Catholic Priest Authors Four Books on Shia Heritage ‎

Date: 21 April 2021 - 21:50

News ID: ۸۹۴۴۷

TEHRAN ( IBNA) --- A South African Catholic priest and scholar Christopher Paul Clohessy has ‎published four books in English on Shia heritage including those on Karbala event, ‎Fatimah (SA) and Zaynab (SA).‎
The books that Clohessy himself has authored are ‘Fatima, Daughter of Muhammad’, ‘Half of My Heart: The Narratives of Zaynab, Daughter Of Ali’, and ‘Angels Hastening: The Karbala Dreams’.
Part of ‘Fatima, Daughter of Muhammad’ reads: "The only child of Muhammad to survive him, Faṭimah [SA] was from early times taken up by Shia Islam, for whose adherents she is the virgin mother, the heavenly intercessor with untold power before God’s throne, and the grieving mother of al-Husayn [AS], the Shi’a’s most important martyr.
‘Half of My Heart: The Narratives of Zaynab, Daughter Of Ali’ reads: As Abû ʿAbd Allâh al-Ḥusayn [AS], son of ʿAli [AS] and Faṭimah and grandson of Muḥammad [PBUH], moved inexorably towards death on the field of Karbalâ, his sister Zaynab [SA] was drawn ever closer to the center of the family of Muḥammad, the ‘people of the house’ (ahl al-bayt).
‘Angels Hastening: The Karbala Dreams’ is introduced as: "When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw al-Ḥusayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an apparition of a long-dead Muḥammad, she slipped effortlessly into a progression of her co-religionists who, irrespective of status, gender or standing with God, were the recipients of dark and arresting visions.
Christopher Clohessy is a South African Catholic priest who holds a BST from the Pontifical Urbanianum University in Rome, and a Ph.D. from the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI), also in Rome. He is at present a resident faculty member of PISAI, lecturing there in Shia Islamic studies, Quran and Islamic Ethics, and is visiting lecturer at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome, where he lectures in Fundamental Theology, Ecclesiology and Mariology.