Hawzah News Agency- Speaking at the Alawi Hall in Najaf’s Alawi Complex before senior seminary scholars, academic figures, and representatives of religious authorities from Najaf, Qom, and Iran, the director of the seminaries emphasized that the great Maraji’ of the present era — like their predecessors, including Mirza Naeini — continue to form a “strong barrier against the invasion of arrogant powers into Iraq, Iran, and the Islamic world.”
Ayatollah Arafi thanked the offices of Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, and the major holy shrines for their support of the congress, stressing that gatherings of this kind “honor the great reformists of Islamic history” and also present the identity, depth, and intellectual wealth of the seminaries to new generations and to the world.
A SCHOLAR WHO OPENED THE SEMINARY TO GLOBAL THOUGHT
In the first axis of his speech, Ayatollah Arafi outlined Mirza Naeini’s towering intellectual and scientific stature, describing twelve major features of his scholarly genius.
He highlighted Mirza Naeini’s extraordinary memory, eloquence in both Arabic and Persian, his pedagogical mastery, and his ability to raise a generation of influential students whose ideas shaped seminaries across the Islamic world.
Mirza Naeini, he said, was not confined to the walls of Najaf or Samarra. He possessed “a deep understanding of his time,” grasping the intellectual storms sweeping the West and the colonial threats bearing down on Islamic societies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His openness to global thought and his refusal to retreat into isolation made him, Ayatollah Arafi said, “a leader of his era.”
Ayatollah Aliraza Arafi noted that Mirza Naeini harmonized tradition with contemporaneity — remaining firmly rooted in the rigorous scholarly method of the seminaries while also responding innovatively to emerging intellectual challenges. “He stood precisely at the balance point between authenticity and modernity,” Ayatollah Arafi said, neither retreating into purely classical frameworks nor becoming submerged by foreign ideologies.
REVOLUTIONIZING THE SCIENCE OF PRINCIPLES AND JURISPRUDENCE
Ayatollah Arafi credited Mirza Naeini with bringing the science of usul al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence) into a new phase of maturity. His methodological system, which weaves linguistic, philosophical, and theological analysis into a unified framework, remains a central reference in advanced seminary studies.
He also praised Grand Ayatollah Naeini’s far-reaching innovations in jurisprudence:
– new classifications of legal theory and contracts
– a sharper definition of the limits of juristic authority
– early models of constitutional governance grounded in Islamic principles
– foundational work on social systems, political thought, and Qur’anic jurisprudence
Mirza Naeini, he affirmed, became a founder of Islamic political philosophy in the modern era — a point underscored by the Supreme Leader Imam Khamenei in his message to the congress.
Mirza Naeini insisted that Islam is a “civilization-building religion” with both fixed principles and dynamic capacities that enable it to guide societies across eras. His balanced civilizational theory, Ayatollah Arafi said, set him apart from many contemporaries.
IN THE FRONTLINE OF THE POLITICAL STRUGGLE
In the second axis, Ayatollah Arafi reviewed Mirza Naeini’s crucial role in political movements during a period marked by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Western attempts to dominate the Islamic world.
Rejecting isolation, Mirza Naeini stood at the center of decisive historical events:
1. The Tobacco Movement
As a senior advisor to Mirza Shirazi, Naeini helped guide one of the earliest collective resistances to foreign control.
2. The Constitutional Movement
Alongside Akhund Khorasani and the Najaf Maraji’, he became an intellectual architect of constitutional governance in Iran.
3. The 1920 Iraqi Revolution
Mirza Naeini emerged as a leading religious authority in the uprising against British colonialism, later exiled to Qom after the revolt’s suppression.
Ayatollah Arafi noted that Naeini’s influence across Iran and Iraq spanned half a century — “a rare phenomenon in history.” His counsel shaped major decisions, his writings drafted seminal declarations, and his popularity among the people was profound.
Crowds in western Iran once gathered hours in advance to welcome him and Ayatollah Seyyed Abul Hasan Isfahani during their exile — a testament, Ayatollah Arafi said, to the deep bond between the people and the scholarly leadership.
A MODEL OF MORALITY AND SPIRITUALITY
In the third axis, Ayatollah Arafi underscored Mirza Naeini’s spiritual depth, asceticism, and piety — the moral core that, he said, gave coherence and purity to his scientific and political efforts.
“Today more than ever,” Ayatollah Arafi concluded, “we need such figures — scholars who enlighten with knowledge, purify with ethics, and guide society with spiritual strength.”
He reaffirmed that the readiness of the world to receive the message of Islam places a historic responsibility on the seminaries to rise to contemporary needs and spread the principles of the Ahl al-Bayt (AS) globally.
“Everything that the seminaries possess is from this noble nation,” he said. “From the people of Iran, Iraq, and the Islamic Ummah. This bond — between the people and the religious authority — remains our greatest asset.”
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