[close] In Part 1, the life of Ali Shariati is seen through his own journals and letters as well as through the words of his first teacher, his father. Part 2, Shariati's compelling advice for the Muslim woman to know what is to be done as she seeks out her identity, consists of four lectures/essays: Woman in the Heart of Muhammad, The Islamic Modest Dress, Expectations From the Muslim Woman and Fatima is Fatima. The book ends with an English guide to the 35 volumes of Shariati's Collected Works.

Ali Shariati (1933-1977), a contemporary Muslim social activist, devoted his life to paving the way for the return to what he and those who followed him believed to be a non-distorted Islam. In Part One, "Who was Ali Shariati?", his life is seen through his own journals and letters as well as through the words of his first teacher, his father, Muhammad Taqi Shariati. Part Two, Shariati's compelling advice for the Muslim woman to know what is to be done as she seeks out her identity, consists of four lectures/essays of Shariati's view of the Muslim woman. "Woman in the Heart of Muhammad", "The Islamic Modest Dress", and "Expectations from the Muslim Woman", are translated and published for the first time here. The fourth, "Fatima is Fatima" has long been out of print.

Shariati left over 15,000 pages of lectures, letters, books and journals which were gathered together, divided into subjects and published from 1976-1986 in Persian in 35 volumes called The Collected Works. As no more than 500 pages of his works have been translated into English, the appendices address the need for a "Guide to Shariati's Collected Works" in order to give those interested in Shariati's ideas and his place in history an understanding of the extent and breadth of his work as well as an insight into his creative abilities which were so strong that the titles to be heard.

There are five additional indices given in the appendices in order to facilitate access to (A) the translated titles and (B) transliterated titles of the 35 volumes. In the third and fourth indices, every title that appears with the Collected Works (CW) is listed (C) alphabetically in translation and (D) transliteration followed by the number assigned to the work in the "Guide to Shariati's Collected Works". The fifth (E) is a list of the Dated Works According to Dates produced during his most prolific period of 1968-1972. Through this one can follow, day by day, the blossoming of the creative energies of this son of Islam and Iran, a man about whom Jean Paul Sartre said, "I have no religion, but if I were to choose one, it would be that of Shariati's." [close]