A man of tomorrow’s generation

A man of tomorrow’s generation

Allamah Muhammad Baqir Majlesi was born in the year 1037 Hegira. His father Muhammad Taghi Majlesi was one of the glorified Shiite scholars who was accounted as one of the great students of Sheikh Bahai and had innumerable authorships. His mother, the daughter of Sadreddin Muhammad Ashuri was a pious and learned woman. This scientist father and son are remembered by the masses with the scientific entitlement of Allamah Majlesi I and Allamah Majlesi II. Allamah Muhammad Baqir Majlesi in the late Safavid reign with extraordinary perseverance and high-powered patience succeeded that through the compilation and composition of the books and teachings of Islamic science and technology besides education and training of many students and the administration of the Shiite religious affairs in his era, make such a positive and constructive service to the Muslim and Shiite masses of Iran that no other spiritual authority till yet had gained such a success. His Persian and Arabic books as a tantamount of the spinal cord are the beliefs of the Shiite Imamate in the past 300 years. His magnificent character and prominent status in the publication of the excellences and talents of the dynasty of the noble prophet (peace be upon him) and the prevalence of the Shiite religion Imamate and the expansion of the Islamic science and technology as well as culture is the topic of this article that the writer has addressed an eclecticism of wisdom, personality and research and scientific services of that magnanimity in the arena of the Shiite who were descendant of the Imam Ali (peace be upon him). .

An epithet of Allamah Majlesi

Although about the origination of this epithet there is a difference of opinion between, the writers, but most likely from the viewpoint that the father of Allamah Majlesi I was a poet and his name was ``Mullah Muhammad Maqsood Ali’’ or ``Mullah Muhammad Ali’’, he in his poetic pseudonym has selected the title of Majlesi for himself and after that Allamah Majlesi I in his biography has introduced himself as the Muhammad Taghi Ibn Al-Majlesi.

The birth of Allamah Majlesi

Muhammad Baqir in the arena of authority of Mirdamad `` Rah ‘’ was born in the city of Isfahan. There is a difference of opinion on his birth date too. Some of the scholars such as, Mir Abdul Hussein Khatoon Abadi the contemporary with the Allamah himself consider his birth year as 1037 H. B. C. However, some other philosophers consider his birth year as 1038 H. B. C. In the varied situations Muhammad Taghi Majlesi is popular that in ``one of the nights after I used to wake up at the night for the prayers and beside crying and mourning in the sill threshold, I saw the absolute ability of myself in a form that whatever I ask from the sill threshold of the one God, of course with the compliance that is joined, it will be favored and I used to think in my heart that which thing I should ask in the form pertaining to the futurity or the worldliness that suddenly I heard the sound and crying and mourning of Muhammad Baqir who was in the cradle. I mentioned without any kind of hesitation that: O Almighty God with the law of the prophet Muhammad and the family of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them) make this infant the propagandist of the religion and the publisher of the commandments of the Seyed Ul Morsalin and make him successful in your endless successes and I am assured that these valor habits that is evolved from that honorable individual is nonetheless but from the prayers of such a generous person ‘’.

The scientific learning of Allamah Majlesi

Mohammad Baqir, initiated study and discussion at the four years of age by the side of his father. The ingenuity of his was enriched to such an extent that when he was fourteen years old, he got the permission of narration from the great philosopher of Islam, Mullah Sadra. Later in the presence of the professors such as Allamah Hassan Ali Shooshtari, Amir Muhammad Moemen Astar Abadi, Mirzaye Jazayeri, Sheikh Har Ameli, Mullah Mohsen Astar Abadi, Mullah Mohsen Feyz Kashani, Mullah Saleh Mazandarani, he had a courtesy to kneel for the literature and from each of the harvests of science and education, he plucked the clusters and in this indefatigable strive of the study that he learnt from the over twenty one professionals, he exploited the different thoughts, beliefs and imaginations of each of them.
He in a short span of time attained a full knowledge on the different scholarships such as inflexions and syntax, meanings and expression, the vocabulary and mathematics, history and philosophy, anecdote and distinguished men, the narrator evaluation and the principles and the religious jurisprudence and commandment. His father in one of his biographies, writes about his son that: I recommend my son and the self-sufficiency of the error of my task to the divine pious ness, since this will of the Almighty God is for the first and the last and besides that an individual should self sacrifice when he or she pays an attention to his or her wellbeing and should also have a devotion in the science and practice, because the people are all susceptible to fatality (in the religion affair) except the scholars, even the scholars are all susceptible to fatality except their intermediary, the intermediary are also all susceptible to fatality except their devotees; the devotees also are positioned in a great danger and I recommend him that he must daily read a part of the holy Quran with in-depth learning and thinking and each day he should consider the will of the lord commander of the faithful (peace be upon him) to his son Imam Hassan Mojtaba (peace be upon him) – Seyed Shabab all of them who are considered as the natives of the Al-Jennah – in the Nahj al-Balagha and act as per its accordance and also consider the wills of the other holinesses and the recommendation of the immortal pure the fourteen infallibles peace be upon all of them, and also I recommend that the mathematics of the religion and the endeavors that are being recommended in the holy Quran that the eminence creator and those who are with the Almighty God, besides the Almighty God also has evolved many ways for a human being to reach the eminence and it is suggested that no one should avoid the glance of the benefactors and it is upon the Almighty God that in the entered news in the desired devotion and the life gestures avoid all the evils and pray and have a persistence on the reading of the prayers and request from the Almighty God to consider him as one of his friends.

