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

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).