Muhammad Jawad al-Balaghi

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Muhammad Jawad al-Balaghi
Personal Information
Full NameMuhammad Jawad b. al-Hasan b. Talib al-Balaghi
Religious AffiliationShia
Birth1282/1865-6
Place of BirthNajaf, Iraq
Studied inNajaf, Kadhimiya, Samarra
DeathSha'ban 22, 1352/December 10, 1933
Burial PlaceHoly Shrine of Imam 'Ali (a), Najaf
Scholarly Information
ProfessorsMuhammad Kazim Khurasani, Muhammad Taqi al-Shirazi, Aqa Rida Hamadani
StudentsSayyid Muhammad Hadi Milani
WorksAl-Huda ila din al-Mustafa, Ala' al-rahman fi tafsir al-qur'an
Socio-Political Activities
Socio-Political
Activities		He joined independence-seeking campaigns of Iraqi people against the Britons


Muḥammad Jawād al-Balāghī al-Najafī (Arabic: محمد جواد البلاغي النجفي), was a Shiite scholar who wrote a number of works in defense of Islam and Shiism against Jews, Christians, Baha'is, and Wahhabis. He also wrote some works concerning the exegesis of the Qur'an and Islamic jurisprudence. Al-Balaghi was a student of Mirza Muhammad Taqi Shirazi and Akhund Khurasani.

In addition to his scholarly activities against Christian missionaries, he joined independence-seeking campaigns of Iraqi people against the Britons as well.

Biography

Muhammad Jawad b. al-Hasan b. Talib al-Balaghi was born in Najaf in 1282/1865-6. The al-Balaghi Family is one of the oldest Shiite family of scholars in Najaf. A prominent figure from this family was 'Abd Allah al-Mamaqani, the author of Tanqih al-maqal.

Al-Balaghi began his educations in Najaf. In 1306/1888-9, he went to Kadhimiya at the age of twenty four, and then returned to Najaf after six years. In 1326/1908-9, he migrated to Samarra, where he attended lectures of Mirza Muhammad Taqi Shirazi for ten years. He then went to Kadhimiya again, and after two years, he returned to Najaf.

Al-Balaghi married the daughter of Sayyid Musa al-Kazimi al-Jaza'iri.[1] He died in Najaf on Monday night, Sha'ban 22, 1352/December 10, 1933, and was buried in the shrine of Amir al-Mu'minin (a).[2]

Education and Activities

Muhammad Jawad al-Balaghi attended lectures of Islamic jurisprudence delivered by Rida Hamadani, the author of Misbah al-faqih, and Sayyid Muhammad al-Hindi, the author of Shawari' al-Islam fi sharh shara'i' al-Islam. He was also a student of Akhund Khurasani and Shaykh Muhammad Taha Najaf, the author of Itqan al-maqal fi ahwal al-rijal.[3] After his migration to Samarra, he was in contact with Mirza Shirazi, attending Muhammad Taqi Shirazi's lectures on jurisprudence.[4]

Al-Balaghi is deemed the founder of new theology in Najaf, because of his campaigns against missions and propagations of Christians as well as anti-religious movements. He knew Persian, Arabic, English, and Hebrew.[5] Students of his theological school are said to include Sayyid Muhammad Hadi Milani and some other Shiite authorities in Najaf and Qom,[6] such as Sayyid Abu l-Qasim al-Khu'i. During his stay in Samarra, al-Balaghi was among scholars who joined independence-seeking campaigns of Iraqi people against the Britons. The campaigns were launched after a fatwa issued by Mirza Muhammad Taqi Shirazi. Muhammad Jawad al-Balaghi is also known as "Mujahid."[7]

Works and Writings

Main article: List of Works by Muhammad Jawad al-Balaghi
The book Musu'a al-Allama al-Balaghi

Al-Balaghi wrote many books concerning a variety of issues, particularly theology, apologetics of Islam and the Qur'an and rejection of Jewish, Christian, Baha'i, and Wahhabi beliefs. One of his best-known works is his exegesis of the Qur'an, Ala' al-rahman fi tafsir al-Qur'an.[8]

A collection of his works, under "Mawsu'at al-'Allama al-Balaghi", is published within nine volumes by a group of scholars in the Center for the Revival of the Islamic Heritage.[9] Reza Ostadi has listed sixty of his works, only twenty two of which have been published,[10] including:

