THE DOCTOR AND THE SHEIKHS' DEBATE
Page 1
Lucidity in the shadow of
THE DOCTOR
THE SHEIKHS’ DEBATE
wa
AYIY tye toed ghee
Page 2
In the name of God the Beneficent, the
Merciful
Page 3
Lucidity in the shadow of
THE DOCTOR
&
THE SHEIKHS DEBATE
Written by:
Dr. Mohammad Hassan Shojaeefard
Professor, Iran University of Science and Technology
LAs
{ep
BAT ivVvd
ATNY ota toad estas
Translated by:
S. Jeyran Main
Page 4
Table of Contents
Differences between Companions, the Reason for their Probity ......................................... 32 References about the Weakness of the Hadith Regarding the Justice of Companions ....... 33
There is No Difference between the Prophet Being Dead or Alive ......................................... 58
Page 5
Pilgrimaging in Shia'sm and the licence Permission for Sunni to Pilgrimage ....................... 109
Loudly Reading "In the name of God the Beneficent, the Merciful (
Page 6
4- The Companions Objection over Ali Not Being Chosen as Calipha ................................. 213
6- Consequences over Eliminating Ali from Being Chosen as Calipha after the Prophet ..... 232
The Prophet's Remark: Whoever I am his Master, Ali is his Master ..................................... 248
Appendix Three: The Complete Speech of Ghadir in Arabic by The Messenger of God .......... 325
Page 8
Translator's Preface
In this book Professor Shojaee Fard has written exclusively on various matters regarding the differences between the Shia and Sunni Muslims today. He has respectfully chosen to express the misunderstandings that are current in our day to day lives. He wishes to convey the information he has gathered within the many years of accomplished research, to the reader.
The book is originally written in Farsi and converted to English by myself. In addition there are however, many Arabic references that I have tried my best to faithfully render and translate as well. In my belief, the object of a translator should ever be to hold the mirror up to his author.
Undoubtedly, there are possibilities where these phrases and citations have not been transformed to its best possible understanding. To prevent any confusion; if you stumbled upon any problem, please refer to the original Arabic words.
Inevitably, this book assumes that the reader has a general knowledge about Islam and if that is not the case then our non- Muslim readers can always refer to other relevant Islamic books to clarify any questions they may have.
The translation of this book has been carefully agreed on and revised by the author and the editors.
I wish to send many thanks to my father, professor S.M.A Boutorabi and my beloved husband, C. R. Main that have assisted me in editing this book. This book could have not finished if it had not been for their support, understanding and patience.
I also wish to thank the author of this book for granting me the privilege of translating what I believe, a beautiful book in the path of true Islam and the Ahl al Bayt.
S. Jeyran Main
Page 9
Introduction
When I was younger and after graduating with my Technician Diploma from Abadan Oil Company Art School, I had a thought, how could we be sure that what we believe in is in fact the absolute truth and is the salvation of human being? In the old days Marxism prevailed therefore, I decided to study Marxism. I concluded that it did not contain anything substantial to change the mind of an average thinking person. I also studied some of the new religious books and schools of thought but I did not manage to find anything notable.
One of the leaders of the Baha'i Sect in the world happened to be our neighbor. I was also in contact with several other people whom followed the Baha'ism. In addition, I spent a very short amount of time listening to them and lured to what they had to say. There were many Christian's in Abadan and I was aware that the Christian faith is the most dominant faith in the world. I studied about their religion as well and concluded that even though their faith has a holy foundation, it did not continue with the Christianize monotheism. When I was studying in England several years later, I heard from many Christian scholars that the Holy Trinity was causing a setback with their youth.
After studying different schools and religions, I concluded that only Islam has a rational and scientific base. Thankfully, as a researcher in analyzing all the other faiths and their books, I did practice on the Islamic rules and maybe that was the reason why I was not deceived by the appearance of the other religions.
However, a question did cross my mind. Are our Sunni brothers that are the majority, closer to the true Islam? The answer to this question was a little harder because God, Quran, Qibla, the Prophet (s.a.w.a) and most of the prayers are the same. However, the political and cultural paths are different.
