Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi

Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi
Personal Information
Well-Known As	Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani
Religious Affiliation	Twelver Shi'a
Birth	1254/1838
Place of Birth	Asadabuad
Residence	Qazwin • Najaf • Tehran • Hyderabad • Cairo • Paris
Studied in	Qazwin • Najaf
Death	Shawwal 5, 1314/March 9, 1897
Burial Place	Kabul
Scholarly Information
Professors	Al-Tabataba'i al-Hamadani • Al-Shaykh al-Ansari
Students	Al-Shaykh Muhammad 'Abdu • Al-Shaykh 'Abd al-Karim Salman .• Al-Shaykh Ibrahim al-Qani
Works	Al-Urwat al-Wuthqa • Rasail fi al-falsafa wa al-Irfan
Socio-Political Activities
Socio-Political; Activities	Foundation of al-Watani party • Join the freemasonry in Cairo • Opposing Materialism

Al-Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi (Arabic: السيد جمال الدين الأسدآبادي) or Al-Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (السيد جمال الدين الافغاني) (b. 1254/1838 - d. 1314/1897) was a supporter of proximity of schools of thoughts who made enormous efforts for unity of Muslims. He traveled to different Islamic countries. There are countless disagreements on homeland, life and attitudes of Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi. Mirza Rida al-Kirmani, who murdered Nasir al-Din Shah, was a student of Al-Asad Abadi.

Birth and Lineage

Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi was born in Asad Abad in 1254/1838. His father, Sayyid Safdar, and his mother, Sukayna Beygum, were descendants of Imam al-Sajjad (a). Some believed he was Afghan, and some believed he was Iranian. It is claimed that Sayyid Jamal al-Din himself stated that he was an Afghan.

Some reports mentioned that his relatives were living in Hamadan, and historical sources and documents show that he had an Iranian identification card, thus, it is concluded he was Iranian.

On the other hand, some reports mentioned that Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi did not consider himself an Iranian and Shia, to work on unity of Islam and he could be able to interact with other Islamic sects including Sunnis. In an interview, Sayyid Jamal al-Din stated: "I am an Afghan, the purest race of Iranian."

However, some believe Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi was born in Asad Abad or As'ad Abad in Afghanistan. He studied in Kabul and migrated to India afterwards. Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi stated that English called him a Russian, Sunni called him a Rafidi, and Shi'as called him a Nasibi.

Education

Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi started learning Qur'an from his parents when he was six years old. He also learnt basic Arabic language in his early years. Then, along with his father, Sayyid Jamal al-Din migrated to Qazvin in 1264/1848, where they lived for four years. When he was in Najaf, he learnt Arabic Literature, Logics, fiqh and usul. In 1266/1850, he migrated to Tehran, where he studied under al-Tabataba'i al-Hamadani, who was the Mujtahid of the time.

Before Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi returned to Najaf in 1266/1849-50, he stayed in Brujerd for a while to have scientific discussions with scholars of the city. He studied under Al-Shaykh al-Ansari for four years in Najaf. Later, he planned to travel to Bombay in India in 1270/1853-4. Some historians stated that Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi travelled to India in 1282/1865-6 to build relationships between Islamic governments and nations; this plan was led by the Ottoman Sultan. First, he talked with Madhat Pasha and asked him to send letters to India, Baluchistan and Afghanistan.

Travels

After the travel of Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi to India, his life and personality changed drastically. He became familiar with the problems of Shi'a Muslims in India and proposed unity of Muslims and condemnation of colonization as the solution which will lead to development of Shi'as. Then he started traveling to other Muslim and European countries where he stayed for a short while and preached his thoughts.

Freemasonry

Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi became hugely influential among young Egyptians around 1871–1873. He continued his cultural and media-related activities and engaged in the Freemasonry system in Egypt to develop his political theories and plans. In 1875, he requested to join the Freemasonry in Cairo. According to a letter from a member of the Eastern Lodge, he was recommended to be the head of the Lodge. As it is said, Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi was immediately accepted as a member. When Edward VII, the King of England, joined Freemasonry and the Italian Lodge welcomed him warmly, Sayyid Jamal al-Din decided to leave them to show his discontent.

Journals

Shafiq: When Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi traveled to Hyderabad, the center of all exiled Indians, in 1296/1879, He started publishing a journal called Mu'alim Shafiq in Persian and Urdu.

Urwata al-Wuthqa: Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi travelled to Paris in 1301/1884 and published the Urwata al-Wuthqa Journal there.

