Since the first edition of Inquiries about Shia Islam was published in the summer of 1999, four-thousand English copies have been distributed and sold to Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States of America and abroad. The book was also published in various languages. The need still exists for a better understanding about the traditions and followers of the Ahlul Bayt, and thus a revised second edition of the book was made. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sister Fatma Saleh for her generous contributions in editing and revising this edition. Special thanks are also due to the Khaki family of Seattle, Washington for making this book come to print. May Allah, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate reward all those who work sincerely to serve His cause....

I ask all who read this book to read it objectively, with openmindedness and without sectarian biases, and I welcome any suggestions, criticisms, or inquiries. We ask Allah for guidance and enlightenment in our search for the truth. May Allah open our hearts and minds to it, and may He guide and extend His mercy upon us, for He is the one who grants all things. “Our Lord! Let not our hearts deviate from the truth after You have guided us, and grant us mercy from You; truly, You are the Bestower.”Noble Quran, 3:8 We ask Allah for His mercy, grace, and blessings in this endeavor, and I ask the readers for their prayers that we all continue to be humble servants of the religion of Allah on the Earth....

Table of Contents Introduction Introduction to Second Edition Who are the Shi‘a? The Five Schools of Islamic Thought Ja‘fari Hanafi Maliki Shafi;i Hanbali Imamah Quranic Evidence for the Divine Ordination of the Imam Seven Categories of Verses of Allah’s Government in Quran (1) The Verses of Kingdom: (2) The Verses of Government: (3) The Verses of Command: (4) The Verses of Guardianship: (5) The Verses of Following: (6) The Verse of Choosing: (7) The Verse of Judgment: Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Ghadir Khum The Verse of Warning (Indhar) The Verse of Bowing (Ruku) The Verse of Guardianship Prophetic Narrations Appointing Imam Ali as Successor Twelve Leaders to Succeed the Prophet. Who are the Twelve Leaders? The Ahlul Bayt The Verse of Purity (Taharah) The Verse of Affection (Muwaddah) The Verse of Malediction (Mubahilah) The Verse of Prayer (Salat) The Verse of Feeding The Verse of Guardianship The Hadith of the Two Weighty Things (Thaqalayn) Similar Narrations from the Prophet Muhammad about his Ahlul Bayt Infallibility Intercession (Shafa‘ah) Calling Upon the Prophet and ...

We all live in a world where virtually every spiritual struggle is practically beyond our control. While some of us will die instantly without the opportunity to consciously sense death beforehand, others on the other hand will have the opportunity to know well in advance that death is around the corner. Regardless of which group you eventually find yourself, the truth is that every life on earth will one day without notice suddenly come to an end followed by a swift judgment with no excuses whatsoever. Do you know your final destination? When the disciples asked Jesus about the End of the Age, he said to them, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Matthew 24:36. But in this book and for the first time in human history, Jesus discloses a unique breathtaking code in the Language of Heaven that reveals the only clue to the End of the Age. God’s spiritual principle of life for humanity on earth is, “All about Him” because He wants us to make Him the priority of our lives. But on judgment day, when you appear before Jesus Christ, that will all change because God’s spirit...

As citizens of a nation, we all have unique individual identities that clearly set us apart from all other members of the society. It could be something as simple as your Social Security Number, your DNA or even your likes and preferences in life. Your physical identity is very obvious and everybody can see it as you carry yourself around because you can’t hide from the world. On the other hand, your spiritual identity can only be felt as you exhibit your inner self from the way you approach the struggles of life. Your spiritual identity describes who you are. Joseph knew himself; he knew he was the spoiled little kid who was very much loved and received everything from Daddy including an expensive coat of many colors. But when he found himself in prison in Egypt, he knew he had to redefine and change his spiritual identity. He decided to become tough, brave, and relentless. He became very hopeful and trusting God with everything....