The study module of Allamah Majlesi

During the long period of fifty years that Allamah Majlesi studied in the Isfahan and was busy with the teaching, compilation and the composition and even the Friday sermon and the glorious multitude of his and the influence and the excellent position of the power as the Islamic Sheikh which was achieved by him besides he had a special attention towards the education and training of the students and the name and the custom that his noble and rooted dynasty possessed in that city which was nourishing the knowledge, all and all gave hand in hand and made Allamah Majlesi as one of the most popular professors in the Isfahan module around 40 years at the late eleventh century and first ten years of the twelfth Hegira century who was regarded as a rampant of the specific and general public.
Although there is a difference of opinion in the number of the students of his study module and it is indicated as low as 211 to as high as 274 pupils for him, nevertheless, with all these, among the celebrated or famous men of his pupils, the personalities such as the Seyed Nematallah Jazayeri from 1050 – 1112 (B.C.), Mir Muhammad Saleh Khatoon Abadi 1098 (B.C.), Mullah Abul Hassan Sharif Ameli 1070-1139 (B.C.), Haaj Muhammad Ardabili 1101 (B.C.), Mirza Abda ….Tabrizi Isfahani (decedents around 1135 B.C.), Mullah Muhammad Sarab Tonkaboni 1040-1124 (B.C.), Mir Muhammad Husseini Khatoon Abadi, Mullah Rafeia Gillani and Seyed Abol Gasem Khoonsazi 1090 – 1158 (B.C.) can be addressed.