In Egypt

Sayyid Jamal al-Din stayed in Egypt for eight years from 1288–1296/1871-1879, and he engaged in political and scientific activities:

Scientific Conferences

Sayyid Jamal al-Din officially started teaching in Egypt, where key figures attended his classes, including Al-Shaykh Muhammad 'Abdu, Al-Shaykh 'Abd al-Karim Salman, Al-Shaykh Ibrahim al-Qani, Al-Shaykh Sa'id Zughlul and Al-Shaykh Ibrahim al-Halbawi. Without a doubt, Al-Shaykh Muhammad 'Abdu was a notable student of Sayyid Jamal al-Din, who accompanied him and later promoted Sayyid Jamal al-Din's thoughts. However, Sayyid Jamal al-Din's students were not only Muslims; Ya'qub Sunu' was a Jew, and Louie Sabunchi, Adib Ishaq and Shabali Shamil were Christian students of him.

It is said that Sayyid Jamal al-Din evolved Egyptian Literature as it was aristocratic work praising the Kings and Emirs, and it changed to works for people.

Al-Watani Party

The foundation Al-Watani party was one of the significant actions taken by Sayyid Jamal al-Din in Egypt. It became successful, employing the huge efforts made by Sayyid Jamal al-Din and his students. According to Lord Cromer, an English counselor in Egypt, due to the activities of the Al-Watani Party, the influence of England was reduced by 45% in Egypt, and business trades between the two countries were also reduced by 35%. In addition, the Du'at Nasara center stated that after 35 years of promoting Christianity all over Africa, compared to Al-Watani's activities, their supporters are one to sixteen in comparison. One of the Nazarene preachers in Cairo was surprised to see the expansion and influence of Sayyid Jamal al-Din's thoughts in the Al-Watani Party.

However, colonizers were terrified of the situation and the influence of Sayyid Jamal al-Din in Egypt. They tried their best to stop the intellectual and political activities of the Al-Watani Party, and finally, after about nine months, they closed the Party's office.

In 1296/1879, Towfiq Pasha ordered to arrest of Sayyid Jamal al-Din and sent him back to Iran. Beforehand, they kept Sayyid Jamal al-Din in Suez Harbor for a while in order to prevent people from joining him to learn religious teachings.

In India

After leaving Egypt, instead of staying in Iran, Sayyid Jamal al-Din preferred to travel to India and stay in Hyderabad, where he continued his activities. He gave speeches to young people, cooperated with media, founded a secret community called "al-'Urwa" and showed his disagreement with Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan.

Opposing Materialism

Sayyid Jamal al-Din noticed the materialistic attitudes of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan while he was staying in India, and he decided to oppose them. It was obvious that Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan was a supporter of traditional Wahhabism. After the famous uprising in 1858, Sayyid Jamal al-Din decided to form a mixed religion of Islam, consisting of different Islamic sects, which was close to Christianity, to bring closeness between the English and Muslims in India. According to his idea, the instinctive similarity between Islam and Christianity was evolutionary natural ethics, which has lost its supernatural element. This idea inspired Sayyid Jamal al-Din to write the book "Natscheria" written in Farsi and then translated to Urdu. Later, it was translated into French by Muhammad 'Abdu with the help of 'Arif Abu Turab. In this book, Sayyid Jamal al-Din rejected materialism and brought reasons to prove that it deteriorates humanity while religion improves human virtues. He also criticized the materialist-esque thoughts of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. After rejecting the philosophy of materialistic thoughts, Sayyid Jamal al-Din introduced influential religion's role in civilization and progress.

Influence of Sayyid Jamal al-Din's Reformist Thoughts in Iran

A Letter to Mirza Shirazi

When Nasir al-Din Shah granted tobacco concession to a British company, Shi'a religious scholars protested against it. Sayyid Jamal al-Din and his student, Mirza Rida al-Kirmani, fiercely opposed this event. Although Sayyid Jamal al-Din was exiled, he made huge efforts to cancel the tobacco concession. He sent letters to Mirza al-Shirazi to inform him about Nasir al-Din Shah's misdeeds and encouraged him to oppose the tobacco concession. He also sent letters to other religious scholars to use the tobacco concession to remove the Shah and its regime from office.

In his letter to Mirza al-Shirazi, Sayyid Jamal al-Din called Nasir al-Din Shah a weak-willed and evil man who is not able to defend public interests and granted tobacco concession to enemies of people. He also mentioned eight treacheries of Nasir al-Din Shah, which damaged the financial properties of the country and were granted to foreigners. Sayyid Jamal al-Din encouraged Mirza al-Shirazi to break his silence and make a crucial decision to oppose the Shah.

Letter to Religious Leaders

In his letter to religious leaders in Iran, Sayyid Jamal al-Din asked them to remove the Shah and oppose his regime: "Oh, knowledgeable men, do not hesitate a second about removing Shah from his office who has usurp power wrongly. Nasir al-Din Shah's deeds are wrong, and his orders are cruel. After putting people in misery and poverty, now Nasir al-Din Shah wants to grant an Islamic country to foreigners. I am going to tell you again that ministers, military chiefs, classes of society are running out of patience, and they are waiting for you to take action."

