In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
You are very welcome, dear gentlemen and brothers from Hamadan. With the statements that you made, you revived my knowledge and memories about Hamadan and the personalities of Hamadan. I am very grateful to you.
There are two advantages in commemorating the personalities of a city and province. One is introducing personalities and another is introducing cities and provinces to the people. When you commemorate the late Mr. Aqa Najafi Hamadani, you place the memory, history, personalities and numerous advantages of Hamadan within the sight of all audiences and spectators thanks to your commemoration of personalities. By doing this, you are in fact introducing Hamadan. This is one of the blessings of commemorating such personalities.
In the recent history of Hamadan, the late Akhund Mullah Hossein-Qoli Hamadani, the late Hajj Sheikh Mohammad Bahari and the late Asayyid Ali Arab – the father of that personality – and other such individuals are personalities who are outstanding both in terms of scholarly position and in terms of spiritual and mystic status. This is one of the privileges of these personalities.
In fact, one of the privileges of this city is that it has gathered together a very large number of outstanding personalities. Such personalities enjoy both scholarly positions – common fields of knowledge in Islamic seminaries such as fiqh, usul, hikmat and the like – and mystic status, self-edification and moral qualities. They have gathered together these qualities in themselves. A very clear example of this in recent eras is the late Akhund Mullah Hossein-Qoli and after that, his students and the recent personalities in Hamadan. So, Hamadan is honored because of having such personalities.
As for the late Mr. Aqa Najafi (may God bestow paradise on him) unfortunately, I have never had the opportunity to meet with him and see him in person. This did not happen for me, but I used to know him from a distance. The gentlemen in the meeting mentioned his two books: one is the Quran's interpretation, namely "Anvaar-e Derakhshaan" and another is "Derakhshaan Parto-I az Usul-e Kafi" which is a collection of hadith. Well, they have sent these books to me. I have referenced them. He was a well-versed Mullah, but at the same time, he wrote in Farsi. This is a very important point. I have said many times that despite his high status, the late Majlisi considered it his responsibility to write in Farsi as well as in Arabic. As well as writing Bihar al-Anwar – which is a vast see of valuable work: it is really an ocean of valuable work – he wrote "Haqul Yaqin" and "Hayatul Qolub" in Farsi. He wrote in Farsi so that the people could benefit from it.
That to what extent the late Mr. Aqa Najafi has managed to attend to contemporary literature in his Farsi works is another issue. If there is any shortcoming in this area, as you mentioned in the meeting, the way to resolve this matter is that a number of scholars and clergy from Qom should dig the subtleties out and change the literature of those works. However, the important point is the motivation of those personalities: the motivation to be with the people. The important point is that they provided the people with their active, diligent and knowledgeable minds. The late Mr. Aqa Najafi showed this quality. By Allah's favor, he enjoys a high status before Allah the Exalted. I hope that God will raise his position to a higher status.
He learned mysticism and spirituality from his father, scholars in Najaf – the late Mr. Qazi – and perhaps others. He learned scholarly fields from Mr. Naini and the late Hajj Sheikh Mohammad Hossein [Mohammad Hossein Ghoravi Isfahani] and others. He really worked hard.
I have heard that he has "taqrirat" as well [a collection of writings and notes about the lessons of professors and teachers in Islamic seminaries]. I have read the interview that was pointed out by Mr. Salehi. In that interview, he says that he once attended the classes of Mr. Naini on usul and that he presented his writings to Mr. Naini. Well, this is valuable. If such a thing is available and if it can be provided for Islamic seminaries, it will be a very valuable work in scholarly terms as it is part of our scholarly and usuli wealth. Well, this is the status of Mr. Hamadani in scholarly terms.
As for his spiritual status, he was really a pious and religious person. However, what strikes us most is his revolutionary outlook. During the war, I went to Hamadan once or twice. Both Mr. Hamadani and the late Mr. Taalohi [Ayatollah Mohammad Hadi Taalohi] – those two old mullahs – were so friendly towards the youth in the front lines that one would think they were one of them. They used to describe to us their relationship with the youth. I had also heard this from the friends who were in touch with Hamadan. They used to narrate these things for us. If I remember correctly, they described those two personalities as a source of reference for the youth in the front lines. They were a source of reference for the youth when they were in mosques, when they were praying, when they were in their houses and when the youth wanted to join the front lines.
The fact that a person at that age and with that scholarly position did not ignore the important developments of his time is a very important point. That is while some people ignored the important developments of their time which was the invasion of the enemy and his threats against the country, the people, the Revolution, the Islamic Republic and everything else. There were some people who ignored this matter. In my opinion, that man's attention to this matter and his respect for youth is a very outstanding quality.
In any case, I am very thankful to you gentlemen for reviving the auspicious name of that great individual and for commemorating such personalities. It will be very good to carry out the same task for the late Mr. Taalohi and other such personalities in Hamadan province. Mr. Mohammadi mentioned the names of these personalities, but I think there are more. An example is the late Akhund Mullah Ali Nahavandi who was the author of "Tashri’ al-Usul". He was an outstanding and first-rate faqih and Mullah and who was well-versed in usul. He was from Hamadan province – from Nahavand. There are such outstanding personalities from Hamadan.
If such commemoration congresses are held for these personalities one after the other, as I said, not only is this an act of respecting those great personalities and reviving their names, but it is also an act of praising Hamadan – this area which is good at cultivating scholars and cultivating knowledge.
I hope that God will raise the position of those personalities and I hope that He will raise your worldly and otherworldly positions as well. I think that one of Mr. Hamadani's sons – who is present here – used to cooperate with my administration during my presidency. I think that this is the case. The same is true of Mr. Ansari who is Mr. Hamadani's grandson. I hope that God will protect you.
The brothers from Hamadan who wish to commemorate Mr. Aqa Najafi should pay attention to artistic work. They should carry out the task in an artistic and intelligent manner. Sometimes, we go through a lot of trouble to do something, but it will not turn out to be very efficient. This should not happen in this case. You should think as much as you can so that you will accomplish the task in a vigilant, intelligent, wise and artistic manner. You should do this so that it will be influential, God willing.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings
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