Discovering Shi’i Islam is a concise, instructional, and well-structured work compiled with the aim of providing readers with an initial familiarity with the Shiʿa school. The author, Dr. Moḥammad ʿAlī Shomālī, seeks in this book to present a compact, clear, yet comprehensive picture of Shiʿa identity, beliefs, and practices. Serving in fact as an abridged version of his more extensive book entitled Discovering Shi’i Islam: Origins, Beliefs, and Practices, this work gathers the most important discussions related to Shiʿism into a brief volume, using accessible and straightforward language. The book adopts a descriptive and pedagogical approach and aims to enable the non-specialist reader—whether Muslim or non-Muslim—to obtain, in a short time, a general and reliable understanding of the Shiʿa school.
The book is structured into five chapters that, in a coherent sequence, guide the reader from the historical origins and nature of Shiʿism to its role and presence in the contemporary world.
The first chapter, entitled “The Origins of Shiʿism,” examines the historical roots of this school. It begins by clarifying the technical meaning of the term “Shiʿa,” and then addresses the key question of when Shiʿism emerged and who the earliest Shiʿas were. With reference to the history of early Islam, the author explains how this school took shape within the context of historical events.
The second chapter, “Sources of Shiʿa Thought,” is devoted to the epistemic foundations and the sources from which doctrines and legal rulings are derived in the Shiʿa tradition. In this chapter four principal sources are introduced and examined: the Qurʾān, the Sunnah of the Prophet, the Prophet’s Household (Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them) as an independent and distinct source—with an explanation of who is meant by the Ahl al-Bayt—reason, and finally consensus as another source of Shiʿa thought.
The third chapter, which is among the most important parts of the book, deals with Shiʿa “beliefs.” Here, the principles of religion are presented in the order recognized within Shiʿism: tawḥīd (monotheism), ʿadl (divine justice, which is one of the distinctive features of Shiʿa theology), nubuwwah (prophethood, a belief shared with other Islamic schools), imāmah (which forms the core of Shiʿa identity and marks a major point of distinction from other schools), and maʿād (belief in the Day of Resurrection).
The fourth chapter, entitled “Practices,” is dedicated to the branches of religion and practical acts of worship from a Shiʿa perspective. The topics discussed in this chapter include: prayer, fasting, pilgrimage (ḥajj), almsgiving (zakāt), khums, striving in the path of God (jihād), enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and finally tawallī and tabarrī, which are considered among the identity-forming pillars of Shiʿism.
In the fifth chapter, “Shiʿism in Today’s World,” the author offers a concise overview of the geographical spread and social role of Shiʿas in contemporary societies. This chapter provides a picture of the presence and influence of the followers of this school in various countries. At the end of the book, a bibliography of Persian, Arabic, and English sources is provided for researchers and interested readers who seek further study.
Discovering Shi’i Islam aims to present a clear, succinct, and non-technical portrayal of Shiʿa identity, beliefs, and practices. Its goal is to help the reader grasp the core of Shiʿa thought—especially the belief in the Imamate of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) and its points of distinction from other Islamic schools—while also paying due attention to their many shared elements. The book seeks to acquaint the reader, in a short time, with a complete yet concise overview of the fundamentals of Shiʿism and to prepare him or her for more in-depth study in this field. Those interested in learning more about this work can
access its electronic version at:https://shomali.net/flipbook/discovering-shii-islam/
The book has also been translated into twelve other languages, including farsi, Urdu, Turkish (Istanbul Turkish), Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Kiswahili , Russian, French, Arabic, Albanian, and German.
