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PREFACE
In the late 50's and early 60's, when I was a madressa
student in School Farze in Zanzibar-Africa, there was no
such a subject as Islamic History on the madressa
curriculum. Naturally, therefore, when I joined the
teaching staff of the Huseini Madressa in Dar-es-Salaam
Tanzania in early 80's and when I was subsequently
assigned to teach Islamic History, I was at a loss, not
knowing exactly what to teach.Not that there was no syllabus for this subject.
Rather, my main concern was the scope of the syllabus.
For at the core of Islamic History syllabus was the study
of the life of the Prophet (may peace be upon him and his
progeny) and those of the other thirteen MASOOMIN from
his progeny.In my view, besides Yusuf Laljee's excellent book,
KNOW YOUR ISLAM, there was no other simple but
informative text that could be used comfortably by both
the teachers and the students alike. Even then, the
section on the life - history of MASOOMIN was rather
sketchy in KNOW YOUR ISLAM.Since those days, I have felt the need to compile
brief teaching notes on the lives of our Twelve Imams
(may peace be upon them all) with two objectives in mind:
First, to focus on ali those areas of information, not
exclusively historic, that would enable the learner to
appreciate the complex situations in which our Imams
lived and performed their duties as divinely appointed
guides for the universe. Secondly, to present this
information in a style which has at its core the interest
as well as the aptitude of the teachers and students
alike. I found this task easy to conceive in mind, but
very difficult to implement. Needless to say, I could
accomplish little in this field until when I migrated to
the U.S.A.As luck would have it, at Huseini Madressa in New
York, I was once more assigned to tteach Islamic History.
For reasons I need not disclose them here, I found this
task even more daunting than it was in Africa.Fortunately, at this critical time when I was groping in
darkness in search of suitable reaching text for my
class, I was commissioned by Sayyyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi,
the Chief Missionary of Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania
to write teaching -units encompassing the lives of our
Twelve Imams (may peace be upon them) for the
Correspondence Course of the Mission. To me this was
Allah - sent bounty in two ways.Firstly, this commission gave me courage and
confidence that I hitherto lacked. Now I had the support
of one of the most renowned Shia scholars of our times -
Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi.Secondly, I would not have to worry about searching
for sponsors to finance the printing, the publishing and
the circulation of my writings; the Bilal Muslim Mission
of Tanzania would do that.This unit and others to follow Me therefore the result
of the initiative and complete support of Saeed Akhtar
Rizvi, the administration of Bilal Muslim Mission of
Tanzania and its old chairman Fidahusein Abdullah Hameer.Both the substance as well as the style of this unit
(and the ones to follow) have been overly simplified, to
comply with Saeed Akhtar's advice that "We have to
keep in mind that these units are meant for youths and
not for scholars." All said and done, despite the
maximum precautions that were taken to keep this unit
free of factual or any other errors, if, however, some
have remained uncorrected, the responsibility is mine.May Allah forgive me for these unintentional errors
and may He reward here and in the hereafter all those who
have in one way or another, assisted me in the writing,
the production and the circulation of this unit.WASSALAMU ALAYKUM WA RAHMATULLAHI WA
BARAKATUH.MOHAMEDRAZA DUNGERSI. PH.D.MARCH 15,1995. - SHAWWAL 14, 1415 NEW YORK- USA.
