Introduction

May we express our everlasting thanks to Allah for His Guidance and for granting us the love of His Messenger Muhammad (pbuh) and the devotion to his Sunnah! Our gratitude is to Allah for making it possible to present this works to be of service to the Ummah.

This book comes in four sections, each is about a fascinating side of the Muslim heritage; be it Shi’i or Sunni. The intention of this works is to give a concise but somewhat comprehensive account of the two sides. Briefly said this book comes in the following format:

Section #	Chapter #	Subject of chapters
Section #1	Chapter #1 Chapter #2 Chapter #3 Chapter #4	Schools of Thought Treatise of the Madh’habs Salat An Overview of Hadith
Section #2	Chapter #5 Chapter #6 Chapter #7 Chapter #8 Chapter #9	Nahjul Balaaghah, General View The Holy Quran Speaks about Ahlul Bayt Muhammad Speaks about Ahlul Bayt Nahjul Balaaghah Speaks about Ahlul Bayt Karbala
Section #3	Chapter #10	Holy Sanctuaries: Ka’ba, Masjid al-Nabawi, al-Masjid al-Aqsa, Shrines in Najaf, Karbala, Kadhimain, Samur’raa, Mash’had, Abu Hanifa, and Al-Gaylaani
Section #4	Chapter #11	Outstanding Women, Close to the Prophet’s Heart: Khadija, Fatima, Zainab, Umm Salama, A’isha, Hafsa, Maymuna, and Umm Habiba

Sources for each section are outlined in the beginning of each chapter. References often are taken from the same sources. The extensive references therefore have been taken directly from the painstaking works that this book depended upon.

We are very grateful to the authors of articles we quoted from the internet, especially al-islam.org. May Allah bless them and their families and we wish them the blessings and grace of the Almighty.

Dr. A. S. Hashim, MD