CRITICISM AND ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK “RELIGION IN THE PROGRESS OF PERFECTION”

Abstract: The book “Religion in the Progress of Perfection” has been authored by Mr. Hossein Modarresi Tabatabai based on two aims: ۱ –Introduction of the history of the Shia sect as an ideological incident in Islam to the Western and non-Muslim readers. ۲ – Recognition of thegradual progress and perfection of the Shiite school in the first three Islamic centuries. The first section captioned “Rights and responsibilities” includes a brief glance at the Shiite history till the beginning of the minor occultation, in which a great portion of criticism and analysis has taken place. Traditions relied upon in the book “Religion in the Progress of Perfection”about Imamate, occultation of Imam Mahdi (a.t.f.s.), etc. have been taken from Shiite sources like al-Mahaasin of Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khalid al-Barqi (r.a.), al-Kafi of Shaikh al-Kulaini (r.a.), al-Ghaibah of Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim al-Nomani (r.a.), Ikhteyaar-o-Marefat al-Rejaal of Shaikh Toosi (r.a.), etc. which have been analysed in this article.