Our Scholars Views about Molla Mohammad Mahdee Naraqi

·        Ayatollah Hasanzauhdeh Aumolee:

He was a great scholar, a great teacher, a very talented genius, a walking encyclopedia.  He was an expert in all the different fields of study.  There is no doubt that he was one of the most knowledgeable Muslim intellectuals in all rational (e.g. philosophy & theology) and narrational fields (e.g. history, jurisprudence, hadith).  He was also thoroughly versed in literature and mathematics.  Moreover, he was a very spiritual and ethical man.

·        Allaume Tabautabau’ee (The Author of Almeezaun Interpretation of the Holy Qoran):

The Naraqis: Molla Mohammad Mahdee and Molla Ahmad were two of the greatest Muslim scholars whom have not been recognized well enough.

·        Mohammad Bauqair Khaunsauree (The Author of Rawzaut:

He was a great scholar; an expert in all the different fields; a good role model for all other scholars, and a person with heavenly intellect.  He was the son of Aboozar Kaushaunee Naraqi.  He has written books in most fields of knowledge [that existed at his age].  He was an expert in jurisprudence, philosophy, osool [i.e. the study of the general rules in the field of jurisprudence], the study of numbers [i.e. elm-ol-a’daud], and shapes [i.e. elm-ol-ashkaul].

·        Mohammad Ma’soom Shirazee (as recorded in Tarau’eq-ol-haqau’eq):

Allaume Mohammad Mahdee Naraqi (May God Bless His Soul) was one of the greatest philosophers and jurisprudents of the more recent Muslim scholars [i.e. past few centuries].  His characteristics and his books have been recorded by many scholars.

·        Hauj Zayn-ol-aubedeen Shirvanee (quoted from his Boostaun-o-ssiyauhah where he explains about the Narauq region):

Narauq is a large village and a very nice and pleasing area near by Kashan.  It’s on a mountainside.  It’s almost blocked on three sides, but the left side is open and pretty wide.  The residents are all Shia and Mawlaunau Mahdee, author of many worthy books, is from that region.

·        Modarres Tabreezee (quoted from his Raihaunat-ol-adab):

Hauj Molla Mohammad Mahdee, the son of Aboozar, was born in Narauq; resided in Kashan, and died in Najaf.  He was one of the greatest Shia intellectuals.  He was a jurisprudent, an osooly, a philosopher and theologian.  He was an expert in the knowledge of numbers [i.e. elm-ol-a’daud] and in ethics.  He was thoroughly versed in all rational and narrational fields of knowledge.  Some of the greatest scholars refer to him [with very esteeming attributes such] as “the ornament of the jurisprudents”, “the tongue of the jurisprudents and theologians” and “the biography of the philosophers” [which all point to the fact that he was a genius in all the different fields].  He also had expertise in arithmetic, geometry, mathematics, astrology and literature.  He was a pupil of Esmau’eel Khaujoo’ee for thirty years.  After finishing his studies [in Esfahan and thereafter in Najaf (Iraq)] he returned to Iran and resided in Kashan.  As the result of his stay, Kashan became the center of knowledge and many scholars came to reside in that city.

·        Sayyed Bahr-ol-oloom (The following is quoted from the latter’s reply to Molla Mohammad Mahdee’s letter admiring the former such: “Oh our messenger [i.e. the letter] tell the residents of the great shrine of Imam Ali [he intends Sayyed Bahr-ol-oloom by this phrase] ‘enjoy your residence in the heaven; give us [those far away from the shrine of Ali] water, for we are thirsty, but your thirst has been quenched [by being near the shrine of Ali, the fountain of heavenly water].’”  Sayyed Bahr-ol-oloom replied to Molla Mahdee the following):

Oh our messenger [the letter] tell the one who is far away but [at the same time] is present by our beloved [Imam Ali spiritually], “You [i.e. Molla Mahdee Naraqi] are better than the one who is [spiritually] far away and absent for [he—i.e. himself] is [spiritually] thirsty even though [he] is close [to the shrine of Ali physically], but your thirst has been quenched even though you are far away [physically and near].”

·        Ayatollah Fauzel Lankaraunee:

These two father and son, besides being great scholars, possessed a high moral and ethical status; thus they both have written a book on the subject of ethics.  One book is Jaume’ossa’audaut by Molla Mohammad Mahdee and the other is Me’raujossa’audah by Molla Ahmad.  These two books are very interesting.  Many years back, when I wanted to buy a copy of the former, I found a printed copy which Sardar Kabulee—whom was very honored by Ayatollah Boroojerdee—had written his commentaries about the text in it.  The former had read the entire book very carefully [which shows how important this book was to him].  Imam Khomeini had special attention to the latter book and advised every one to read it.

·        Ayatollah Rezau Ostaudee:

This book—Moshkelat-ol-oloom by Molla Mohammad Mahdee—like Khazau’en by Molla Ahmad prove that these two great intellectuals were versed in various fields of knowledge.

·        Ayatollah Qauzee Tabautabau’ee (the latter was one of the great scholars in Iran whom was killed by the anti-government terrorists after the Islamic Revolution in a mosque while praying):

Molla Mohammad Mahdee, the son of Aboozar Naraqi, was one of the greatest Shia scholars in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.  He had versed in all rational and narrational fields of study.  He has been considered one of the Shia “researchers” [“researcher” or mohaqqeq is a high scholarly title which few scholars have been honored by].  He is the author of many books which contain very important researches regarding various subjects.  All this scholarly success was the result of his great intellectual personality.

·        Mohadeth Nooree the Compiler of Mostadrak-ol-wasael (the following has been quoted from Lo’lo-o-marjaun): 

He [i.e. Molla Mahdee] was one of the greatest scholars and one of the five Mahdees of his age [there were four other scholars by the name of Mahdee whom were the latter’s contemporaries].

·        Sayyed Jalauloddeen Aushtiyaunee (quoted from Some Chosen Sections from the Works of the Iranian Godly Intellectuals):

He was one of the greatest Shia scholars.  He was one of those very rare Shia intellectuals during the Islamic history with such a wide range of expertise in all rational and narrational fields of study.  Molla Mohammad Mahdee was from Narauq.  He was a jurisprudent, a philosopher, a mystic and a mathematician of the last decades of the thirteenth century.  He was one of the very highly esteemed marjas [a marja is a jurisprudent whom people follow in their religious affairs] of his age.  He was even considered a judge by the people [of course not today’s type of judge; he was the trusted scholar by the people who referred to him for solving their problems and acting as the judge among them].  The great authors of the main jurisprudence books have used Molla Mahdee’s books as a source for their writings.  Moreover he was a philosopher.  He has written several significant books on mathematics.  He taught the highest level mathematic books of his age.  Some have referred to him as “the greatest mathematician”.  He was also an expert in the fields of tafseer [i.e. the study of the interpretation of the holy Qoran], hadith [i.e. the study of the traditions narrated from the Prophet and the imams], rejaul [i.e. the study of the narrators of the traditions] and ethics.

·        Allaume Zanoozee (the author of Riyaz-ol- jannah and a contemporary of Molla Mohammad Mahdee, quoted from the introduction to Jaume’ossa’audaut):

He is a great scholar; a very just and meticulous researcher, a jurisprudent, a philosopher, a theologian and a mathematician.  He was an expert in most Islamic and other fields of study.  He was a highly esteemed scholar who possessed a great personality and an admirable lifestyle.  He wrote many books during his [very fruitful] life and took advantage of numerous great scholars as his teacher.