The following is the full text of the speech by Ayatollah Khamenei the Leader of the Islamic Revolution to officials of Allamah Sayyid Nematollah Jazayeri commemoration congress. The Speech was read out on February 25, 2013 by Ayatollah Mosavi-e Jazayeri, the Leader's representative in Khuzestan and the Friday prayer leader of Ahwaz.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
I express my deep gratitude to Mr. Jazayeri and other gentlemen who thought of introducing this great and unknown personality. He is unknown because although the late Sayyid Nematollah Jazayeri is famous for two books - namely, "Zahr ul-Rabi" and "Anwar al-Nemaniah" - his position is a lot higher than this. He was a faqih - the late Sayyid Nematollah was a competent faqih, he was a knowledgeable compiler of hadith and he wrote many books of akhbar. He was also a man of letters.
The interesting point is that his family was interested in literature, compiling dictionaries and other such areas as well as hadith and fiqh. The late Sayyid Nur al-Din, his son, has written the famous book "Foruq al-Loghat", which is not merely a dictionary. Learning this books means having an excellent command of Arabic. His grandchild was the late Sayyid Abdullah Jazayeri. That is to say, for three successive generations, the members of this family were among outstanding and famous scholars. They are well-known in Islamic seminaries. Of course, these great personalities are akhbaris. The late Sayyid Abdullah was a more fervent akhabari than Sayyid Nematollah and Sayyid Nur al-Din. Although the late Sayyid Nematollah was an akhbari, he paid attention to the opinions of usuliyyun. He has a book - I do not remember the name of the book - about the necessity of referring to the books of faqihs. By faqihs, he meant usuli scholars. He was a great man.
He has many works and books. You said that he has around 60 works. What I had in mind was that he wrote around 30, 40 books. Among his works, the important commentaries on "Al-Kutub al-Arbah" [the Four Books] are outstanding. That is to say, he wrote a commentary on "Tahdhib" and "al-Istibsar" and I think he wrote a commentary on "al-Kafi". He wrote a commentary on many of the books written by Sheikh al-Saduq such as "al-Tawhid" and other such books.
He was a very outstanding personality in terms of competence in Shia hadith. And he was not merely a compiler of hadith. He adopted a careful fiqhi outlook on hadith. He was a student of Allamah Majlesi. Well, Allamah Majlesi was a great man. If one takes a look at what he said in Bihar al-Anwar - in the footnotes of this book - he understands that he was a faqih, a mutakallim and he was competent in aqli studies. Majlesi was a great personality, but he is famous only for hadith while this should not be the case. He is a compiler of hadith - his book, namely "Bihar al-Anwar" is a great book - but he is also an expert mutakallim. Sometimes, his commentaries on kalami and aqli issues - in the footnotes of the book - are very outstanding. The late Sayyid Nematollah is the student of such a person. He is the student of Allamah Majlesi. I think he was also a student of Feiz-e Kashani. In any case, he was an outstanding personality.
In Islamic seminaries, the book "Zahr ul-Rabi" has become famous as a humorous book. This shows that our faqihs, our great personalities and our scholars paid attention to these issues as well as deep fiqhi issues. In the beginning of "Zahr ul-Rabi" - we used to read "Zahr ul-Rabi" 50, 60 years ago - Sayyid Nematollah says, "I thought the clerics need some fun. Therefore, I wrote this book". That is to say, this is a book which was written so that a cleric who was deeply involved in seminary work and other such work, could have some fun. He did not ignore such issues. Some people sit in a very formal manner and they feel offended as soon as somebody makes a joke. Our scholars were not such people. Even scholars like Sayyid Nematollah, who was a devoted akhbari, used to do such things. In my opinion, the things that our scholars did in the past for entertainment is very important. An example of this entertainment is "Foruq al-Loghat". As I said, although Sayyid Nur al-Din - the son of Sayyid Nematollah - was a faqih, a compiler of hadith and although he was his father's student, he wrote such dictionary. Anyway, in my opinion, Sayyid Nematollah was an outstanding personality.
And his family members were people who pursued knowledge. By Allah's favor, the members of this family have pursued knowledge up until today. I hope that it will always be like this. Paying tribute to such people means paying tribute to knowledge and divine teachings. It is very good to make such great personalities known to the public, especially if you can publish and carry out research on his books. Of course, "Anwar al-Nemaniah" has been published many times. This book is famous, but his other books are not available. That is to say, his hadith books and the commentaries that he has written on hadith have received less attention. By Allah's favor, you will be successful. I express my gratitude to Mr. Hosseini who offers his help in carrying out such work.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy