Moral Thoughts Reflected in al-Ṣaḥifa al-Sajjadiyyah

ṢaḥῙfah al-Sajādiyah is a text attributed to ImāmZainul'ābidĪn and is considered one of the most ancient works remained from the early time of Islamic civilization. Majority of the Shiites regard ṢaḥῙfah as a collection containing extensive moral teachings which can be traced to the divine revelation and Ahlulnayt's instructions. In spite of this, little attempt has been made to extract the moral thoughts included in this book and nothing has been done to formulate the philosophical bases of such thoughts. Such attempts could clarify the ambiguities found in the history of moral thinking in Islamic world especially during the first centuries. The present study aims to deal with this task. It tries to sketch the general framework of moral system reflected in ṢaḥῙfah. For this purpose, first the ontological and anthropological views expressed in the book have been pointed out, then, the kind of perfection which has been recommended for human being by this book and in this worldview has been explained and finally, by comparing the moral view of this book and other well-known Islamic ethical schools of the early centuries, the prominent moral principles of this work have been introduced.