The Complete Edition of the Treatise on Rights

THE COMPLETE EDITION OF

THE TREATISE
ON RIGHTS

By:

IMAM SAJJAD

Ali ibn al-Hussein (May God Bless Him)

Research and Translation by:
Dr. Ali Peiravi
Ms. Lisa Zaynab Morgan

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH,

THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL

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DEDICATION

We dedicate this work to both of our parents to whom we are greatly indebted- our fathers: the Late Mr. Mohammad Mehdi Peiravi, and Mr. Charles Henry Morgan, and our mothers who are alive and whom we and our children love and are still under their spiritual protection and loving support: Mrs. Talat Shaykh Peiravi and Mrs. Betty June Morgan.

Dr. Ali Peiravi
Ms. Lisa Zaynab Morgan

TRANSLATORS' FORWARD

We thank God the Almighty for the opportunity granted to us to undertake the preparation of THE COMPLETE EDITION OF THE TREATISE ON RIGHTS by the fourth religious leader in the line of the Prophet of God, Ali ibn al-Hussein known as Imam Sajjad (a) ¹ for his extended prostrations to God. THE TREATISE ON RIGHTS has already been translated by William C. Chittick and published. Mr. Chittick has provided a good translation. However, he has not translated the complete version of the Treatise. As he has stated in his introduction, there exist two transmitted versions. One is in Al-Khisal and Al-Amali, both compiled by Shaykh As-Saduq, and the other one is in Tuhaf al-Uqoul compiled by Ibn Shu'ba. Both versions are provided in Bihar al-Anwar. Mr. Chittick has provided a translation of the earlier edition that is shorter. In this COMPLETE EDITION OF THE TREATISE ON RIGHTS, we have attempted to provide the translation of the second version. However, we have also included what is stated in the other version in appropriate places in the endnotes- mostly according to Mr. Chittick's translation with some minor corrections. Thereby we hope that the reader can get a good view of both editions. We have presented this book in a bilingual form with the English side by side with the Arabic.
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1. (a) stands for alaihissalaam: peace be upon him.

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This we hope will enable those who are able to read the original Arabic text to compare the two. We did our best to try to understand the words of the Immaculate Imam (a), and translate them into English in a form we feel most closely represents the original meaning. We have vastly benefited from existing translations from Arabic into both Farsi and English. However, since there were many errors in the existing translations, we tried to do our best to reflect the results of a direct translation from Arabic into English. We kept in line with Mr. Chittick's translation as much as possible to maintain uniformity with previous works. We must also acknowledge that his translation is the best existing translation of the first version as far as we know. So may God reward him for his sincere efforts and the many others who tried to translate this outstanding document on rights to enable all the people of the world to benefit from it. We also hope God to forgive our mistakes and shortcomings in such an important effort. We are partly indebted to our daughter Maryam Peiravi for her assistance in the translation from Arabic, and her sister Talat June Peiravi for her poetic contribution to this book.