O SON
PREFACE
In our time, everyone with a pen in his hand attempts to write
books. Being quite unaware of Islam’s teachings, he writes
whatsoever takes to his mind. If he is a powerful talker, he mounts
the platform offered and rants about his fancies and suppositions.
Whenever today’s younger generation want to learn their sacred
religion, Islam, a legacy from their lion-hearted forefathers, they
have no choice but to read concocted tafsîrs or publications of
Islamic history translated from books written in languages such as
English, Jewish and others by Islam’s enemies and which therefore
spew out their personal grudge and hatred (against this blessed
religion) or books and periodicals prepared by unlearned and
hypocritical vendors whose sole concern is to earn money by
touting for religion, or to acquire religious knowledge from
newspapers that have nothing to do with religion. However, the
number of the high quality savants schooled in our blessed religion
bears a fovourable comparison to that of the Israelite Prophets
and the thousands of books written by them have introduced and
taught Islam to the entire world. The correct Islamic knowledge
consists of the teachings of Ahl as-sunnat. For people who wish to
obtain detailed information in this subject, we recommend that
they read the the six fascicles of Endless Bliss, (which are available
from Hakîkat Kitâbevi of Istanbul, Turkey.) With a view to
protecting our Muslim brothers and Muslims’ children against a
misguiding and altogether different acquisition in the name of
learning Islam by reading the venom-outpouring books and
periodicals that are being published in rapid succession and which
worm their way into the public’s attention and demand owing to
their sequinned verbosity, we have deemed it essential to
reproduce and republish a book which Suleymân bin Jezâ’
compiled from books written by great Islamic scholars in the
Hanafî Madhhab and wrote with the title O Son in 960 [1552
A.D.]. There is yet another valuable book published under the
same title, Eyyuhelveled (O Son), and which was written by the
Hujjet-ul-islâm Imâm Ghazâlî ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ (450 [1058
– 3 –
A.D.], Ghazâl, Tus (Mashhad), Iran–505 (1111), the same place).
The latter was translated by Mustafâ ’Alî Efendi ‘rahima-hullâhu
ta’âlâ’ and was entitled Tuhfat-us-sulahâ. Moreover, Hâdimî
‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ wrote a commentary to the latter. An
English version of Imâm Ghazâlî’s book Eyyuhelveled occupies
the final pages of Documents of the Right Word, one of our
publications.
During the reproduction of Hadrat Suleymân bin Jezâ’s work
we have added bracketed passages borrowed from other books or
important notes. We entreat Allâhu ta’âlâ to bless people who
attain the fortune of reading this valuable book to benefit from the
pure souls of those great people whose names are mentioned in it.