Publisher’s Note1

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and Merciful

A man enters the circle of Tawhid (Unity of God) by declaring la ilaha illa Allah (there is no god but Allah). He denies the existence of other gods while believing in one God. This decisive monotheism is the basis of Islamic vision and faith. This vision of God proves the principle that sovereignty is the exclusive domain of Allah; only He can make the laws and a man can only infer his rules and regulations from the light of Shari’a. Same vision of ilah tells us that a man can draw his values in life only from Allah. Any value in life that is not acceptable on Allah’s scale will carry no weight. Every law, tradition and organization that goes against Allah’s system is worth naught. Therefore, the faith in unity of God creates awareness in one’s conscience that leads to a detailed life map.

The fact of the matter is that Allah keeps watch over each and every part of this universe and is present all the time and for every situation. When Allah wanted to make the man His vice-regent on this earth, He blessed him with His cognizance and promised that soon He will show him some markers for the right path hidden within him as well as the cosmos. This promise came true in the form of new secrets being revealed to him all the time that are essential for him to play the role of vice-regent; and as a result of discovering these principles, it became imperative on the man to achieve higher spiritual levels Allah had determined for him. The man can rise to the highest levels of greatness but cannot go beyond the limits set for Allah’s servants. This book should be read to understand this philosophy.

This book of six lectures on Tawhid by Grand Ayatullah Sayyid Ali Khamenei is in your hands. It was part of a series given in the month of Ramadan 1971 at Imam Hasan Mujtaba mosque in Mashhad. The lectures were compiled in the name of طرح کلی اندیشہ اسلامی درقرآن. Our organization has already published a series of six lectures on Wilayat and another of seven on Iman (faith). This book is the third in the series and we plan to present another collection soon (God willing).

This book consists of a preface and six chapters. The preface explains how the speeches were collected. Every chapter has an appendix of the summary provided to the audience before the lecture. We have added sub-headings in every chapter for readers’ ease and interest that were not there in the original book. The organization is grateful to Sister Farah Naz Naqvi for translating the preface and the appendices.

We hope this book will be welcomed by the readers like other books, the organization has published. At the end, as always, we look forward to useful feedback, advice, suggestions and viewpoints of the readers.

• 1. This book was translated to Urdu from Farsi by Maulana Al-Sajjad Hussain Mahdavi and published by Darus Al-Thaqalayn, Karachi, Pakistan in December 2015. It was translated from Urdu to English by Syed Saeed Haider Kazmi. For any queries about the English translation, he may be contacted via email -- [email protected].