Then I was Guided (book)

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Then I was guided is a book written by the Tunisian Muslim scholar Muhammad al-Tijani.

Al-Tijani was formerly a Muslim of the Maliki denomination, but after a visit to Iraq, he started to study the Shia point of view. After some period, he concluded that the history of Islam with regards to the early events that formed the Muslim communities, is a non-factual account written by the Banu Umayyad, an account that eventually was taken as factual by the Sunnis. He eventually rejected the Sunni account of history and became Shia.

The author found the Shia arguments for their account of history to be valid and sourced, and he began to write about it. Then I was guided is his first book in a series of books he wrote for the Sunni audience, asking the Sunnis the same questions he faced during his studies of Shi'a literature, and propagating that these questions can not be answered with the Sunni view of the events, and citing evidence that he claimed proved the Shi'a view to be more sound.

[edit] Dedication

My book is a modest piece of work. It is a story of a journey ... a story of a new discovery, not a technical or natural discovery, but one in the field of religious and philosophical schools. Since any discovery is based primarily on a healthy mind and clear comprehension, which distinguishes human beings from all other creatures, I would like to dedicate this book to every healthy mind.

A mind which puts truth to the test and knows it from the wreck of wrong. A mind which weighs all that has been said in the scale of justice, and always comes out in favor of reason.

A mind which compares words and sayings, and has the ability to distinguish between the logical and the not so logical, and between the strong and the feeble. Allah, the Most High, said:

   "Those who listen to the saying and follow the best of it, those are guided by and they are the mindful".

To all of those I dedicate this book, hoping that Allah, Praise be to Him the Most High, opens our minds before our eyes, to guide us, to enlighten our hearts, to show us clearly the right way so we follow it, and to show us clearly the wrong way so we avoid it, and accepts us with His good servants, for He listens and He answers. ^[1]