Considered as One’s End or Beginning?
• The Real Reason Behind This Fear
• 1. An Interpretation of Death as Extinction
• The Dreadful Record
• Two Different Points of View
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Second Lecture: Resurrection Provides Life With Meaning
• Belief in the Resurrection: an Important Factor of Education
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Third Lecture: An Example Of The Day Of Resurrection within Our Souls
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Fourth Lecture: Resurrection with Respect to Innate Nature
• 1. Love for Survival
• 2. Resurrection in History
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Fifth Lecture: Resurrection in the Scale of Justice
• Free will and Freedom in Decision-Making
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Sixth Lecture: The Resurrection in This World
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Seventh Lecture: The Resurrection and the Philosophy of Creation
• Many people might ask: Why did God create us?
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Eighth Lecture: The Continuity of the Soul as a Sign for the Existence of The Resurrection
• 1. We Cannot Place a Gigantic World Inside a Tiny One
• 2. The Ability of the Soul to Reflect the Outside World
• 3. Empirical Reasons for the Fundamentality and Independence of the Soul
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Ninth Lecture: Bodily Resurrection and Spiritual Resurrection
• Bodily Resurrection in the Holy Qur’an
• Rational Examples for the Resurrection of the Body
• Questions Related to the Resurrection of the Body
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Tenth Lecture: Paradise, Hell, and the corporealization of Deeds
• The Corporealization of our Deeds
• THINK AND ANSWER
• Notes