Sayyid Muhammad Hadi Milani: Difference between revisions

'''Sayyid Muḥammad Hādī Ḥusaynī Mīlānī''' (Arabic:{{iarabic| سيد محمد هادي ميلاني}}) (b.[[1313]]- d.[[1395]]/ 1895-1975) was a [[Shiite]] authority ([[marja']]) in the 14th century/[[20th century]]. He spent most of his life in [[Iraq]]. He studied with scholars such as [[Shaykh al-Shari'a al-Isfahani]], [[Diya' al-Din al-'Iraqi]], and [[Muhammad Husayn al-Na'ini]]. He settled [[Mashhad]] in 1332 S.h. (1953). [[Sayyid Ali Khamenei]], the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, studied with him for a while.

Sayyid Muhammad Hadi Milani was born in [[Najaf]] in [[Muharram]], 7, 1313 A.H. (June 30, 1895). His genealogy goes back to [['Ali b. Husayn (a)]]. His father, Sayyid Ja'far Husayni, was a student of [[Shaykh Hasan Mamaqani]]. His father passed away when he was a child. His mother was Hasan Mamaqani's daughter and his wife was the daughter of his uncle, [['Abd Allah Mamaqani]]—the author of ''[[Tanqih al-maqal]]''.

Milani began his studies in [[Najaf]] and then started teaching there. He frequently traveled to [[Iran]]. When he visited the [[holy shrine of Imam al-Rida (a)]] in [[Mashhad]] in 1332 S.h. (1953), he stayed there at the request of people and some scholars in [[Khurasan]] and started teaching [[fiqh]] and [[usul al-fiqh]] in Mashhad. He passed away in [[Rajab 29]], 1395/[[August 7]], 1975 and was buried in the [[holy shrine of Imam al-Rida (a)]].

* [[Ghulam Ali Qummi Samira'i]]

==Change in the Islamic Seminary of Mashhad==

The [[Islamic Seminary of Mashhad]] was revived and founded in 1320s S.h. (1940s), and it underwent remarkable changes and developments in 1330s S.h. (1950s). The main reason for such a remarkable change—promoting the scholarly and religious position of this seminary—was the migration of Sayyid Muhammad Hadi Milani to Mashhad and his stay there for more than two decades.

In 1332 S.h. (1953), prominent scholars in Mashhad signed a petition to ask Sayyid Muhammad Hadi Milani (who lived in [[Karbala]] at the time) to migrate to Mashhad and start teaching there in order to improve its Islamic seminaries and prevent its students from migrating to other cities such as [[Qom]] and [[Najaf]]. In 1333 S.h. (1954), Milani entered Mashhad and stayed there at the request of scholars there. He was practically in charge of the Islamic Seminary of Mashhad for 22 years. He was also a Shiite authority (marja'), especially after the death of [[Ayatollah Burujirdi]], he founded schools with new structures and organized educational and training programs of the Shiite seminary there. Milani's lectures in [[usul al-fiqh]] were based on the method of his teachers, such as [[Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Gharawi Isfahani]] and [[Mirza Muhammad Husayn Na'ini]]. Nearly 400 advanced students of the Shiite seminary attended his lectures.

==Ayatollah Milani's activities==

* Ayatollah Milani sponsored Islamic institutes and organizations that did not belong to the Shiite seminaries, such as the Center for the Propagation of Islamic Truths (Kanun-i Nashr-i Haqa'iq-i Islami). The Center was founded by [[Muhammad Taqi Shari'ati]] and some well-known clergies in Mashhad. The Center considerably contributed to the propagation of modern Islamic thoughts and responses to objections made by anti-Islamic movements popular among educated people of Mashhad at the time from 1320s to 1350s S.h. (1940s to 1970s).

==Political activities==

Two days after the martyrdom of [[Ayatollah Sa'idi]] in Khurdad 24, 1349 S.h. (June 14, 1970), Milani shut down his lectures, and in Tir 24 of the same year (July 15, 1970), Muhammad al-Faham, the head of [[Al-Azhar University]] who had come to Iran from [[Cairo]] by the invitation of Dar al-Taqrib bayn al-Madhahib al-Islamiyya (House of Proximity among Islamic Sects), visited Ayatollah Milani.

* ''Muhadarat fi l-fiqh al-Imamiyya'' (lectures about the Imamiyya jurisprudence): this is a 10-volume collection investigating the rulings of Shiite [[fiqh]], such as those concerning worships and transactions.

* ''Qadatuna kayfa na'rifuhum'' (Our leaders, how to know them?): this is a 9-volume collection concerning the biographies of the [[Fourteen Infallibles (a)]] and their virtues according to Shiite and Sunni sources.

In 1370 A.H. (1951), Milani went to [[hajj]]. In 1359 A.H. (1940), he visited [[Syria]] and [[Lebanon]] where he met [[Sayyid 'Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din]], [[Sayyid Muhsin Amin]], [[Shaykh Habib Al Ibrahim]], [[Mirza Hasan Lawasani]] and Shaykh Muhammad Taqi Sadiq in the cities of Sur, [[Damascus]], [[Baalbek]], Ghaziya, and Nabatieh. He travelled to Iran 6 times. In his sixth travel, he visited [[Imam al-Rida (a)]]'s holy shrine on the [[Day of 'Arafa]]. In this travel, he went to the house of Shaykh 'Ali Akbar Nughani, and at the request of people and scholars of Khurasan, he stayed in Mashhad.