Statements at the Meeting with the Organizers of the International Commemoration of Allameh Mirza Naini (may his soul be sanctified)

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad and his pure family, especially the Remaining One of God on earth.

One of the very commendable works of the Qom seminary is this commemoration, which truly was long overdue. The late Mr. Naini once filled the atmosphere of Najaf with his words and thoughts, but he was eventually neglected in terms of his scholarly work and fame. In Qom, we had seen that the elders honored him, and his students were among the authorities in Najaf; however, less attention was paid to Mr. Naini (may God be pleased with him) with all his characteristics. You are now addressing this; God willing, his scientific, practical, and political dimensions will become clear.

The late Mr. Naini is undoubtedly one of the lofty pillars of the ancient seminary of Najaf. The seminary of Najaf, which has a history of a thousand years, has experienced ups and downs; at times, there were great figures there, and at other times, it was quiet, and there were not such prominent personalities in Najaf compared to places like Hillah and others. However, for about two hundred years now, since the time of the students of the late Aqa Baqir Behbahani, such as the late Bahr al-Ulum and the late Kashif al-Ghita, who were in Najaf — the late Behbahani himself resided in Karbala, but his great students were in Najaf, and their center was Najaf — the Najaf seminary gained more scientific life and vitality and trained some prominent figures who are unparalleled or rare in the history of our jurisprudence and principles, such as Sheikh Ansari, the late Sahib al-Jawahir, or the late Akhund (may God be pleased with them) and some other great figures of this kind. This great man, the late Mr. Naini, is one of these personalities; he is one of the distinguished and prominent individuals of these years.

His important characteristic in his specialized field, which is jurisprudence and particularly principles, is "structuring"; that is, he presents the foundational principles with a new structure, a new thought, a new order, and preliminary discussions about each topic. This has been less seen in the books and works of the jurists and principlists before him; I do not recall anyone being so organized and systematic; for example, whenever he enters a topic, he advances and concludes it with preliminaries, in a sequence, with an order; that is, completely neat and tidy. Perhaps the reason for the influx of students and scholars to his class, which was the top class in Najaf after the time of the late Akhund, is one of the reasons for his intellectual order, his scientific order, and his eloquent expression. Although he taught principles in Persian in Najaf — where classes are in Arabic, he taught in Persian — many Arab students attended his class. Of course, I did not have the opportunity to see it, but I heard that the late Sheikh Hussein Helli (may God be pleased with him), who was purely Arab, taught his principles class in Persian because he had heard it from the teacher in Persian! Such a unique expression and clear thought existed in him.

Truly and justly, his innovations in foundational principles are extraordinary, and there are many. The innovations he has in various principles discussions are quantitatively very numerous; whether it is the words of the late Sheikh Ansari that he has elucidated and expressed, or the topics he has presented in various principles discussions, which are worthy of scientific debate. This is one issue.

In my opinion, one of the important characteristics of the late Mr. Naini is the training of students. I have less knowledge of such a thing. Now, among the prominent figures of this recent period, the late Akhund Khorasani had many students, good prominent students — not in terms of the number of students, but in terms of the prominence of the students — the late Mr. Naini is the same; he has many prominent students; that is, training distinguished students is an important matter. In those years that I remember, around 77 AH, it seems that almost all the existing authorities of that day in Najaf were his students; from Mr. Khoei and the late Mr. Hakim and the late Sayyid Abdul-Hadi and others who were there at that time, such as the late Amirza Baqir Zanjani, or Sheikh Hussein Helli, the late Amirza Hassan Bajnourdi, and others, all these great and distinguished figures were students of Mr. Naini. Of course, some were also mentioned in their scientific attribution to some other great figures, such as the late Mr. Hakim, who is among the prominent students of Aqa Ziya, but the majority of these great figures, the authorities, these personalities, were students of the late Mr. Naini. This training of students and the abundance of distinguished students is one of his characteristics. This is about his scientific matters, which I have briefly mentioned.

