Grand Ayatullah Shaykh al-Gharawi

 The murder of another eminent scholar and Shi'a leader less than two months
after that of Ayatullah Shaykh Murtada al-Burujirdi has stunned Shi'a
communities throughout the world. When any prominent Ayatullah dies it is of
course an occasion for much sorrow if only because one can no longer have
direct access to his vast learning and scholarship: qualities so highly
prized by Shi'a Muslims. It can be imagined therefore how great was the blow
when it was announced that Ayatullah Mirza Ali al-Gharawi had been killed in
Iraq on his return by road from Karbala to his home in the holy city of
Najaf on the 18th  June, 1998.
 

 Both Ayatullahs were cut down in their prime.  Both were
completely apolitical - which adds to the seemingly utter meaninglessness of
both crimes. There can be little doubt that the Iraqi Mukhabarat
(Intelligence Services) were directly involved. The absence of any thorough
police investigation, the undue haste in which both burials were carried
out, the prohibition of any funeral procession to the cemetery of Wadi
al-Salam and, in the case of al-Gharawi, the fact that his body was not even
allowed to be taken to a mosque for the funeral prayer to be said over it,
all substantiate this conclusion.
 

Ayatullah al-Gharawi was born Mirza Ali Tabrizi in the town of Tabriz,
Persia, in 1930. His father was a successful merchant and well-known in
trading circles both in Persian Azerbaijan and Russian Azerbaijan (now the
Azerbaijan Republic). His mother was a Sayyida, a direct descendant of the
Holy Prophet (s.a.w.), and so Ali bore the customary title of Mirza. His father died
when Ali was only two which meant that he now had to be looked after
exclusively by his mother who, wanting her son to become eventually an 'alim'
(religious scholar), despatched him at the age of six to school in Tabriz to
begin his elementary studies. Having completed these, and also a part of his
intermediate education, the young Ali travelled to the holy city of Qom to
do his higher intermediate studies at the celebrated religious academy
(Hawzah). He was only sixteen when he embarked upon Advanced Studies
(al-Bahth al-Kharij). Among his teachers was Ayatullah Sayyid Husayn
Borujerdi who was to become the principal marja' of Shi'a Muslims throughout
the world until his death in 1961.
 

After spending five years at Qom, Mirza Ali decided to travel once again,
this time to Najaf in Iraq to complete his advanced education at the Hawzah
there, the oldest and most prestigious university in Shia Islam. Here he was
taught by the late Ayatullahs Shaykh Husayn al-Huh and Shaykh Mirza Muhammad
Baqir al-Zanjani, as well as Ayatullah Sayyid Abu '1-Qasim al-Khoei. It was
probably Sayyid al-Khoei who, of all the Ulema, influenced and inspired him
the most as to the direction his life should take. When he was only
twenty-eight, the eminent ayatullah, in a published recommendation (taqridh)
in a volume of taqrirat (detailed annotated notes complete with commentary)
of his lectures on Yazdi's monumental work on the bases of jurisprudence,
al-'Urwa al-Wuthqa, prayed God that Mirza Ali would become one day a
distinguished marja'. Al-Khoeis prayer was granted when Mirza Ali was in his
early sixties: in 1993, following the demise of Ayatullah Abd al-Ala Sabzevari,
he published his own juridical decisions, Risala 'Amaliyya, known as al-Fatawa al-Mustanbata,
 which was the first step for any prospective marja'. In the meantime,
Mirza Ali became known as al-Gharawi (rather than al-Tabrizi), derived from
al-Ghari, the ancient name of Najaf, as often happened with scholars who made
Najaf their home and became part of the religious and cultural life of the city.
 

Al-Gharawi wrote a number of works on Fiqh (jurisprudence), most of which
remain in manuscript form. In addition to the taqrzrat already referred to,
al-Tanqihfi Sharh al-'Urwa al-Wuthqa, of which twelve volumes have been
published, he set out in great detail the arguments (or proofs) on which he
based the edicts of his Risala in a work which runs to at least eighty
volumes, all of which are hand-written, named Tasnid al-Fatawa
al-Mustanbata. On the death of Grand Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Rohani in
July last year, most of the followers of that maria changed over to
Ayatullah al-Gharawi. At his death, al-Gharawi' s followers were to be found
in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, other Gulf States, Turkey and Lebanon.
 

Since his late twenties, already recognised as a Mujtahid, al-Gharawi began
to teach al-Bahth al-Khar~j in the Hawza while at the same time attending
the lectures of his teachers. He remained a teacher right up to his death.
His lectures particularly attracted students because of the clarity in which
they were delivered, free of unnecessary complication and muddled argument.
For several years he had also been one of the imams of the congregational
prayers at al-Rawda al-Haydariyya which contains the tomb of Amir
al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib, the First Imam.
 

Every Thursday it was al-Gharawi's custom to make the fifty-mile journey
north to the holy city of Karbala to pray in the Rawda and visit the tomb of
Imam Husayn (a.s.), the grandson of the Holy Prophet(s.a.w.), whose martyrdom is
commemorated every Muharram, the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar.
That Thursday in mid-June -towards the end of Muharram - was, tragically, to
be al-Gharawi's last visit. At night, returning home to Najaf by car, he was
shot dead in a hail of machine-gun fire along with his son-in-law, the
driver and a fnend.
 

Two assassinations within less than two months inevitably lead to concern
for the safety of the Ulema who remain in Najaf. In this respect, there must
be singled out Grand Ayatullah Sayyid Ali Seestani who is the Marja'
currently with the greatest following among Shi'a Muslims worldwide;
Ayatullah Sayyid Sa'id al-Hakim, who is a Marja' and grandson of the late
renowned Grand Ayatullah Muhsin al-Hakim; and Shaykh Muhammad Ishaq
al-Fayyad, a Pakistani who has lived for the past fifty years in Najaf and
is expected by many to seek recognition soon as a Marja'.

ABDG

Mirza Au al-Tabrizi al-Gharawi: born Tabriz, Persia, 1348-9 AH/1930 CE;
assassinated on Karbala-Najaf road Iraq, 23 Safar 1419/18 June 1998.

Dialogue - July 1998

A G Karim
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