Introduction — Hadith 1

In the Praise of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful All praise belongs to Allah Who is praised for His bounties, worshipped for His Might, obeyed in His rule and feared for His Majesty. He possesses all that is attractive; His commands pervade in all of His creation. He is High, the Most High. He is near in His Highness and the Most High above being seen. His being the first has had no beginning and He is eternal. He existed before the existence of all things and He is the eternal Who guards all things. He is the overwhelming power and the preservation of the things does not burden Him. He is the only Almighty in His kingdom and only power to compel what is to compel. Through wisdom He has revealed His authority over His creation. He created all things in their origin new and at the very beginning through His might and wisdom and nothing existed to invalidate His being the originator of all things. No other cause existed to compete His invention. He alone created what He wished as He wished to reveal His wisdom and the reality of His Lordship. Reason is not able to grasp Him. Imagination is not able to reach Him. Eyes are not able to see Him. Measurement is not able to limit Him. Statements fail to describe Him. Eyes turn dull in trying to see Him. Describing Him by means of qualities looses the right path. He is veiled without any barrier and is concealed without any covering. He is known but is not seen and is described without a form. He is characterized without a body. There is no Lord except Allah, the Most Great, the Most High. Imagination looses the right path in trying to reach His reality. Intelligent becomes exhausted and is not able to reach Him. So also is the case with imaginations and eyesight. He is all hearing and all knowing. Allah has established His authority over His creatures through His messengers (as) and has explained things with evidence. He has sent His messengers with glad news and warnings. So that those who would find salvation would do so with proper evidence and those would be destroyed would be so for ignoring proper evidence. So that people would learn about their Lord what they are ignorant of and know Him through His Lordship after that they were ignorant of this fact, so that they would believe in Him as the only One Lord after considering other things like Him. I thank Him in a way that would be a cure for the souls, of a degree to please Him, enough to fulfil the duty to express gratitude for His favors to us in the form of His pleasant blessings, graceful bounties and beautiful trials. I testify that there is no Lord except Allah alone Who has no partners. He is the only Lord, the only self-sufficient Who has no companion or children. I testify that Muhammad (as) is His servant. He is His chosen one, His messenger whom He sent at a time of lapse of messengers and at the time of the long sleep of the nations, wide spread of ignorance, mischief and shortages of authority, blindness to the truth, prevailing injustice and the disappearance of religion. Allah sent His book to him (Muhammad (as) that contains the statements and explanations, a reading in straight forward Arabic language so that people may become pious. Allah has explained and organized this book for the people and with knowledge He has given the details. He has explained a religion in it, certain obligations are made obligatory therein and certain matters are declared for His creature in it. It contains signs that lead to salvation and evidence that call to guidance. He (Muhammad (as) preached His message and executed His commands. He fulfilled his responsibilities with patience for the sake of his Lord. He worked hard for His cause, gave good advice to his followers and invited them to salvation. He encouraged them to speak of (Allah), gave them guidance to the right path after his passing away through a system, reason, basis for the