However, he has an exceptional personal characteristic that none of our recent authorities — and even in the past, I do not recall — have this point, and that is the political issue; that is, the so-called political thought. Political thought is different from political inclination. Some had political inclinations. The late Mr. Akhund, the late Sheikh Abdullah Mazandarani, and others who were there had political inclinations. At that time, even among the students, there were political inclinations. The reason was that newspapers from Egypt and the Levant and similar places came to Najaf, and those newspapers were influenced by Sayyid Jamal and Muhammad Abduh and similar figures and raised new ideas. The late Aqa Najafi Quchani recounts in his memoirs that one sees that there were many students there who had political inclinations. Among the scholars, there were also those who had political inclinations, but political inclination, political interest, even political discussions, is one thing, and political thought is another. Mr. Naini had political thought, he had political ideas. This Tanbih al-Ummah (The Awakening of the Nation) has truly been oppressed. May God have mercy on the late Mr. Taleghani, who reprinted this book; otherwise, the previous edition of this book, which we heard was famous, was a very backward edition. He reprinted it and added footnotes and did similar works. However, even now, this book is still neglected, while it is an important book. Now I will briefly refer to his issues in this book.

First, he believes in the establishment of an Islamic government; that is, this itself is a thought that an Islamic government must be established. Of course, he does not specify the form of government, but he explicitly states in his statements in Tanbih al-Ummah that an Islamic government must be established. This is one matter that is very important.

Secondly, the main point of this Islamic government is the issue of "Guardianship"; he expresses it as a government of Guardianship in contrast to despotic ownership; I think he has an expression like this that he describes the government of Guardianship, the Islamic government of Guardianship, in contrast to despotic ownership, despotic ownership, that the essence and core of the government is "Guardianship," which is itself a very important issue and has a lot to discuss; he has stated this. This is the next point.

Another very important point is the issue of "national oversight." He believes that the government must be under oversight; all officials have responsibilities and must be under oversight. Well, who should oversee them? In his words, the "Assembly of Representatives" that is the legislator. Generally, the "Assembly of Representatives" corresponds to the parliament or something like that. Who forms the Assembly of Representatives? The people form it; that is, the people go to elections and form the Assembly of Representatives; then the Assembly of Representatives legislates, but that legislation is not valid as long as it is not approved by the prominent religious scholars; that is, the Guardian Council; he expresses it this way. He states that the law of the Assembly of Representatives is not valid until it is approved by the religious scholars and Islamic jurists.

Well, this Assembly of Representatives must be elected by the people; he says that the people's elections are obligatory, due to the necessity of the obligatory; he mentions this expression "necessity of the obligatory" and says that the necessity is obligatory, therefore this election is obligatory. He emphasizes the command of good and the prohibition of evil, accountability, complete responsibility, and such matters.

That is, you observe that he depicts a government and presents it as a political thought, which, first of all, is a government, it is power; secondly, it is derived from the people, the people elect; thirdly, it is in accordance with religious concepts and divine and legal rulings, meaning it has no meaning without it; that is, an Islamic and popular government. If we want to express this Islamic and popular government in today's terms, it becomes "the Islamic Republic." "Republic" means popular, and "Islamic" is also Islamic. Of course, he does not come close to such expressions and does not express it this way, but his point is that a government is formed with a group of pious and righteous believers, elected by the people and under strict oversight of the people; and the officials of each section are determined to be accountable and must answer questions, and the representatives must legislate, and this law is also invalid without the consideration of religious scholars. This is his important point.

We read and benefit from the writings of Mr. Naini with this greatness and learn and teach, but we do not pay attention to these jurisprudential foundations. Interestingly, he does not engage in rhetoric; he discusses jurisprudence; that is, all that we have said, he presents these matters with jurisprudential foundations, like a jurist speaking, he expresses and proves these issues with the same concerns and considerations that a jurist has, which must consider both the textual implications and religious sources and also the customary considerations; the same approach that is common and prevalent in jurisprudence, he follows in this matter. In my opinion, this is among the exceptions; we do not have anyone among our scholars who is like this. The late Akhund also wrote a commendation for this book, fully endorsing it. Akhund is not a small figure, and he fully endorses this book, and I believe he has read the book and benefited from it; that is, he has used this book. The book Tanbih al-Ummah is, in our view, a very important book. Well, those were his characteristics.