CONTENTS My Prayer vii Prayer Request ix Acknowledgement x Introduction xii Chapter 1: The Test of Faith 1 God’s Template of Humanity 1 Why Isaac was not Sacrificed 5 Shrewd 13 Tithes and Offerings 17 Jesus and John the Baptist 23 Blind Rush 26 Exploring the Promised Land 35 The Written Laws 45 Chapter 2: From Jacob to Jesus Christ 56 Fourteen Generations 56 Drafting the Holy Bible 65 Preparing for the Cross 70 The Lives of Joseph and Jacob 82 The Price of Guilt 84 Chapter 3: Reclamation 89 God’s Garden 89 God’s Spiritual Acceptability Test (GSAT) 93 Ready for War 102 Stages of the Journey 107 Inheritance 114 The 13th Disciple 122 Chapter 4: Supernatural Transformation 128 The Punishment 128 Reinstating Peter 130 Breakfast with the Holy Trinity 139 Spiritual Identity 145 Using your Supernatural Divine Number 147 Naming a Child 150 The Importance of a Female Seed 152 Chapter 5: Supernatural Equilibrium 155 God’s Equations of the Sacrificial Lamb 155 God’s Equations of the Cross 161 The Gates of Heaven 170 Personalize the Lord’s Prayer 177 The Call of Moses, Aaron, and Joshua 177 Go...

One common attribute we all share as humans is the fact that whenever there is an important future event, we always make necessary preparations in anticipation of an outcome from the event. We do this with childbirth, graduation from school, marriage, vacation, and death. But when it comes to the second visit of Jesus Christ leading to the End of the Age, we seem to care less about the need for some serious preparations. Before death, we will all come to a point in life when we subconsciously without notice start to briefly analyze our path; where we came from, where we are, and where we honestly think we are going after death. After this unprecedented brief moment, our next step is largely determined by the analysis obtained from the pause. That you accepted Jesus Christ as the son of God is not enough to save you from hell; you must repent and live by God’s law to enter His Paradise in Heaven. Anybody can believe in Jesus Christ; but not everybody can live for Jesus Christ. God made you for a specific unique supernatural divine purpose beyond your imaginable dreams. This book will guide you, restore you, energize you, and move you...

The opening statement in the Holy Bible talks about two different worlds; it unveils the heavens and the earth.“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. One remarkable feature that sets heaven apart from the earth is the fact that while everything about heaven is supernatural, the earth on the other hand is strictly natural. This spiritual demarcation was established in fulfillment of God’s law of divine number 2. The law states that members of a pair must be the exact opposites of each other. The Book of Revelation talks about the battle of the End of the Age which will take place during the second visit of Jesus Christ. We know that Satan will wage war against God’s kingdom. As Christians, every time we read the Book of Revelation, we immediately assume that this looming battle will be the first of its kind in human history....

CONTENTS My Prayer vii Prayer Request ix Acknowledgement x Introduction xiii Chapter 1: The Battle of the Holy Trinity 1 Why Satan Tempted Jesus Christ 1 Your Spiritual Job Description 10 God’s Template of the World 11 Temptation Number One 13 Temptation Number Two 17 Temptation Number Three 30 Summary of the Three Temptations 37 The Sins of the World 38 The Gift of Temptation 45 Chapter 2: Preparing for the Mission 48 The Last Passover Lamb 48 Dreams 57 The Ten Commandments-Prayer 59 Chapter 3: The Birth of Jesus Christ 68 John the Baptist 68 The Supernatural Conception 69 The First Disciples 78 The Second Adam 82 Chapter 4: God’s Blueprint 87 Why Jesus started at the Age of Thirty 87 The First Two Miracles of Healing 91 Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Man 94 Marah 96 Supernatural Spiritual Flavor 102 Divine Number 12 107 Chapter 5: Spiritual Mandate 120 Receiving the Holy Spirit 120 The Laws of God 127 Authority and Power 131 Satan 139 God and Money 144 God’s Prescription for Fallen Greedy Pastors 157 Congratulations! 158 My Dream 158 About the Author 159 Other Books by Felix Want...

This original work explores the differences in environmental policy between the US and European countries, providing causal arguments for the differences. This thesis is the only comparative environmental political analysis of its kind, and completely reverses a very ill-informed transatlantic debate with facts and causal analysis. Specific focus is provided for the EU, the UK, and France, on the issues environmental law enforcement, global warming, and the precautionary principle. Advisor: Rahul Sagar Second Reader: Ezra Suleiman...

Introduction......................................4 1: Regulatory Values............................ 21 2: The American Environmental Conflict.... 38 3: European Environmental Cooperation ....50 A. The Environmental Revolution in Europe B. The Diminishing Direct Effect of EU Environmental Law C. The Aarhus Convention 4: A Comparison of National Level Environmental Law Enforcement.....................................70 A. English Environmental Law: Exceedingly Mild-Mannered B. French Environmental Law: A Balanced Approach C. A Comparison with American Environmental Penalties 5: Climate Change...............................84 A. The Republican Party and Anti-Environmentalism B. Industry and Republicans C. American Public Opinion and the American Oil Industry D. The Waxman-Markey Bill 6: The Precautionary Principle.................95 Conclusion.......................................105...