Therefore, to be able to understand the essence of the beliefs of our Sunni brothers I learned Arabic and started reading their famous books in specific one of their important ones named Sihah al Sittah. At the same time, for comparison I also studied the Shias books as well.
Whatever I discovered in the Sunni books in regards to religious actions and alike were not so different from Shias. However, their actions were different to what the essence of their books mandated. Additionally, regarding important matters, that were imperative when I was young and still are to this day now that I am older, is the role of religion in government and running the world. Unfortunately, this is contradicted in Sunni books especially with the Quran's principles.
This is even happening with a significant number of their Hadith.
Consequently, after studying our Sunni brother's books I realized that the Ahl al Bayt's School (even though there are some Sunni followers who believe that Shias act contradictory to their own rules) is the closest to the true Islam and the straight path. In other words, I have to say that
Page 10
it was reading the Sunni books that made me sense a much stronger belief to the Ahl al Bayt's School.
After graduating with a Diploma in Mathematics, I entered the Iran University of Science and Technology and because of the necessity, I felt in the University I continued to research on that particular matter. In addition to my political and revolutionary activities against the Shah in specific the Islamic revolution, I felt the need to study even more on the matter.
Evidently, after the success of the Islamic revolution led by Imam Khomeini (On whom bid the mercy of God), scholars and young brave Sunni's that lived in Iran, declared their presence in the political ground and protected the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran and followed the pure Mohammad way of Islam (free soul spirited living).
Currently following the 33 years of enlightenments in the shadow of the Islamic revolution of Iran and with the leadership of Hazrat Imam Khamenei, the Islamic world has woken. With the call of "God is the greatest", we have stood against the superpowers and because of this, the Islamic countries have one by one released themselves from the domination of outsiders.
In my first visit to Hajj in 1982, I realized that I needed to work on my Arabic for conversing.
This was because I was seeing many practices in Sunni religion that were contradicting their own rules and I was not able to explain it to them properly. In conclusion, I learned how to speak Arabic. It was an honor to go to Hajj many years later. I was able to speak with our Sunni brothers in specific their scholars and this book is a report on some of those discussions.
For economical reasons I will not go into too much details as to the way the discussions were recorded, filed, written and published.
I managed to save single software on my mobile that contains roughly 7000 books about how our Sunni brothers think from the Masjid an Nabawi (s.a.w.a) in Medina. This software program is the essence of all the documents that are in this debate. All of the Hadith related to the documents given have been from this software and have been cited and translated in this book.
For this particular reason, some of the writings have inflection. Even the book of "Characteristics of the faithful Ali Ibn Abitaleb" and parts of the book of "Kanzal Amaal (Treasure of the good doers)" that describe the virtues of Ali have been copied and translated from this software. In the discussions, no document has been taken from the Ahl al Bayt's School. Much of the discussion between the two parties debate has been removed due to the unimportance of the material and there are many files that have not been mentioned in this book. Nevertheless, it is possible to mention them in my later published books if my honorable readers suggest it and if the files for that particular request are available. I need to mention that I did not include the Arabic material for the sections that had few differences and therefore, I settled with the text content only.
The accountability of this discussion has no intention to covert our Sunni brothers and sisters to Shia'sm. I am trying to demonstrate to those beloved people that their beliefs could not be any
Page 11
further away from the true Islam. I wish to explain how much the Ahl al Bayt's School is closer to the righteous path. God willing, with the emersion of Hazrat Vali e Asr the true Islam that is the genuine School of Ahl al Bayt will be declared without any uncertainty and the whole world will be ruled by the highly honored.
I named this debate "The Doctor and the Sheikh's Debate" after the memory of reading the "Discussions of the Doctor and the Old man" book, written by warrior for the faith and martyrdom of the honorable Hazrat Hojat al Islam val Muslamin Seyed Abdul Karim Hashemi Nedjad, 45 years ago.
I thank all the people that have assisted me in typing, editing and publishing this book without mentioning any names and God willing their remuneration will be given by the Ahl al Bayt.
Mohammad Hassan Shojaee Fard