Hadith 1
۞
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and blessings and salutations upon the Noble Prophet Muḥammad (ṣ) and his pure progeny, the Ahl al-Bayt (a). Good character and etiquette is the foundation upon which the life of a pious Muslim is established. Perfection of morals is said to have been the goal of the Prophet’s message, as reflected in his own words. As such, it has always been part and parcel of the teachings of divinely appointed guides. Indeed, without good character, a believer has little worth and can end up doing more harm to the cause of the faith than anything else. Human perfection has many levels. The greater the amount of self discipline and effort on the part of an individual, the higher the level of perfection that he would attain. In reality, a human being stands between two extremes, the lowest of which is below the level of beasts and the highest of which surpasses even the lofty station of angels. It is through ethics that progress is made towards higher stations. The goal of ethics is to raise and guide people from the lowest animal state to the most exalted position that is superior to that of all other creatures. Having realised this, throughout the ages scholars have focused their attention on the subject of ethics and have penned numerous treatises on the subject. As Muslims and followers of the Ahl al-Bayt (a), we have the added advantage of access to a wellspring of ethical teachings that have reached us from the Infallible guides. This saves us from the need to refer to fallible scholars and philosophers who refer to their own intuition and understanding to decipher ethical dilemmas. The present work comprises two hundred and ninety narrations on ethical subjects, compiled by a trustworthy individual who was himself a companion of the Imams (a). That on its own makes it a highly valuable text. Most, if not all, of the teachings found herein transcend time in terms of their relevance and importance, and offer practical advice to believers that would go a long way in improving their lives in both this world and the next. On the question of the authenticity and soundness of the traditions, it is noteworthy that while the chains of transmission of most of the traditions in this work have been adduced, not all are complete or sound. However, this is not the only gauge of soundness, especially with traditions about etiquette and ethics. Rather, other corroborating evidence from the Qurʾān and established traditions would be sufficient to verify the soundness of the narrations. For this, each tradition needs to be examined individually, and that is something for experts of ḥadīth to embark upon. Suffice it to say that most of the traditions found in this work are indeed generally accepted by scholars and have been related in other later ḥadīth compilations as well.
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