The 'Aha Punana Leo, Inc. is a non-profit organization which was established in 1983 to serve the Hawaiian speaking community and focus on education through Hawaiian. Punana Leo preschools, the first Native American language immersion program in the United States, began the process of revitalizing Hawaiian in 1984 through full day programs conducted entirely in Hawaiian. Hawaiian had by then become nearly extinct as a result of a government ban in 1896 of all public education taught through Hawaiian. The language reappeared in the public schools in 1987 when the first Punana Leo graduates entered elementary schools. There are now plans for Hawaiian medium education through high school. The Aha Punana Leo provides materials, curriculum, teacher training, family programs, summer programs, and other services as well as the internationally known Punana Leo preschools....

The selection of poems in this anthology may seem a bit unorthodox for Polish literature experts. I have no degree or expertise in any sort of literary research, which may well be the reason for my bizarre taste as presented here. I have tried my very best to include mainly those poems that are obligatory readings in Polish high schools, so that the English Reader can have the chance to get to know a portion of the choicest Polish poetry that an average Pole has willy-nilly come across in his life (one of the poems happens to be a well-known Christmas carol, even). However, Witkacy’s poem about his portrait company might be an exception to the rule. I have (un)fortunately excluded all the longer though important and well-known poems, since I have my deep and well-grounded doubts whether they would ever get read. Sigh. Again, Ode to Youth by Adam Mickiewicz is an exception and hopefully some will read it. I do realize that for the Modern Reader, it may come as a very odd practice to use the thou-thee-thy forms even in translations of classical poetry. I have made use of them, but only in the earlier poems i.e. since the beginnings...

To the Young by Adam Asnyk (1838–1897) The brightening flame of truth pursue, Seek to discover ways no human knows. With every secret now revealed to you, The soul of man expands within the new. And God still bigger grows! Although you may the flowers of myths remove, Although you may the fabulous dark disperse, And tear the mist of fancy from above; There’ll be no shortage of new things to love, Farther in the universe. Each epoch has its special goals in store, And soon forgets the dreams of older days. So, bear the torch of learning in the fore, And join the making of new eras’ lore. The House of the Future raise! But trample not the altars of the past! Although you shall much finer domes erect. The holy flames upon the stones still last, And human love lives there and guards them fast, And them you owe respect! Now with the world that vanishes from view, Dragging down the perfect rainbow of delight, Be gently reconciled in wisdom true. Your stars, oh, youthful conquerors, they, too, Will fade into the night!...

Translator’s note Mother of God Song XXV On Health God’s Plaything Man Fickle To a Corpse When God Is Born, No Power Prevails Vanity My Testament [In Sophie’s Diary] In Verona My Little Song (II) The Tempest To*** Upon the Alps in Splügen 1829 Uncertainty To My Cicerone Ode to Youth [Defend Me from Myself] To the Young Oh, Void Complaints No, Nothing Happened There A Sonnet (One Heart) The End of the 19th Century Hymn to Nirvana Welcome My Beloved Mountains A Portrait Company [I Want No Weeping at My Grave] About the translator...

This essay is a common sense approach to the issue of economic monopolies, written for the general reader with no knowledge of economics. I clearly explain why monopolies are always the result of government regulation and not as socialists claim the result of the free market. I have postgraduate studies in economics, but I am not a specialist on the subject, and this essay represents the knowledge I gathered in an attempt to answer my own questions. English is not my first language and you should be ready to excuse my syntax....

George Sand (the pen name of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin 1804-1876) is famous for flaunting the convertions of behaviour expected of women of her standing in France at the time and for her numerous romantic liaisons including her long standing affair with Frederic Chopin. The Devil’s Pool (published in 1846 as La Mare au Diable) is one of several short pastoral novels drawn from her childhood experiences in the rural French region of Berri. It tells the story of a young widower, Germain, who, at the insistence of his father-in-law, sets out to remarry so that he will have someone to help raise his three young children. (Summary by the reader)...

