A Shiite Creed
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A SHIITE CREED Presented by Ziaraat.Com A SHIITE CREED A translation of I'tiqadatu 'l-Imamiyyah ( The Beliefs of the Imamiyyah) of Abu Ja'far, Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn al-Husayn, Ibn Babawayh al- Qummi known as ash-Shaykh as-Saduq (306/919 - 381/991) BY ASAF A. A. FYZEE WOFIS WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR ISLAMIC SERVICES TEHRAN -IRAN Presented by Ziaraat.Com First revised edition 1982/1402 Third edition 1999/1420 E-mail: [email protected] http: //www. wofis. com All rights reserved. Revised and published by: World Organization for Islamic Services, P.O.Box 11365-1545, Tehran - 15837, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN. Presented by Ziaraat.Com In the Name of Allah, The All-compassionate, The All-merciful Praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of all being, the All-compassionate; the All-merciful; the Master of the Day of Judgement; Thee only, we serve, and to Thee alone we pray for succour; Guide us in the straight path; the path of those whom Thou hast blessed, not of those against whom Thou art wrathful, nor of those who are astray. O' Allah! send your blessings to the head of your messengers and the last of your prophets, Muhammad and his pure and cleansed progeny. Also send your blessings to all your prophets and envoys. Presented by Ziaraat.Com Presented by Ziaraat.Com CONTENTS Page TRANSLITERATION ....................... xiii PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD: In Arabic ................................. xv English translation ....................... xviii HISTORICAL NOTE: In Arabic ................................. xxi English translation ...................... xxxii x1iii PREFACE ................................... xlv ABBREVIATIONS............................. INTRODUCTION ................................ 1 The author.............................. 6 His works............................... 12 ON THE BELIEFS OF THE IMAMIYA Chapter 1 - On the Unity of Allah . 27 Chapter 2 - On the Attributes (of His Essence and Actions) ........................... 31 Chapter 3 - On Responsibility . 32 Chapter 4 - On Human Actions .................... 33 Chapter 5 - On Constraint and Delegation . ... .. 33 Chapter 6 - On Allah's Intention and will ......... 34 Chapter 7 - On Destiny and Decree .............. 36 Chapter 8 - On man's Original Nature and True Guidance) ....................... 38 Chapter 9 - On Human Capacity ................ 39 Chapter 10 - On the Source of Creation ........... 41 Presented by Ziaraat.Com CONTENTS Chapter 11 - On Disputation and Contention ........ 42 Chapter 12 - On the Tablet and the Pen ........... 43 Chapter 13 - On the Chair (Kursi) ............... 44 Chapter 14 - On the Throne ( Arsh ) .............. 44 Chapter 15 - On Souls and Spirits ............... 45 Chapter 16 - On Death ........................ 49 Chapter 17 - On Questioning in the Grave ......... 55 Chapter 18 - On Resurrection ................... 57 Chapter 19 - On the Return after Death .......... 61 Chapter 20 - On the Pond . 62 Chapter 21 - On Intercession ................... 62 Chapter 22 - On the Promise and the Threat ........ 63 Chapter 23 - On What is Written against the Slave . 64 Chapter 24 - On Allah's Justice ................. 65 Chapter 25 - On Purgatory ..................... 66 Chapter 26 - On the Bridge . 66 Chapter 27 - On the Passes which are on the Road to the Gathering-Place of Resurrection . 67 Chapter 28 - On the Reckoning and the Scales ...... 69 Chapter 29 - On the Garden and the Fire .......... 71 Chapter 30 - On the Descent of Revelation . 75 Chapter 31 - On the Revelatiorl of the Qur'an ...... 75 Chapter 32 - On the Qur' an .................... 76 Chapter 33 - On the Extent of the Qur'an ......... 77 Chapter 34 - On the Prophets, Apostles, Imams, and Angels .................................... 81 Chapter 35 - On the Number of Prophets and Vicegerents ............................ 83 Chapter 36 - On Infallibility .................... 87 Chapter 37 - On Excess and Delegation ........... 87 Chapter 38 - On Evil-doers . .. .. .. .. .. .. ... 92 Chapter 39 - On Dissimulation .................. 96 Chapter 40 - On the Ancestors of the Prophet ...... 99 Chapter 41 - On the Alids . .. .. .. .. .. .. ..... 99 Presented by Ziaraat.Com CONTENTS Chapter 42 - On the Reports, Detailed and Summary ................................. 102 Chapter 43 - On Prohibition and Permission ..... 103 Chapter 44 - On Medicine ................................. 103 Chapter 45 - On Divergent Traditions . .. .... .. 105 INDEXES A. Qur'anic verse ......................... 160 B. Subjects ............................. 164 C. Names and Titles ...................... 173 D. Technical Terms ....................... 