The services of Allamah Majlesi in the promotion of the Islamic culture

A-Jumu’ah: This great Islamic slogan was not usual among the Shiites prior to the functionality of the Shiite Safavi in Iran, this was simply due to the reason that the Shiite religious jurisprudence considered him as one of the special posts of the innocent Imam, the president of the Islamic government and were saying that since the Imam is refuting, in the absence of that holiness the indispensableness is not an objective.
During the period of Allamah Majlesi, his father Mullah Muhammad Taghi Majlesi who was inclined to the objective indispensableness of the Friday Sermon was the appointed Friday Sermon on the behalf of the Safavi lords was refuting from representation of the Imam. At the same time, Mullah Mohsen Feyz Kashani in Kashan, and Mullah Muhammad Taher Qomi in Qom were the Friday Sermons.
With the viewpoint that the Jumu’ah was an excellent religious slogan and the high noticeable weekly gathering of Muslims was providing a special splendor to the reputation of the city, the Safavi Kings also had a special importance for it and sometimes used to participate in this function, especially this task of Shah Abbas II became popular during the epoch of the Allamah Majlesi. Of course, their considerations to the issue of the Jumu’ah which rose from the messages that were written by the scholars via supporters of the indispensable ness objective of Jumu’ah were stating its importance as well.
On this basis, Allamah Majlesi I was a Friday Sermon in the Isfahan. After his demise in the year 1070 B.C., Mullah Muhammad Baqir Sabzvari not only became the Friday Sermon but also the Islamic sheikh of the Isfahan and since he expired in the year 1090 B.C., this post was achieved by Allamah Majlesi.
The base of Allamah Majlesi was in the producing of the Jumu’ah of the comprehensive mosque or Jama Masjid wherein his home was also situated in its side. He in the orations of the Jumu’ah and the nights of the auspicious month of the Ramadan used to preach for several hours for the people in this mosque. His preaching and the encouragement of the people and the submission of the Almighty God after him did not find an analogous, because he was a great jurisconsult and the supreme causative of an event to happen for the status and a versatile scholar and a magnanimous, noble and sympathetic to the situation of the Islam and the Muslims.
B- With the command of the King Suleiman Safavi in the year 1098 B.C, Mohammad Bagher Majlesi attained the position of the Islamic Sheikh of the royal seat. This command of the king caused that Allamah Majlesi in addition to being the Friday Sermon and his permanent preaching, in the line with making the original Islamic commandments practical; became an executor of the commandments. He after the achievement of this governmental command fought against all the aspects that had a distance from the path of the true Islam.
For an example, the proposition of the iconoclasm of Allamah Majlesi can be addressed that one of the days they informed to Allamah that the idolaters have placed in an idol in a house in the city of Isfahan and for the worshipping and praise of that idol go to that house.
Allamah after the research and awareness about the idol issued the verdict of its destruction. Of the other examples that can be addressed for the concern of the Allamah Majlesi in the route of the divine ideals and the publication of the Shiism of the descendants of the Imam Ali (peace be upon him) was his fight with the forged Sufism ideology and their superstitious beliefs.
Although much former than the Allamah, his professor Mohammad Taher Qomi had pioneered and also wrote the book on the Sufism print, with all these he did not succeeded and only could make the background prepared for the scientists that were sympathetic, awakened and energetic of the future, against the prevalence of the market of the horn and skin and trusteeship and heresies and superstitions of the Sufism.
In parallel to him, his pupil Allamah Majlesi followed his footsteps and practically prevented their heresies and strictly pounced on them in his Persian and Arabic books.
These all are the examples to deal with this viewpoint. In the viewpoint of Allamah Majlesi, the religion is not separate from the politics and he in all the situations with a specific brilliance was after the tangibility of the Islamic teachings in the society.
As it is mentioned in the history that Allamah Majlesi after the coronation of the Sultan Hussein, where the king in return for the services of Allamah asked for the announcement of the Majlesi himself for receiving his prize, Allamah Majlesi who was the pious of the arena politics in an address to the King Safavi mentioned that: the corruption, the schism and the indifference of the young generation.
….I demand from the King to issue a decree and prohibit the drinking of the intoxicating or the alcoholic drinks, the war between the factions, and also forbade the pigeon fun, and the king also accepted them with the consent of the mind and immediately issued a decree for the same subject matter.
Because of the blessings of the empyreal politics of the Allamah Majlesi in his time there was no conflict between Iran and the neighbors that were tradition inhabitants and none of the provinces that were Sunnism natives of Iran were encroached by the Shiites and thus Iran led perfection in the peace.
C- To navigate the speech from the everlasting authorships of the Allamah Majlesi is itself benevolence that assuredly with indecision in it the favors of those that inhabit the Jerusalem (peace be upon them) could be clearly observed towards him.
He who was the world to his era, during the response to the cultural needs of his community, humbly spread his insight wings and kept many of the different authorships of his as a remembrance.
The great Tehrani gentleman has mentioned around 169 of his Persian and Arabic books for him. With this condition, the most lasting effect that all the Majlesi were been recognised for it was the big Encyclopaedia of his pertaining to the Shiites and is re-known as the `` Bihar ul Anwar’’ or ``Oceans of Light’’.
Allamah Majlesi in the introduction of the ``Bihar ul Anwar‘’ after the praise and the laud of the Almighty God and the salutation to the holiness prophet (peace be upon him) and the pure Imams (peace be upon them) and about his introduction writes that: O those that explore the right and truth and the followers to the thread of the followers of the dynasty of the Seyed Ul Morsalin (praise and greeting to the Almighty God) ….peace be upon all!
Be aware that I in the early youth had much enthusiasm to learn about the different types of sciences and technologies and with the divine grace I entered its circle and put my step in its muck and I encountered its bad as well as its good till the time that my sleeve was filled with its colorful fruits and up till neck I was saturated with the best possible types of them.
From each spring I drank a pleasant sip and from each harvest I picked up two -fisted. Later I pondered over the advantages and the results of that science and thought about the objectives of the substances and what leads to their intentions for the accomplishment is the upshot of the study of that science.
Then in that section which was useful for my other world and helps a human being to reach his or her eminent perfections, I imparted my preciseness and indecision so that with the divine inspiration and the vision of the howbeit eminence I knew it for sure that if the science and knowledge is not obtained from a limpid source that rises from the revelation and inspiration fountains, will not eliminate the thirst of a human being, in the same manner that the wisdom also when is not procured from the religious leaders that are the intellects of the humanity, it will not be delectable.
I as the resultant of my studies found the total sciences in the book of the Almighty God that for no form does not have a vain in that way and in the news of the dynasty of the holy prophet who was the chamberlain of the knowledge of that holiness and were interpreters of his revelation. ….because I obtained this conclusion, that whatever chronologically I had spent my life in the way of its learning I abandoned it and went after a thing that I very well knew that in the other house is beneficial for my health.
….among the religious sciences I selected the investigation and search of the pure Imams (peace be upon them) and I started the discussion and research and study about that topic …..After the study and the research of the prevalent and famous books and books and a full knowledge of them, I carried out the research on the principles of the anonymity of good standing.
The principles and the books that have been written in the past ages and the prolonged periods via the dominance of the kings that opposed the Shiite and the mislead leaders or due to the prevalence of the invalid science among the ignorant persons that were the eruditions of the excellence and the perfection and or for the reason that a group of the recent scholars who paid lesser attention to it and was forgotten in the depredations of the time.
Since the news and the effects of the dynasty of the holy prophet (peace be upon him) is more comprehensive, more suffice, and more perfect than any other science and technology. Therefore, for the provision of this intent in the east and in the west I have tried to search it and about each and everyone I speculated that there is something that I have been insisting to achieve it.
…I after the quest of well-being and seeking help from the Almighty God, I categorized my determination and I collected all of it in a big book that its chapters and its purposes were organized and its destination should be committed to memory and give it a system and discipline, that also with an extravagant systematization and a strange compilation style that like it is unparalleled in the compilations and the authorship of the past scholars……in the praise of the eminence…...whatever I desired in the best possible manner had worn the activity dress and much higher than what I had expected and I had prepared myself for it, was accomplished.
Majlesi was bounded in a manner that he could express the source of his narrations, due to the same reason for each source that has been remembered in the preface of the book, he has selected a sign and that sign has been placed in the beginning of the narration so that the source of news is completely clear. In the same manner, we lesser can find a news in the ``Bihar ul Anwar’ that the source was not determined before that. The evaluation of the modes and the format of the codification of the Bihar ul Anwar is a topic that some of the writers had carried out a complete research about it.