Now the issue falls on the shoulders of those who caused this book to be compiled. Apparently, this has happened; because apart from rumors, we heard from those who were in Najaf and from friends of my late father who were also from Najaf and came and went and knew, that he was gathering this book with effort; he was buying it from everyone so that it would not be available. Why? It is very naive to think that a jurist with such jurisprudential authority, with such strength of argument, writes a book, then becomes so disillusioned that he collects the book! This makes no sense. Jurists' opinions change, they evolve, but the collection of a book has another reason. The reason is that the constitutional movement that was reflected in Najaf and the late Akhund put all his reputation on the line for it — or the late Sheikh Abdullah Mazandarani and some others — was something different from what actually happened. The term "constitutional" was not even mentioned; what they were after was a government of justice, the removal of despotism, and the struggle against despotism. The term "constitutional" and similar terms were brought by the British; both the name and the behavior were framed by the British. Well, what the British do is clear where it leads; it leads to conflicts and various disputes, and then it reaches the point where someone like Sheikh Fadlullah is hanged, someone like the late Sayyid Abdullah Behbahani is assassinated, and others like Sattar Khan and Baqir Khan are destroyed — Sattar Khan in one way, Baqir Khan in another way — when these are reflected in Najaf, then they regret supporting this event. In my opinion, the late Mr. Naini found himself in this situation. He saw that with his scientific and jurisprudential book, he had contributed to something he does not accept, and he must struggle against that, and that is the constitutional movement that the British created in Iran and the parliament they formed and the events that followed, such as the martyrdom of the late Sheikh Fadlullah Nuri and others.

In my opinion, he is an exceptional jurist, a great cleric; he is at a very high level scientifically; practically, it has been mentioned, referring to his mystical issues and his ascetic states and similar matters that are narrated. I heard, I mean it was said that he had a connection with the late Akhund Mullah Hossein Quli; when he came from Samarra to Najaf, he would meet the late Akhund Mullah Hossein Quli. He also had a connection with the late Mullah Fath Ali, who was in Samarra; that was a different type. In any case, he had connections with these great figures. In Isfahan, he also had connections with the late Jahangir Khan and others; as it is narrated, he apparently studied with Jahangir Khan, meaning he also had a hand in philosophy and similar matters; he was a person of meaning. A few days ago, I heard from some gentlemen a matter from some great figures that he had an extraordinary night prayer, which the late Aqa Najafi, his son-in-law who was in Hamadan — who was in the family and had seen and so on — narrates his night prayer, what state he had in his night prayer; what supplication, what communion, what state; these were also things that, of course, help in finding the right path and moving in that path and reaching results.

We hope that God willing, this very interesting gathering of yours, whether in Qom, Najaf, or Mashhad, will be held well. It is also good that you worked in Mashhad. The late Mr. Milani truly revived Mr. Naini's name in Mashhad. Because in Mashhad, what has been more prevalent has been, due to the presence of the late Aghazadeh — the son of the late Akhund — the thoughts of Akhund have been more prevalent. Of course, after the late Amirza Mahdi Isfahani, who is among the prominent students of the late Mirza, comes to Mashhad, he breaks the prevailing atmosphere of Akhund's thoughts by bringing the words of Mr. Naini; new words, new ideas, new arguments. My late father, who had experienced both the lessons of Agha Aghazadeh and the late Amirza Mahdi, used to say that when Amirza Mahdi came to Mashhad, the entire jurisprudential atmosphere of Mashhad, which was dominated by the words of [the late Akhund], changed; but after the late Amirza Mahdi, there was no longer any mention of Mr. Naini. Mr. Milani would convey the words of the late Mr. Naini, discuss them, and sometimes critique them and often endorse them. In any case, you did well to establish a branch in Mashhad, and Najaf is already known. We hope that God Almighty grants you success and support.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.