Literature

With no written language, Native Americans living in the Lake Superior region passed their cultural identity down through the generations by way of stories. Far more than mere tales to amuse children, they passed along the collective wisdom of the tribes. In the 1830s, government Indian Agent and ethnologist Henry R Schoolcraft learned the language of these people and went out to collect and preserve their stories before the tribes disappeared under the westward rush of American civilization. Though these stories were recast as children’s fairy tales in the 1920s, they contain much of the old wisdom of a culture which has largely disappeared. (Summary by Chip)...

Fairy tales, Children, Short stories

Preface: In making this abridgement of Boswell?s Life of Johnson I have omitted most of Boswell?s criticisms, comments, and notes, all of Johnson?s opinions in legal cases, most of the letters, and parts of the conversation dealing with matters which were of greater importance in Boswell?s day than now. I have kept in mind an old habit, common enough, I dare say, among its devotees, of opening the book of random, and reading wherever the eye falls upon a passage of especial interest. All such passages, I hope, have been retained, and enough of the whole book to illustrate all the phases of Johnson?s mind and of his time which Boswell observed....

On a journey to Tuscany with her young friend and traveling companion Caroline Abbott, widowed Lilia Herriton falls in love with both Italy and a handsome Italian much younger than herself, and decides to stay. Furious, her dead husband's family send Lilia's brother-in-law to Italy to prevent a misalliance, but he arrives too late. Lilia marries the Italian and in due course becomes pregnant again. When she dies giving birth to her child, the Herritons consider it both their right and their duty to travel to Monteriano to obtain custody of the infant so that he can be raised as an Englishman. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Literature

An intensely personal account of the immigration experience as related by a young Jewish girl from Plotzk (a town in the government of Vitebsk, Russia). Mary Antin, with her mother, sisters, and brother, set out from Plotzk in 1894 to join their father, who had journeyed to the Promised Land of America three years before. Fourth class railroad cars packed to suffocation, corrupt crossing guards, luggage and persons crudely disinfected by German officials who feared the cholera, locked quarantine portside, and, finally, the steamer voyage and a famiily reunited. For anyone who has ever wondered what it was like for their grandparents or great grandparents to emmigrate from Europe to the United States last century, this is a fascinating narrative. Mary Antin went on to become an immigration rights activist. She also wrote an autobiography, The Promised Land, published in 1912, which detailed her assimilation into American culture. (Summary by Sue Anderson)...

Memoirs

Mary Barton is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester during the 1830s and 1840s and deals heavily with the difficulties faced by the Victorian lower class. The novel begins in Manchester, where we are introduced to the Bartons and the Wilsons, two working class families. John Barton reveals himself to be a great questioner of the distribution of wealth and the relation between the rich and the poor. He also relates how his sister-in-law Esther has disappeared after she ran away from home. Soon afterwards Mrs Barton dies, and John is left with his daughter Mary to cope in the harsh world around them. Having already been deeply affected by the loss of his son Tom at a young age, after the death of his wife, Barton tackles depression and begins to involve himself in the Chartist movement connected with the trade unions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Barton...

Literature, Fiction

E. Phillips Oppenheim, an English novelist created well in excess of 100 novels and 30 plus collections of short stories. Most of his tales are thrillers and espionage. The Great Impersonation was written following World War I and is considered by many to be perhaps his best novel. The story focuses on German espionage in England prior to the start of World War I. The tale centers on two characters that are almost identical in appearance. Indeed, while both attend the same school in England, they are often mistaken for one another. One character is Sir Everard Dominey, an English baronet who enjoys the “good life” but falls into disfavor when he is accused of murdering Roger Unthank. Unthank, of the same village, has an infatuation for Dominey’s wife, Rosamund, and attacks Dominey. Dominey comes before his wife bloody and ragged after the struggle with Unthank. The spectacle renders her unbalanced. This is more than Dominey can bear and he goes on a long travel and drinking binge spanning years. Dominey’s wife threatens to kill him if he ever returns. The second character is Baron Leopold von Ragastein, a German nobleman. Von Ragast...