The death of Allamah Majlesi
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There is a conflict about the expiry year of Allamah Majlesi, some consider his death year as 1110 (B.C.) and some others 27th Ramadan of the year 1111 (B.C.). The tomb of Allamah Majlesi is located near the Jama Masjid or comprehensive mosque of Isfahan that during the period that he was alive was his base as well as his Allamah father. Allamah himself had made a will that after his death he should be buried beside his father. The tomb of Allamah Majlesi is popular in Isfahan as `Gravetop Mullah’’ and from the epoch when he was buried till date it has turned into one of the holy shrines. Today, under that monument, the tomb of the Allamah Majlesi I and the tomb of Mullah Mohammadreza his grandson and the tomb of the Allamah Majlesi all are beside one another that all three of them are in a silvery shrine and in their proximity the tomb of the Mullah Mohammad Saleh Mazandarani with the old burial stone is located. Mirza Mohammad Bagher Mousavi Khansazi writes that: I have many times experienced that my prayers has been fulfilled via the blessings of that luminous civility and the homily of that holy. The pilgrim from the all the corners as well as borders based on their affordability with different kinds of gifts and novelties and votive offerings come to his shrine and will exploit his bounty and approach him with joy and glee. However, outside the monument of Allamah Majlesi in front of the tomb, there exists the public library of Allamah Majlesi. And it is written on the portal of the library on a tile as follows: ``In the name of the merciful and the compassionate and we seek help since we have revealed the pure book ………… the light and the true book.’’ In the age of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the leadership of the holiness Ayatollah ……Al-Azmi the Grand Imam Khomeini the highness, the public library of the supreme Allamah Majlesi …….. The eminence with the support of the assembly of the tomb of the late Majlesi and with the supervision of the endowment office was successfully completed in the solar year 1362.