Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

References

1. - The term tāghūt applies to any idol, object, or individual that prevents men from doing what is good, and leads them astray. The term has been used eight times in the Qur’an. Prior to Islam, tāghūt had been the name of one of the idols of the Quraysh tribe. This name is used also to mean Satan. Moreover, the term is used to indicate one who rebels against lofty values, or who surpasses all bounds in his despotism and tyranny and claims the prerogatives of divinity for himself whether explicitly or implicitly. [Trans.]

2. - For further information about the idea of guardianship [wilāyah] and the guardian [wālī], see Murtadā Mutahharī, Wilāyah: The Station of the Master, trans. Yahyā Cooper (Tehran: World Organization for Islamic Services, 1982). [Trans.]

3. - Ummah: the entire Islamic community which knows no territorial, racial, national or ethnic distinction. [Trans.]

4. - See Sūrah Āli ‘Imrān 3:103.

5. - Sūrah Nisā’ 4:59: “O you who have faith! Obey Allah and obey the Apostle and those vested with authority among you.”

6. - See Shahristānī, Al-Milal wa’n-Nihal, vol. 1, p. 24.

7. - Ahl al-Bayt: according to authentic hadīths recorded in both Sunnī and Shī‘ah sources, the term Ahl al-Bayt, and interchangeably Itrah and Āl, is a blessed Qur’anic appellation that belongs exclusively to the Prophet, ‘Alī, Fātimah, Hasan, and Husayn (‘a). The members of this Family of five, with the Prophet Muhammad (s) at its head, were the ones present at the time the Qur’anic verses regarding their virtues were being revealed to the Prophet (s). However, nine other Imāms from the descendants of Imām al-Husayn (‘a) are also included in this chosen Family, the final one being Imām al-Mahdī (‘a). For further information, visit: http://www.al-islam.org/faq. [Trans.]

8. - Murtaḍā Muṭahharī, Imāmat va Rahbarī [Imamate and Leadership], p. 52.

9. - See Sunnī books on the principles of jurisprudence and Sayyid ‘Abd al-Ḥusayn Sharaf ad-Dīn al-Mūsawī, Al-Murājā‘at, Correspondence 13.

10. - Muṭahharī, Imāmat va Rahbarī, p. 53.

11. - Sa‘ad ad-Dīn Taftāzānī, Sharḥ al-Maqāṣid, vol. 5, p. 233; Shahristānī, Al-Milal wa’n-Nihal, vol. 1, p. 72.

12. - Abū’l-Ḥasan Māwardī, Al-Aḥkām as-Salṭāniyyah, p. 7.

13. - Taftāzānī, Sharḥ al-Maqāṣid, vol. 5, p. 233.

14. - ‘Abd ar-Razzāq Lāhījī, Gawhār-e Murād, p. 467.

15. - Taftāzānī, Sharḥ al-Maqāṣid, vol. 5, p. 232.

16. - See Muṭahharī, Imāmat va Rahbarī, p. 70.

17. - See Uṣūl al-Kāfī, “Abwāb al-Ḥujjah”; Muṭahharī, Imāmat va Rahbarī, p. 56.

18. - By referring to the Shī‘ah books on tradition [ḥadīth], it will become clear that the magnitude of narrations [riwāyāt] is ten times greater than the Holy Qur’an and sayings of the Messenger of Allah (ṣ). For instance, Wasā’il ash-Shī‘ah compiled by the late Shaykh Ḥurr al-‘Āmilī consists of 30 volumes; Mustadrak al-Wasā’il by Muḥaddith Nūrī in 18 volumes; and Biḥār al-Anwār by ‘Allāmah Majlisī in 110 volumes contain narrations from the Infallibles (‘a).

19. - See Muṭahharī, Imāmat va Rahbarī, p. 93; Muḥammad Taqī Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Āmuzesh-e ‘Aqā’id, p. 305.

20. - Sūrah Shū‘arā’ 26:214: “Warn the nearest of your kinsfolk.”

