In an interview with Hawzah News Agency, Hojatoleslam Mojtaba Fazel expressed satisfaction with the holding of the congress commemorating the late Mirza Naeini, describing the eminent jurist as one of the most honorable and influential figures in Shiite history. He noted that one of Ayatollah Naeini’s most innovative characteristics was his deep and systematic treatment of the relationship between politics and jurisprudence, a theme clearly manifested in his landmark work Tanbih al-Ummah wa Tanzih al-Millah.
Hojatoleslam Fazel explained that the book was authored at a time when the Najaf Seminary was wrongly portrayed as detached from political affairs. “This assumption is fundamentally flawed,” he said, adding that the Constitutional Movement in Iran—one of the most significant political developments in the region’s modern history—received substantial intellectual and religious support from the Najaf Seminary. Prominent scholars such as the late Ayatollah Akhund Khorasani and other leading jurists, he noted, played a decisive role in defending constitutionalism and opposing despotism.
The former director of the Women’s Seminary stressed that the connection between religion and politics has always been among the core concerns of major Shiite jurists. “In Islamic jurisprudence, the implementation of many legal rulings and social ordinances remains conditional upon the presence of a legitimate authority capable of governance,” he said, referring to the classical jurisprudential concept of a ruler with the practical ability to exercise sovereignty.
From this perspective, Fazel stated, the compilation of Tanbih al-Ummah represented a revival of an established Shiite understanding that jurisprudence and politics are historically intertwined rather than contradictory. “Mirza Naeini demonstrated that political engagement, when rooted in religious law and ethical accountability, is not separate from jurisprudence but one of its essential dimensions,” he said.
Highlighting Ayatollah Naeini’s scholarly stature, Fazel noted that the late jurist strengthened the Najaf Seminary through his association with distinguished teachers and by educating generations of students who later became influential figures in Shiite scholarship. He added that many of the issues raised by Naeini continue to shape contemporary Shiite jurisprudential and political discourse.
Hojatoleslam Fazel further remarked that the intellectual foundations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as Imam Khomeini’s theory of Wilayat al-Faqih, are partly indebted to the pioneering ideas of Mirza Naeini. Honoring such figures, he said, helps dismantle the persistent but unfounded narrative that seeks to separate religion from politics in Islamic societies.
In concluding remarks, the former director of the Women’s Seminary referred to the historic role of religious scholars in preserving the Najaf Seminary through centuries of hardship and political pressure. Despite limited resources and difficult conditions, he said, jurists and scholars safeguarded the seminary’s continuity for nearly a thousand years since the era of Sheikh Tusi through perseverance and intellectual struggle.
Expressing hope for the future, Fazel said he expects the Women’s Seminary in Najaf, alongside the Qom Seminary, to continue its academic growth and global outreach. “These seminaries bear a critical responsibility in conveying Shiite teachings and the message of the Ahl al-Bayt (PBUT) to the world with clarity, depth, and intellectual confidence,” he said.
He concluded that revisiting the legacy of figures such as Mirza Naeini is essential for understanding the enduring relationship between Islamic jurisprudence, political accountability, and resistance to tyranny.
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