Then I was Guided

Product Information

He who wants this world should seek knowledge; he who wants the afterlife should seek knowledge; and he who wants both should also seek knowledge." After I passed the test and finished performing the prayers and the recital, as well as I was expected to do, all the men came and congratulated me and my father, and thanked my tutor for his good efforts and blessings, and thanked Allah for Islam. God show us the right as right and grant us the ability to follow it; and show us the wrong as wrong and grant us the ability to avoid it.

O you who believe! Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, and do not speak loud to him as you speak to one another, lest your deeds become null while you do not perceive.” (Holy Qur'an 49:2) After having finished with this part, the first man on the right hand side of the Shaykh reads what he can from the Qur'an, and when he says "And Allah said that truthfully" the Shaykh reads the beginning of another piece of poetry and the whole congregation recites it after him, each person then reading a Qur'anic verse. Shortly after that the men start leaning gently to the left and to the right, moving with the rhythms of the chants until the Shaykh stands up, and with him the entire congregation, forming a circle with him at the centre.

We stayed twenty five days in Saudi Arabia, during which we met many learned Muslim scholars (Ulama) and listened to their lectures. I was influenced by some of the beliefs of the Wahabi sect and wished that all Muslims followed them. Indeed, I thought that they were chosen by Allah among all His worshippers to guard His House, for they were the purest and most knowledgeable people on earth, and Allah had given them oil so that they could serve and could care for the pilgrims, guests of the Merciful. Please Lord accept my request for You are the All hearing and the Most Knowledgeable. Please my Lord open my heart for You are the One who guides us to the absolute truth.

Note: The beginning chapters explain the historical events that lead to the Shi’a-Sunni split. I don’t think the author is a Shi’a himself, but the book is informative. And the Holy Qur'an urged us to know about the earlier nations and to learn lessons from their histories. Also, Allah told us about the Pharaohs, Haman, Nimrod, Quaroon, and about the early prophets and their nations, not for the sake of pleasure, but to show us what is right and what is wrong. As for your question as to why I want to know all that? It is important for me to know all that. I met the commissioner and after a short talk, he said to me, “They frightened me of you and said that you are an extreme Shia and are financed by al-Khomeini. They said that you say it is permissible to marry one’s sister.” Nevertheless, I found it and read it many times; and there it was, exactly as it has been cited by al-Sayyid Sharaf al-Din. We have sent among you a messenger from among you who recites to you Our communications and purifies you and teaches you the Book and the wisdom and teaches you that which you did not know." (Holy Qur'an 2:151).

He it is Who sent His messenger with guidance and a true religion that He may make it prevail over all the religions; and Allah is enough for a witness." (Holy Qur'an 48:28) The second idea was the Wahabi which had taught me that all of that was an attempt to attribute associates to Allah, and that Allah will never forgive them. If the Shi’a scholar had referred to their books, I would not have believed what he said, but he was referring to the Sihahs of al-Sunnah, which could not be challenged, because we are committed to believe that they are the most authentic books after the Book of Allah. Therefore, the issue is a compelling one, because if we doubt these Sihahs we are left with hardly any of the rules and regulations of Islam to rely on. In the court, I requested to meet the vice-president. After his permission, I went in to him. I saw a copy of my book on his table with a piece of paper inside it. I said, “Sir, I am the author of the book. I have come to Tunisia for one week, but now I am detained since a month without any guilt. I am very worried about my wife and daughters who are alone in Paris.” I said, “O brother, this is my book and I am its author. I have offered a copy as present to his Excellency the President.”

Note: Allamah Ayatollah Seyyed Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei, who passed away recently, was one of the scholars and philosophers of Shi’a Islam. He is known for many contributions to Islamic scholarship, including _Tafsir al-Mizan_.Soon people started calling me Hajj (Pilgrim), and whenever somebody shouted Hajj, it only meant me. Gradually I became known amongst the various religious groups especially the Muslim Brotherhood, and I went around the mosques lecturing on religious issues, telling people not to kiss the graves or touch the woods for blessing because these are signs of Polytheism. I received an invitation from him through his agents in Gafsa who wrote me a long letter thanking me fur my services to Islam and the Muslims. In the letter they claimed that the things I was doing would not bring me nearer to Allah because I had no learned Shaykh: “He who has no Shaykh his Shaykh will be a devil, and you need a Shaykh to show you the way, otherwise half of the knowledge is not completed.” They informed me that (the greatest of his age) Shaykh Ismail himself had chosen me among all people to be one of his closest private circle of followers. He sent him messengers giving him the good news, warning him, and alerting him, and preventing him from going astray with the cursed devil. He told him not to worship the Devil, for the Devil is his enemy, and to worship Allah alone and follow His right path, with understanding and a convincing belief, and not to imitate the belief of his forefathers and friends and relatives who followed those before them without any clear reasoning. I knew previously that the tutor had arranged for me to perform al-Ishfa 1 prayers for two or three nights. It was customary for me to pray behind the man with some local children, and wait for the Imam to arrive at the second part of the Qur'an, i.e. Surat Meriam. My father made sure that we learnt the Qur'an at the Qur'anic school as well as at home through private lessons given to us by a blind man, who was related to us and who could recite the Qur'an by heart. Due to the fact that I learnt to recite the Qur'an at an early age, the tutor tried to show his good influence on me by teaching me the kneeling points in the recital. He tested me repeatedly to make sure that I had understood his instructions. Shi’ite Reference: Usul Al-Kafi, Chapter Of "Reason And Ignorance", A Part Of Tradition #12 (Part 4)

The first book is of a Sunni brother who was exposed to the Shi’a for the first time, after studying several Sunni madhabs, including Sufism.It has been said that Shaykh Ahmed al-Tijani used to communicate with the great Prophet (s.a.w.) by talking to him while he was awake and not in his sleep. Also it is believed that the complete prayers which were devised by the Shaykh are better than finishing the Holy Qur'an forty times. I asked, "Do you read Tusaloon (the Arabic word for Questioned) with Dammah (the vowel point upon the letter ta) or with Tasaloon with Fathah (the vowel) point a)?" O you who believe! Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, and do not speak loud to him as you speak to one another, lest your deeds become null while you do not perceive.”