Chapter 1

Preface

In the name of Allāh, the Beneficent, the Merciful

O Allāh, send Your blessings upon Muhammad & his Progeny

The bookin yourhand isanintroductory treatiseonIslamic beliefs,
lawsandethicsaswellas theearlyhistoryof thefaith in fiftylessons.
These lessons were part of the Islamic Correspondence Course that I
compiled,wrote andedited forthe Islamic Education andInformation
Centre, Toronto, in the early nineties.

The course consists of threeparts:PartI (twentylessons) onIslamic
theologyoutlinesthebasicbeliefsofthefaith;followedbyPartII(fifteen
lessons)on Islamic jurisprudenceexplainingthe spiritual andfinancial
issuesaswellasthesocialandfamilialaspectsoflife;itconcludeswith
PartIII (fifteen lessons) onthe brief historyof the first threecenturies
coveringthelivesoftheProphetMuhammad,hisdaughter,Fātima,and
theTwelveImamsofAhlulBayt(peacebeuponthemall).Eachlessonis
followed by a question paper.

Besides my own writings, the sources usedin preparingthis course
have been duly mentioned at the end of each lesson. Nonetheless, I
wouldliketoacknowledgeherethewritingsofmylatefather‘Allāmah
SayyidSaeedAkhtarRizvi,theboardofwritersofDarRāh-eHaqqInsti-
tute (Qum, Iran), the late ‘Allāmah S.M. Husayn Tabātabā’i, and
AyatullāhNāsirMakārimShirāzi.IalsowouldliketothankBr.Haider
AliKhoja,alectureratHumberCollege, forpreparingthequestionpa-
persforthe initiallessons whichhelpedme inpreparingquestions for
the remaining lessons in the same pattern.

Ipraytothe AlmightyAllāh thatthisbookmayprove asuseful and
helpfulfor seekers of truth as did the Islamic CorrespondenceCourse