Qom (IP)- Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, who has been suffering from a gastrointestinal illness for a long time, passed away at 86 on Friday.

Iran PressIran News: Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi was born in Yazd, Iran in 1934. After finishing his primary education, he began studying religious sciences in Shafi'iyya Seminary School in Yazd under the influence of one of his relatives, Shaykh Ahmad Akhundi. 

Biography of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi

He studied preliminary seminary courses in Yazd. Along with formal seminary courses, he also studied modern sciences, such as physics, chemistry, and physiology, as well as French, with a clergy called Muhaqqiqi Rashti.

He then moved to Najaf to continue his seminary studies. However, he returned to Iran after six months because of the financial hardships his family was facing.

After a while, Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazidi migrated to Qom. In Qom, from 1952 to 1960 he studied al-Makasib in jurisprudence, Kifayat al-usul in principles of jurisprudence, and Sharh-i Manzuma in Philosophy in Imam Khomeini’s classes.

He attended advanced lectures of jurisprudence taught by Grand Ayatollah Burujirdi, then he met Allama Mohammad Hossein Tabataba'i and attended his philosophy and ethics lectures. He also attended the lectures of Ayatullah Bahjat's fiqh seminars for approximately fifteen years. 

During his education, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi was friends with some of his classmates such as Mohammad Hossein Bahjati Ardakani, Ali Bahjati, Ali Pahlavani, Mirza Hassan Noori, and Ali Akbar Masoodi Khomeini.

His other teachers include Ayatollah Burujirdi, Imam Khomeini, and Allama Tabataba'i.  

Ayatollah Mesbah's preoccupation with socio-political issues went back to his active participation in the Islamic uprising against the corrupt Pahlavi regime. 

When Imam Khomeini was forced into exile, he, accompanied by some other students of Imam including Shahid Beheshti, initiated discussions on Islamic perspectives on social problems such as jihad and the Islamic political system. 

Along with Ayatollah Dr. Moahmmad Beheshti, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, and Ayatollah Ali Quddusi, he was on the board of directors of Madrasah Haqqani (Haqqani school, where for about ten years he also taught Qur'anic studies, philosophy, and ethics.

Since 1975, he established, directed, and taught in different academic institutes such as the education department in Dar Rah-i Haqq institute, Baqir al-ulum Cultural Foundation, the office for cooperation between the Hawzah and the university. 

He was the director of the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom. He was elected in 1990 to the Assembly of Experts from Khuzistan province and was reelected in the next round from Tehran. He is the author of numerous works on Islamic and comparative philosophy, theology, ethics, and Quranic exegesis.

Political Positions

When the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution was established, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi joined it as a member.

For the goal of the Islamization of university textbooks, the Office for Hawza and University Interactions was founded, where Mesbah was the main member.

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi was a representative of the people of Khuzestan in the second term of the Assembly of Experts, and a representative of the people of Tehran in its third and fourth terms.

From May 1997 through November 2012, Ayatollah Mesbah was the head of the Supreme Council of Ahl al-Bayt World Assembly.

In 1997, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi delivered lectures before the sermons of the Friday Prayers in Tehran. The lectures were later published in two volumes under 'Islamic Political Theory'.

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi was also a member of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom.

From 2011, a group of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi's students and advocates founded a political organization under the Front of Islamic Revolution Stability (Paydari).

They introduced Ayatollah Mesbah as a member of the Council of the Jurists of their organization. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi has endorsed their statue and still gave them advice until his death, but he has never accepted an official membership in the organization.

Bibliography

Mesbah Yazdi wrote several books concerning Islamic disciplines, such as Qur'anic exegesis, Islamic philosophy, and Islamic doctrines. His works include Amuzish falsafa (Teaching philosophy), Akhlaq dar Qur'an (Ethics in the Qur'an), and Nazariyya-Yi siyasi-yi Islam (Islamic political theory).

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