Fiction, Spy stories

“He had faith in his good fortune, in that power of attraction which he felt within him - a power so irresistible that all women yielded to it.” Though firmly set in 1880s Paris, Maupassant's gripping story of an amoral journalist on the make could, with only slight modifications of detail, be updated to the 1960s, to the Reagan-Thatcher years, or maybe to the present day. Anti-hero Georges Duroy is a down-at-heel ex-soldier of no particular talent. Good-looking but somewhat lacking in self-confidence, he discovers an ability to control and exploit women - whereupon his career in journalism takes off, fuelled by the corruption of colleagues and government arrivistes. He may be a provincial Don Juan, but he is neither accident-prone nor heading for a fall... A Hollywood screen adaptation is in preparation at the time of recording. (Summary by Martin Geeson)...

Fiction

volunteers bring you 11 recordings of Departerd Days by Oliver Wendell Holmes. This was the Weekly Poetry project for May 8, 2011. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the Breakfast-Table series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He is recognized as an important medical reformer. 1830 proved to be an important year for Holmes as a poet; while disappointed by his law studies, he began writing poetry for his own amusement.[22] Before the end of the year, he had produced over fifty poems, contributing twenty-five of them (all unsigned) to The Collegian, a short-lived publication started by friends from Harvard. Four of these poems would ultimately become among his best-known: The Dorchester Giant, Reflections of a Proud Pedestrian, Evening / By a Tailor and The Height of the Ridiculous. Nine more of his poems were published anonymously in the 1830 pamphlet Illustrations of the Athenaeum Gallery of Paintings. (su...

Instruction, Nature, Philosophy, Poetry

volunteers bring you 16 recordings of Old Man Travelling; Animal Tranquillity and Decay, a Sketch by William Wordsworth. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for October 2, 2011. In 1842 the government awarded Wordsworth a civil list pension amounting to £300 a year. With the death in 1843 of Robert Southey, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate. He initially refused the honour, saying he was too old, but accepted when Prime Minister Robert Peel assured him you shall have nothing required of you (he became the only laureate to write no official poetry). When his daughter, Dora, died in 1847, his production of poetry came to a standstill. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Animals, Instruction, Nature, Philosophy, Poetry

“Who can help laughing when an ordinary journalist seriously proposes to limit the subject-matter at the disposal of the artist?” “We are dominated by journalism.... Journalism governs for ever and ever.” One of the nastiest of the British tabloids was founded a year too late to join in the moral panic generated to accompany Oscar Wilde’s court appearances in 1895. Yet there was no shortage of hypocritical journalists posing as moral arbiters to the nation, then as now. This compendium work - skilfully assembled by the editor, Stuart Mason - ends with transcript of Wilde’s first appearance in the Old Bailey, when he was cross-examined on the alleged immorality of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The disastrous outcome of these trials provides an ironic conclusion to the earlier knockabout exchanges between Oscar and his reviewers. In these he is at his flamboyant best, revelling in the publicity he pretends to disdain. His brave performances in the dock did nothing, however, to save him from hard labour, the treadmill and complete physical and moral breakdown which the law found it necessary to inflict on him. In contrast to th...

Literature, Biography, Philosophy

John Donne was an English Jacobean preacher, sometime lawyer, later in life a Member of Parliament and Royal Chaplain. Marrying for love against the wishes of his influential father-in-law; Donne's career was cast into shadow: forcing him to support his wife, Anne, as best he might under a specter of unforgiving penury. Despite such hardships - perhaps because of them - Donne's writings demonstrate a mastery of poetry layered with metaphysical meaning and mystery: which continues to delight and challenge modern-day readers. Donne's divine poems - the focus of this collection - present profound theological insights using absorbing allegories and beautiful imagery. At the end of Donne's life - as his health deteriorated under illnesses of increasing severity - his poetry served him as: distraction, consolation, and even public confession. With them, Donne cheerfully but soberly faces the limits of his own mortality: and contemplates the mysteries that lie beyond the grave. (Introduction by Godsend)...

Poetry, Religion

volunteers bring you 13 recordings of The Poet's Forge by Helen Hunt Jackson. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for November 20, 2011. Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, born Helen Fiske was a United States writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government. She detailed the adverse effects of government actions in her history A Century of Dishonor (1881). Her novel Ramona dramatized the federal government's mistreatment of Native Americans in Southern California and attracted considerable attention to her cause. Fiske attended Ipswich Female Seminary and the Abbott Institute, a boarding school run by Reverend J.S.C. Abbott in New York City. She was a classmate of the poet Emily Dickinson, also from Amherst. The two corresponded for the rest of their lives, but few of their letters have survived. ( Summary by Wikipedia )...

Fantasy, Humor, Instruction, Nature, Poetry