21. - This account is recorded as Ḥadīth ad-Dār in Sunnī history books. For example, see Tārīkh aṭ-Ṭabarī, vol. 2, pp. 319-321; Al-Kāmil fī’t-Tārīkh, vol. 2, p. 62; Ibn Abī’l-Ḥadīd, Sharḥ Nahj al-Balāghah, vol. 13, pp. 22, 244; Kanz al-‘Ummāl, vol. 15, p. 115. The text of the ḥadīth is as follows: “Verily, this is my brother, executor of will and my caliph after me. So, listen to him and obey him.”

22. - Known as Ḥadīth ath-Thaqalayn, this statement is recorded without a broken chain of transmission [mutawātir] from the Holy Prophet (ṣ). It is narrated by 53 companions of the Prophet (ṣ) [ṣaḥābah] and recorded in more than 200 Sunnī books on history, tradition and Qur’anic exegesis [tafsīr]. See, for example, Ṣāḥīḥ Muslim, vol. 4, p. 873; Ṣaḥīḥ Tirmidhī, vol. 5, p. 663; Musnad Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, vol. 5, p. 182; Sunan ad-Dāramī, vol. 2, p. 231.

23. - This statement of Prophet Muḥammad (ṣ) is known as Ḥadīth as-Safīnah, narrated by famous ṣaḥābah such as ‘Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib, ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās, Abū Dharr al-Ghifāri, Abū Sa‘īd al-Khidri, Anas ibn Mālik, and others, and recorded in Sunnī books.

24. - In some of these narrations, the names of the twelve caliphs or Imāms are mentioned while in some others only the names of the first and the last.

25. - Sūrah Mā’idah 5:67: “O Apostle! Communicate that which has been sent down to you from your Lord, and if you do not, you will not have communicated His message.”

26. - Sūrah Mā’idah 5:3.

27. - See ‘Allāmah Amīnī, Al-Ghadīr, vol. 1, pp. 14-151.

28. - Sharaf ad-Dīn al-Mūsawī, Al-Murāja‘āt, Correspondences 57-58.

29. - Sūrah Ahzāb 33:6.

30. - Sūrah Shūrā 42:23: “Say, I do not ask of you any reward for it except the affection for [my] relatives.”

31. - Khwārazmī al-Mālikī, Al-Manāqib, p. 80; Sibṭ ibn Jawzī al-Ḥanafī, Tadhkirat Khawāṣ al-Ummah, p. 20; Ganjī Shāfi‘ī, Kifāyah aṭ-Ṭālib, p. 17; and others. [Trans.]

32. - For example, it is mentioned by Imām ‘Alī (‘a) as narrated by Ibn Ḥijr in Lisān al-Mīzān, vol. 2, p. 285 and Aṣ-Ṣawā‘iq al-Muḥriqah, p. 126; adh-Dhahabī in Mīzān al-I‘tidāl, vol. 1, p. 441; Qundūzī in Yanābī‘ al-Mawaddah, vol. 1, p. 134, bāb 38; Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in Musnad Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, vol. 1, p. 119; Imāms Ḥasan and Ḥusayn (‘a) in Al-Ghadīr, vol. 1, p. 197.

33. - Tafwīḍ: the belief that after creating all beings, God has left them to administer their own affairs and follow their own wills. In other words, it is the upholding of freewill [ikhtiyār] vis-à-vis predestination. [Trans.]

34. - The book of fifty-seven prayers known as as-Sahīfah (al-Kāmilah) as-Sajjādiyyah, which is one of the major Islamic manuals of supplications, was transmitted from Imām Zayn al-‘Ābīdīn as-Sajjād, the fourth of the Twelve Imāms and the only son of Imām Husayn to survive the massacre at Karbala. See Sahīfah al-Kāmilah, http://www.al-islam.org/sahifa. [Trans.]

35. - In addition, many volumes of narrations on beliefs can be observed in books on ḥadīth such as Al-Kulaynī, Uṣūl al-Kāfī and Shaykh aṣ-Ṣadūq, At-Tawḥīd.

36. - Many collections of juristic narrations have been compiled in books of ḥadīth the most famous of which is Wasā’il ash-Shī‘ah by Shaykh Ḥurr al-‘Āmilī.

