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Newsletter for September 2017
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GRAND AYATULLAH AQA-E-BUZURG TEHRANI (R.A.)
Muhammad Muhsin bin Ali Munzavi Tehrani was known as “Aqa Buzurg”. One of the reasons for calling him “Aqa Buzurg” was that he was named after his grand father. He was born in 1876 A.D in Tehran. He is credited with compiling an Encyclopedia about Shia books; known as “al-Dharia ila Tasnif al-Shia” in 26 volumes. He also compiled a book about Shia scholars known as “Tabghat a'lam al-Shia”.
After completing the initial
studies, he went to Najaf al-Ashraf
and received education from
great scholars like Mirza Husayn
Nuri, Shaikh Taha Najafi, Sayid
Murtaza Kashmiri, Mirza Husayn
Mirza Khalil, Mulla Muhammad
Kazim Khorasani, Sayid Ahmad
Ha'iri Tehrani, Mirza Muhammad
Ali Chahardai, Sayid Muhammad
Kazim Yazdi, and Shaikh
al-Shariah Isphahani. In that period, the Muslims were collecting information about books and authors and Shia's contribution to the Islamic literature was being ignored. Jurji Zaydan, a Christian Arab scholar, in his book “The History of Arabic Literature” had considered the impact of Shia scholars in Islamic Culture as very little. This was tough for Shia scholars so three of them decided to confront the challenge.
Explaining the effects of Shia
scholars in Islamic sciences was
given to Sayid Hasan al-Sadr and
he composed a book titled as
“The Foundation of Islamic
Sciences by the respectable
Shias”. Shaikh Kashif al-Ghita
describing the errors in
Zaydan's book wrote “al-Murajiatil
Rayhaniyya” and Aqa Buzurg
compiled al-Dhari'a.
Aqa Buzurg founded a print shop
in 1936 in Najaf named “Maktaba
al-Sa'da” for publication of al-
Da'ria, but the imperial
government of Iraq prevented his
work by various excuses. Somehow
he printed the first volume of
al-Dari'a but again its
publication was delayed for six
moths due to the resistance of
the Iraqi government.
Aqa Buzurg traveled long
distances in order to research
and complete this Encyclopedia.
He visited the public and
private libraries of Iran, Iraq,
Syria, Egypt and Hijaz.
Aqa Buzurg's influence was not
restricted to the admiration of
his long scholarly pursuits
exchanged numerous licenses of
transmission of faiths from the
narrators of different Muslim
sects. He was widely regarded
for his piety and asceticism. He
regularly lead congregational
prayer at several mosques in
Najaf and once a week walk from
Najaf to Kufa to visit the site
of the martyrdom of the
Commander of the Faithful Imam
Ali (a.s.) His other literary work includes Musaffa al-Maghal fi Musannifi ilm al-Rijal, a biography of Ayatullah Mirza Hasan Shirazi, Hidayatul al-Razi al al-moj, al-naqd al-nafif fi nafi al-tahrif al-al Koran al-Sharifa defense of the textual integrity of the Glorious Qur'an, and a brief biography of Shaikh Abu Ja'far Tusi.
After a long illness, he died on
February 20, 1970 in Najaf, and
according to his will, he was
buried in the library he
devouted for usage of scholars.. |
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