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firmness in enforcement of the Islamic law in spirit and
letter they disagree on the wisdom of such an inflexible
attitude.
There is another important matter pertaining to his
political-religious place in the Islamic history namely; his role
in founding the Islamic State. This aspect was not mentioned
clearly nor was it a subject of a serious discussion among
the historians and scholars of history.
Since the Muslims agree on the religious-scholarly place
of the Imam it would be superfluous to discuss those aspects
of the Imam's life.
This book therefore does not review the history of the
Imam in details nor does it speak of his knowledge his
eloquence or his wisdom. Nor does it discuss his piety and
immaterialistic attitude nor does it speak of his unusual
performance. Its discussion centers on the political-religious
place of the Imam in Islam his spiritual relationship to the
Prophet Mohammad and his contribution in establishing
the Islamic State and the spread of the Faith of Islam.
It discusses him as a Caliph and as a statesman. It
discusses also what was said about his policy and
statesmanship and the causes which led to the accumulations of the
difficulties which prevented him from reaching a peaceful
and more lasting rule during the days of his caliphate.
Finally the book discusses the caliphate as a religious-political
system and the kind of caliphate which is consonant
with the nature of the Islamic message. Therefore
this book contains the following parts:
1. The Imam during the era of the Prophethood.
2. The Imam in the era of the Three Caliphs.
3. The Imam in his own era.
4. The Caliphate in the Islamic Law and the conclusion
of the discussion.
I have endeavored to discover the relationship between
the historical events which involved the life of the Imam
and which took place during the fifty-three years since the
commencement of the Prophethood to the end of the righteous Caliphate.
The reader may find that those events were connected
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