37. - Imām Muhammad al-Bāqir: the fifth Imām from the Holy Prophet’s Progeny. He was born in 57 AH/675 CE and spent most of his life in Medina, until his martydom there in 114 AH/732 CE. See Bāqir Sharīf al-Qarashi, The Life of Imām Mohammed al-Bāqir, trans. Jāsim al-Rasheed (Qum: Ansariyan Publications, 1999). [Trans.]

38. - Ja‘far ibn Muhammad (‘a) entitled, as-Sādiq [The Truthful],” is the sixth Imām from the Prophet’s Progeny (83-148 AH). Many of the Sunnī and Shī‘ah ‘ulamā and scholars attended his teaching classes and seminars. Narrators of tradition have quoted the number of Imām as-Sādiq’s students as four thousand. The socio-economic conditions of his time necessitated utmost efforts to be made by the Imam (‘a) in the areas of expanding authentic and original Islamic teachings and in the training and education of the faithful students. For this reason the books of tradition and other books quote and cite more traditions from Imām Ja‘far as-Sadiq than from any other infallible Imāms. See Shaykh Mohammed al-Husayn al-Muzaffar, Imām Al-Sādiq, trans. Jāsim al-Rasheed (Qum: Ansariyan Publications, 1998). [Trans.]

39. - Al-Kāfī, vol. 1, p. 67.

40. - Taqiyyah: prudential dissimulation of one’s true beliefs under conditions of acute danger to one’s life, property, or honor, a practice based on Qur’an, 3:28. As its observance depends on certain terms and conditions, it may be obligatory [wājib], recommended [mustahab], abominable [makrūh], or forbidden [harām]. For a discussion of taqiyyah, see Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi, Taqiyyah (Dar es Salaam: Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania, 1992), http://www.al-islam.org/taqiyyah; Al-Taqiyya/Dissimulation, http://www.al-islam.org/encyclopedia/chapter6b.html; and ‘Allamah Tabataba’i, Shi‘ite Islam (Albany, N.Y., 1975), pp. 223-225, http://www.al-islam.org/anthology. [Trans.]

41. - See ‘Allāmah Ḥillī, Kashf al-Murād fī Tajrīd al-I‘tiqād, Section on Imamate.

42. - The abbreviation, ‘atfs stands for the Arabic invocative phrase, ‘ajjalallāhu ta‘ālā farajah ash-sharīf [may Allah, the Exalted, expedite his glorious advent], which is invoked after mentioning the name of Imām al-Mahdī (‘atfs). [Trans.]

43. - See Muḥammad Riḍā Ḥakīmī, Khurshīd-e Maghrib, chaps. 4-6; Ṣāfī Gulpāygānī, Muntakhab al-Āthār.

44. - See Sayyid Muḥammad Bāqir Ṣadr, Baḥth Ḥawl al-Mahdī, p. 55.

The book’s English translation is An Inquiry Concerning Al-Mahdī (Tehran: World Organization for Islamic Services, 1980). [Trans.].

45. - ‘Allāmah Majlisī, Tuḥaf al-‘Uqūl, p. 37.

46. - See Sūrah Anbiyā’ 21:105; Sūrah Nūr 24:55; Sūrah Qaṣaṣ 28:5.

47. - See Uṣūl al-Kāfī, “Kitāb al-Ḥujjah,” Bāb fī’l-Ghaybah”; Biḥar al-Anwār, vol. 51, p. 110.

48. - Gulpāygānī, Muntakhab al-Āthār, p. 355.

49. - During the first 70 years of his Imamate, the Imām of the Time (‘atfs) had special deputies to manage on behalf of the Imām the affairs of the Shī‘ah. This period is known as the minor occultation.

50. - Sūrah Shūrā 42:23: “Say, I do not ask of you any reward for it except the affection for [my] relatives.”

51. - Tawassul: literally, to resort to intermediaries. Technically, it refers to the practice of petition prayer addressed to God through a holy personage such as a prophet [nabī] or a saint [walī]. [Trans.]

52. - Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 5, p. 312 as narrated from Imām al-Ḥusayn (‘a).

53. - Uṣūl al-Kāfī, vol. 1, p. 207.

54. - Shaykh aṣ-Ṣadūq, At-Tawḥīd, p. 290.