Works

The majority of Sayyid Jamal al-Din's works are Taqrirs (consent), which are all inscribed by others. Most of them are published by Kolbeh Shuruq in collaboration with the Islamic Research Center for the International Conference of Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi in Tehran. The notable works of Sayyid Jamal al-Din are:

Rasail fi al-falsafa wa al-Irfan: This collection includes six Risala on Irfan (mysticism) and Philosophy, which are mainly inscribed by Muhammad 'Abdu. Mura' al-Arifin, Al-Waridat, Al-Qada'i wa al-Qadr, Al-Falsafa al-tarbiya wa falsafa al-Sana'a, Al-'Ilm wa ta'thira fi al-Irada wa al-Ikhtiyar and Arabic translation of Natscheria.

Political and Historical Letters and Documents: A large number of Sayyid Jamal al-Din's letters which were sent to cities like Tehran, Kermanshah, Baghdad, Basra, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Istanbul, Paris and London are available; their contents are mostly critical and political. This book includes fifty letters and historical documents in Turkish, Persian and Arabic.

Collection of Rasa'il and Articles: It includes more than thirty Risalas and letters which are written by Sayyid Jamal al-Din himself, and some are stated by him, and Muhammad Hasan Aqa Amin al-Darb al-Thani wrote them. It also contains a number of stories told by Sayyid Jamal al-Din, which were published by Abu al-fadl Qasimi for the first time. Its original and handwritten version is kept in the Library of Parliament of Iran.

Al-Rasail wa al-maqalat: It is a collection of twenty-two articles and Risalas in Arabic, such as Risala on al-Mahdiya, Al-Sharq wa al-Sharafayn, and Al-Rad ala Reynan. A number of them are recently been published in Al-Yawm al-Thabi' Journal in Paris and Al-'Alam Journal in London.

History of Iran and History of Afghanistan: It was written by Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi himself.

Al-Urwat al-Wuthqa: It was a journal published in Paris. Its first volume was published on 13th March 1884, and its 18th and last volume was published in October 1884. Muhammad 'Abdu was the Chief Editor of this Journal. The collection of Al-Urwat al-Wuthqa was published in different countries, including Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Europe, by different publishers.

Diya' al-Khafiqin: Sayyid Jamal al-Din wrote a number of articles in this journal. It was published by Kolbeh Shuruq in collaboration with the Islamic Research Center. After releasing five volumes, it was banned from being published in England.

Political Thoughts

Morteza Motahhari in his book, A Brief Analysis on Islamic Movements in Recent Century, mentioned the problems of Islamic societies as:

Autocracy of monarchs;
Ignorance of Muslims and lagging behind modern science and civilization;
Dispersion of superstitions among Muslims' thoughts and having distance from the original Islamic thoughts;
Separation among Muslims due to religious and non-religious issues;
Western colonization in Islamic countries.

Sayyid Jamal al-Din also proposed solutions for the mentioned issues:

Fighting against autocracy through raising awareness among people;
Regarding political opposition as a religious duty;
Acquiring modern science and technology;
Eliminating superstitions and going back to the original Islamic thoughts and beliefs;
Fighting against cultural;
Political and economic colonization;
Unity of Muslims;
Reviving Jihad;
Having self-confidence against the West.

He insisted that Muslims should forget their differences in the aspect of religious sects or denominations and that they have to tolerate each other for the sake of the goodness of Islam and the unity of Muslims. Sayyid Jamal al-Din advised Muslims to learn and achieve modern technology and knowledge while remaining loyal to their religious and ethical values. He was mostly concerned about the differences and disunity among Muslims as well as Muslim rulers.

Demise

Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi passed away at the age of sixty in March 1897 in Istanbul. He was buried in the cemetery of grand figures. Later, the government of Afghanistan asked Ottomans to send his remains to be buried in Kabul, which was accepted by them. Sayyid Jamal al-Din's remains were buried in Kabul University, where a huge mausoleum was erected for him in the time of Muhammad Zahir Shah.

In Other's Perspective

Imam al-Khomeini regarded Sayyid Jamal al-Din as a decent man who made huge efforts but did not reach the expected result due to a lack of influence among people and religious leaders.

Muhammad 'Abdu described Sayyid Jamal al-Din as a knowledgeable and insightful person who could understand the situation of religion and society. As he said: He was a grand theologian who inspired poets and revived intellectuals to seek their ways out of darkness.

Muhammad Iqbal Lahuri regarded Sayyid Jamal al-Din as an insightful person in Islamic countries who used his fruitful experience to link the past to the future.

Sayyid 'Ali Husayni Khamenei said Sayyid Jamal al-Din was the man who stimulated the idea of returning to Islamic government and the system of Islam. He was the first one who explained colonization to Muslims; his activities and political fights are incomparable to his likes in that time.

Morteza Motahhari stated that Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Asad Abadi has deeply inspired informative movements of the past century, and he brought awareness to Islamic countries.

References

The material for this article is mainly taken from سید جمال‌الدین اسدآبادی in Farsi WikiShia.