Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn
Tabataba'i was born in Tabriz in A.H. (lunar) 1321 or A.H. (solar) 1282, (A.D 1903) in a family of
descendants of the Holy Prophet, which for fourteen generations has produced
outstanding Islamic scholars. He received his earliest education in his native
city, mastering the elements of Arabic and the religious sciences, and at about
the age of twenty set out for the great Shiite University of Najaf Ashraf to
continue more advance studies.
Most students in the madrasahs
follow the branch of transmitted sciences" (al-'ulum al-naqilyah),
especially the sciences dealing with the Divine Law, fiqh or jurisprudence and
usul al-fiqh or the principles of jurisprudence. Ayatullah Tabataba'i, however,
sought to master both branches of the traditional sciences; the transmitted and
the intellectual he studied Divine Law and the principles of jurisprudence with
two of the great masters of that day, Mirza Muhammad Husayn Na'ini and Shaykh
Muhammad Husayn Isfahani.
In addition to formal learning, or
what the traditional Muslin sources "acquired science" ('ilm-i
husuli), Ayatullah Tabataba'i sought after that "immediate science"
('ilmi-I-hudari) or gnosis through which knowledge turns into vision of the
supernal realities. He was fortunate in finding a great master of Islamic
gnosis, Mirza Al-Qadi, who initiated him into the Divine mysteries and guided
him in his journey toward spiritual perfection.
Ayatullah Tabataba'i returned to
Tabriz in A.H (solar) 1314 (AD 1934) and spent a
few quiet years in that city teaching a small number of disciples, but he was
as yet unknown to the religious circles of
Persia at large. It was the devastating events of
the Second World War and the Russian occupation of
Persia that brought ' Ayatullah Tabataba'i from
Tabriz to
Qum in A.H. (solar) 1324 (A.H. 1945)
Qum was then, and continues to be, the centre
of religious studies in
Persia. In his quiet and unassuming manner
Ayatullah Tabataba'i began to teach in this holy city, concentrating on
Qura'nic commentary and traditional Islamic philosophy and theosophy, which had
not been taught in
Qum for many years. His magnetic personality
and spiritual presence soon attracted some of the most intelligent and competent
of the students to him, and gradually he made the teachings of Mulla Sadri,
once again a cornerstone of the traditional curriculum.
The activities of Ayatullah
Tabataba'i since he came to
Qum have
also included frequent visits to
Tehran. After the Second World War, when Marxism
was fashionable among some of the youth in
Tehran, he was the only religious scholar who took
the pains to study the philosophical basis of Communism and supply a response
to dialectical materialism from the traditional point of view. The fruit of
this effort was one of his major works,
UsuI-i-falsafah Wa rawish-i ri'alism (The Principles of Philosophy and the Method: of
Realism), in which he defended realism in its traditional and medieval sense
against all dialectical philosophies. He also trained a number of disciples who
belong to the community of Persians with a modern education.
Ayatullah Tabataba'i has therefore
exercised a profound influence in both the traditional and modern circles in
Persia. He has tried to create a new intellectual
elite among the modern educated classes who wish to be acquainted with Islamic
intellectuality as well as with the modern world Many among his traditional
students who belong to the class of ulama have tried to follow his example in this
important endeavour Some of his students, such as Sayyid Jalal al-Din
Ashtiyan'i of Mashhad University and Murtada Mutahhari of Tehran University,
are themselves scholars of considerable reputation Allamah Tabataba'i often
speaks of others among his students who possess great spiritual qualities but
do not manifest themselves outwardly
In addition to a heavy program of teaching and guidance, 'Ayatullah
Tabataba'i has occupied himself with writing many books and articles which
attest to his remarkable intellectual powers and breadth of learning within the
world of the traditional Islamic sciences.
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