iii
In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent The Merciful,All Praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds,and Peace and Blessings be upon the most honourable of allcreatures, Muhammad the Chosen One and his righteous progenyand perpetual curse be upon all their enemies.Imam Rid
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a
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peace be upon him said:
May Allah have mercy upon he who keeps our affair alive
.I asked the Imam: And how may one keep your affair alive?The Imam replied:
By learning our teachings and teaching them to the people, forif the people learn of the beauty of our teachings they willfollow us
.In this work Ayatollah al-Udma
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Sayyid S
{
a
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diq Shirazi states:The teachings of Ahl al-Bayt may be divided in three parts:1.
Os
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ool al-Deen;
the five fundamental principles of Islam,2.
Foroo‘ al-Deen;
the rulings of Islam (on the h
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ala
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h and h
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ara
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m,e.g. the material covered in the
Risa
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lah
or the Manual of Islamic Law),3.
The ethics and etiquettes of Islam, (
Akhla
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q
and
A
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da
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b
).
Foroo‘ al-Deen
are many; there are the famous ten, as well assome of the important principles, which are of particular significance in the modern times, such as human community,social order, politics, economy, the armed forces, the justicesystem, culture, mass media, health, medical issues, individual andsocial freedoms, and suchlike. [This is discussed in this work, bythe will of Almighty Allah]