  • Ala' al-rahman fi tafsir al-Qur'an is characterized as one of the most precious Shiite Quranic exegeses, in the introduction of which al-Balaghi talks about the miracle of the Qur'an and the rejection of its distortion. Al-Balaghi wrote the book in the last years of his life. Thus, his exegesis encompasses up to the verse fifty seven of Qur'an 4.[11]
  • Al-Tawhid wa l-tathlith (monotheism and the Trinity) is a 56-page essay in response to an essay by a Syrian Christian.
  • A'ajib al-akadhib: (surprising lies) it is written in order to establish the truth of Islam and respond to skepticism posed by Christian missionaries.
  • Anwar al-huda: (lights of guidance) a proof of the existence of God and a rejection of materialism. The book, al-Balagh al-mubin, has similar content.
  • Nasa'ih al-huda wa l-din ila man kan musliman wa sara babiyyan (advice of the guidance and the religion to one who was a Muslim and converted to Babism): in rejection of Baha'ism.[12]
  • Diwan of poems, containing many poems and odes, including an ode in response to Ibn Sina's al-Qasidat al-'Ayniyya as well as an ode in response to a Sunni scholar who denied the existence of Imam al-Mahdi (a).[13] He also composed poems in praise of Ahl al-Bayt (a),[14] including an elegy he wrote for Imam al-Husayn (a),[15] the opening line of which is as follows:
"I wish I was the target of those swords instead of you – O he whose face fell on the warn soil of the land of Karbala!"[16]

Notes

  1. ↑ Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Ṭabaqāt aʿlām al-Shīʿa, vol. 1, p. 323.
  2. ↑ Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Ṭabaqāt aʿlām al-Shīʿa, vol. 1, p. 324.
  3. ↑ ʿAqīqī Bakhshāyishī, Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī, p. 25-26.
  4. ↑ ʿAqīqī Bakhshāyishī, Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī, p. 26.
  5. ↑ ʿAqīqī Bakhshāyishī, Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī, p. 26.
  6. ↑ ʿAqīqī Bakhshāyishī, Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī, p. 27.
  7. ↑ Balāghī Najafī, Islām āyīn-i barguzīda, p. 14.
  8. ↑ Anṣārī Qumī, Nāṣir al-Dīn. Nujūm-i ummat: Āyat Allāh al-Uẓmā ʿallāma Ḥāj Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī, p. 51.
  9. ↑ Group of authors, Mawsūʿa al-ʿAllāma al-Balāghī.
  10. ↑ Ustādi, Gūsha-hā-yī az zindigānī-yi marḥūm Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī, p. 111-118.
  11. ↑ Ustādi, Gūsha-hā-yī az zindigānī-yi marḥūm Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī, p. 111.
  12. ↑ Ustādi, Gūsha-hā-yī az zindigānī-yi marḥūm Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī, p. 112.
  13. ↑ Ustādi, Gūsha-hā-yī az zindigānī-yi marḥūm Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī, p. 118.
  14. ↑ Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Ṭabaqāt aʿlām al-Shīʿa, vol. 1, p. 324.
  15. ↑ Group of authors, Gulshan-i abrār, vol. 2, p. 554.
  16. ↑ Group of authors, Mawsūʿa al-ʿAllāma al-Balāghī, vol. 8, p. 102.

References

  • Anṣārī Qumī, Nāṣir al-Dīn. Nujūm-i ummat: Āyat Allāh al-Uẓmā ʿallāma Ḥāj Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī. In Nūr-i ʿilm 41 (1370 Sh).
  • Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Muḥammad Ḥasan. Ṭabaqāt aʿlām al-Shīʿa wa huwa nuqabāʾ al-bashar fī qarn al-rābiʿ ʿashar. Mashhad: Dār al-Murtaḍā, 1404 AH.
  • ʿAqīqī Bakhshāyishī, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm. Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī: pāyagudhār-i ʿilm-i kalām-i nuwīn dar ḥawza-yi ʿilmīyya-yi Najaf. In Māhnāma-yi Maktab-i Islām 7 (1362 Sh).
  • Balāghī Najafī, Muḥammad Jawād. Islām āyīn-i barguzīda. Translated to Farsi by Sayyid Aḥmad Ṣafāʾī. Tehran: Nashr-i Āfāq, 1360 Sh.
  • Group of authors. Gulshan-i abrār. Second edition. Qom: Nashr-i Maʿrūf, 1385 Sh.
  • Group of authors. Mawsūʿa al-ʿAllāma al-Balāghī. Edited by ʿAlī Awsaṭ Nāṭiqī. Qom: Pazhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm wa Farhang Islāmī, 1388 Sh.
  • Ustādi, Riḍā. Gūsha-hā-yī az zindigānī-yi marḥūm Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī. In Majalla-yi Mishkāt 261 (1361 Sh).
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