179 Presented by Ziaraat.Com TRANSLITERATION Symbol Transliteration Symbol Transliteration k l m n w h Y ah Long Vowels Short Vowel a u i Persian Letters P ch zh g xiii Presented by Ziaraat.Com XV Presented by Ziaraat.Com XVl Presented by Ziaraat.Com XVll Presented by Ziaraat.Com PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD We thank Allah, the Almighty, for having granted us success in taking a new step which brings us closer to our objective; for we here publish a translation of the book A Shiite Creed (I'tiqadqtu 'l-Imamiyyah - The Beliefs of the Imamiyyah) by ash-Shaykh as-Saduq Abu Ja'far Ibn Babawayh al-Qummi, may Allah be pleased with him. Although the translation of this book was published in 1942, we have decided to republish it, for it marks, in our opinion, a necessary step to be made before we can proceed to another one, which is the publishing of the book Tas-hih i`tiqadi 'l-Imamiyyah (The Correcttion of the Shiite Creed) by ash-Shaykh al-Mufid, may Allah be pleased with him. Moreover, it is now some time since the book has been unavailable and out of print, and the reader will be unable to make full use of The Correction of the Shi`ite Creed unless he is able to refer to the present book, from which the former takes its origin. When we decided to reprint the book we had resolved not to change anything in the translation, either in the text, or in the translator's introduction, nor have we altered any of the peculiarities introduced by the religious affinites of the translator who is an Isma'ili as he says so in the introduction and the footnotes, and expresses his positive solicitude towards the Isma`ili sect. Rather it was our inten- tion to produce everything as it is, even the method of transliteration of the Arabic names and technical terms xviii Presented by Ziaraat.Com PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD xix which the translator has chosen. So in repriting this book we proceeded on the same course except in the following cases where we were forced to make some changes. 1. The translator has numbered the Qur'anic verses according to the Fluegel edition of the Qur'an which the latter had prepared for using in his famous dictionary for the Qur'anic words. We have changed the verse references according to the Amiriyyah (Egyption) edition of the Qur'an which is more widely-referred. 2. We have corrected many references of the Qur'anic verses and chapters in the text and the indexes, and at the same time whenever we came across a mistake in the trans- lation of the verses incidently, we corrected them. 3. Among the indexes prepared by the translator there is an index for the technical terms. In this index he has mentioned many Arabic technical terms along with the page references. But in the text itself he does not mention the said terms in Arabic, rather he has just con- tented with the English equivalent of the terms. Thus the index was not of much use for those readers of this book who are not familiar with the Arabic language and the terms in Arabic form, and this is true in regard to the majority of the English readers. So we decided to add the Arabic transliteration of those terms in the relevant places of the translation along with their English equivalent. In this sphere also we corrected the mistakes which we noticed incidently. 4. We rearranged the references in the indexes ac- cording to the present edition. While arranging the indexes prepared by the translator, whom we thank and appraise, we added quite a few names and terms which the trans- lator had missed out in the relevant places. 5. While preparing the book for its new print, spon- tenously we came across some mistakes in the translation Presented by Ziaraat.Com xx PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD and some passages which had been missed out by the translator. So we corrected and translated the relevant parts, of course this was done by comparing the complete translation with its Arabic text. 6. The translator had written the footnotes under the text of the translation; we have placed them at the end of the book in successive numbers. We have omitted from the footnotes those passages which the translator had quoted from the Urdu translation of the book, from which only the reader of that language can properly benefit. It is obvious that we have spent much time and effort in reprinting this book, and that this edition is distinguished, in many aspects, from the last edition. In edition, one of the members of the board has written a preface to the book containing some pgints which the translator did not mention, or which he did mention but which can now be amplified in the light of further study. May we obtain from Allah, the Praised, Divine Help, Protection, Guidance and Success; He is the only Lord and true friend. WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR ISLAMIC SERVICES (Board of Writing, Translation and Publication) 15/8/1402 8/6/1982 Tehran - IRAN. Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxi Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxii Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxiii Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxiv Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxv Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxvi Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxvii Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxviii Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxix Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxx Presented by Ziaraat.Com xxxi Presented by Ziaraat.Com HISTORICAL NOTE I. The Author 1. Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Qummi, ash-Shaykh Abu Ja'far Ibn Babawayh (or Babuyah) as-Saduq (c.306/919-381/991), lived in Rayy where he died and was buried. His tomb is still there, and visited by crowds of people, in what is known as the "Ibn Baba- wayh Cemetery" in a southern suburb of Tehran.