Muhammad Jawad Mughniyya: Difference between revisions

'''Muhammad Jawad Mughniyya''' (Arabic: {{ia|محمدجواد مغنیة}}),

After his mother's death, Muhammad Jawad went to [[Iraq]] together with his father. In Iraq, he learned calligraphy, arithmetic, and Persian language. After four years of sojourn in [[Najaf]], his father Shaykh Mahmud returned to Jabal Amel at the request of people in the Abbasiyya area. When his father died in 1334/1915, Muhammad Jawad and his younger brother returned to Tayr Dibba, where they were under the care of their older brother, [[Shaykh Abd al-Karim]]. When Shaykh Abd al-Karim moved to Najaf, the hard days of Muhammad Jawad began, days when he only had peas and hazelnuts to eat. Sometimes he did not have anything to eat for three days.

The friendship between Shaykh Mughniyya and the head of [[al-Azhar University]], [[Shaykh Muhammad Shaltut]], dates back to 1368/1948. Shaykh Shaltut was a co-founder of "Dar al-Taqrib bayn al-Madhahib" (The House of Proximity of Denominations) and an advocate of Islamic unity. He was popular among Shiite scholars because of his [[fatwa]] of the permissibility of acting upon the Shiite jurisprudence. The two scholars exchanged many letters. In 1382/1962, Shaykh Mughniyya met Shaykh Shaltut in [[Egypt]]. He describes the meeting as follows:

: He said to people present in the meeting, "Sunnis do not know this fact".

Shaykh Muhammad Jawad was a persevering prolific author. He sometimes slept only 4 hours, and he was sometimes so engaged in writing that he did not sleep for 48 hours. Mughniyya is one few exegetes of the Qur'an who wrote two exegeses.

===Tafsir al-Kashif===

The first exegesis of the Qur'an written by Shaykh Mughniyya was al-Kashif fi tafsir al-Qur'an al-karim, which was published in 7 volumes in Beirut. In this exegesis, the author deploys a host of exegetical methods.

===Al-Tafsir al-Mubin===

When Mughniyya wrote al-Kashif, he thought of writing another exegesis addressed to youths. Thus, he wrote a short exegesis with a simple prose under al-Tafsir al-mubin.

Mughniyya wrote his first jurisprudential work under Fiqh al-Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq 'alayh al-salam in six volumes. His other works include: 'Ilm usul al-fiqh, al-fiqh 'ala l-madhahib al-khamsa, and al-Hajj 'ala mukhtalaf al-madhahib.  

Given his concerns for moral values in the development of Islamic communities, he wrote a book under ''Moral values in Imam al-Sadiq’s jurisprudence''. The book was translated into Persian by Sayyid Muhammad Radmanish.

Mughniyya was also an expert in Islamic philosophy and Kalam (theology). Given his firm belief in the importance of theological issues and his sense of responsibility in this regard, he investigated issues of monotheism, proofs for God’s existence and His Attributes, and proofs for the prophethood of Khatam al-Anbiya' (a). In addition to issues of Kalam addressed in both of his exegetical works, he wrote a book under Falsafat al-tawhid wa l-nubuwwa (the philosophy of monotheism and prophethood). Although the book is very brief, it provides rational arguments and philosophical evidence for issues of monotheism and prophethood.

Late in his life, Mughniyya migrated to Iran in order to study and teach in the Islamic Seminary of Qom, where he made research and taught Islamic sciences, including the exegesis of the Qur'an, which resulted in dozens of precious works concerning Islamic sciences.

The collection of Jawad Mughniyya’s works is published in a software format by Noor Center for Research in Islamic Sciences.

==Mughniyya’s Views==

Shaykhd Muhammad Jawad believed in innovations in ijtihad. He firmly held that life was in constant change, and Islam accepts some phenomena of the modern age, while it rejects some others. Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Sadr (d. 1400/1979) writes the following about his views concerning fiqh and ijtihad: “now we see for the first time that the element of a social understanding of religious texts is independently propunded, and when I read parts of the book, Fiqh a-Imam al-Sadiq (written by Muhammad Jawad Mughniyya), I see that our great master Shaykh Muhammad Jawad Mughniyya has developed the issue in the book, and has given a new form and style to the Ja'fari jurisprudence. Although I cautiously speak of a social understanding of religious texts, I nevertheless believe that the principle propounded by our master, Mughniyya, for such an understanding can solve a big problem in fiqh”.

According to Shaykh Muhammad Jawad, textbooks of Islamic seminaries were unfortunately unidimensional, ignoring other scholarly aspects that are important for the society. Students of Islamic seminaries are not usually aware of today’s sciences. About the Islamic Seminary of Najaf, he suggests, “one characteristics of this seminary is that its scholars are not aware of modern sciences, and they are reluctant to include them in their textbooks. Islamic seminaries are silent about what happens to Muslims and people of the world. For example, they are silent about the Algerian Movement or colonial wars and fatal weapons. The Islamic Seminary of Najaf needs to be reformed, and this is what has been fathomed by its teachers and students”.

Mughniyya considers an Islamic government to be the best form of government and criticizes western democracies. He believes that in western democracies, people’s fate will be in the hands of a few capitalists, and others will remain poor and ignorant.

For Mughniyya, the Islamic Revolution of Iran is a successor of the Prophet’s Islamic system.

He cites the hadith, “a man from Qom calls people to the right, and people will gather around him, who are as hard as iron, and who will not be shaken by storms, will not be bored of fighting and will not sidestep, and in God they trust, and the outcome is for the righteous”, and then writes: “this hadith is the most accurate characterization of Imam Khomeini and his companions”. He also said that “the Islamic Revolution of Iran was a hard blow to enemies of Islam and humanity”.