ভূমিকা
Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Guiding the Youth of the New Generation About the Author Ayatullah Murtadha Mutahhari (q.d.s.), one of the principle architects of the new Islamic consciousness in Iran, was born on February 2nd, 1920, in Fariman, then a village and now a township about sixty kilometres from Mashhad, the great centre of Shiʿa pilgrimage and learning in Eastern Iran.
His father was Muhammad Husain Mutahhari, a renown scholar who studied in Najaf and spent several years in Egypt and the Hijaz before returning to Fariman. The elder Mutahhari was of a different caste of mind then his son, who in any event came to outshine him. The father was devoted to the works of the celebrated traditionalist, Mullah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (q.d.s.); whereas the son’s great hero among the Shiʿa scholars of the past was the theosophist Mulla Sadra (q.d.s.).
Nonetheless, Ayatullah Mutahhari always retained great respect and affection for his father, who was also his first teacher, and he dedicated to him one of his most popular books, Dastan-e-Rastan (“The Epic of the Righteous”), first published in 1960, and which was later chosen as book of the year by the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO in 1965.
At the exceptionally early age of twelve, Mutahhari began his formal religious studies at the teaching institution in Mashhad, which was then in a state of decline, partly because of internal reasons and partly because of the repressive measures directed by Riḍa Khan, the first Pahlavi autocrat, against all Islamic institutions.
But in Mashhad, Mutahhari discovered his great love for philosophy, theology, and mysticism, a love that remained with him throughout his life and came to shape his entire outlook on religion: “I can remember that when I began my studies in Mashhad and was still engaged in learning elementary Arabic, the philosophers, mystics, and theologians impressed me far more than other scholars and scientists, such as inventors and explorers.
Naturally I was not yet acquainted with their ideas, but I regarded them as heroes on the stage of thought.” [^1] Accordingly, the figure in Mashhad who aroused the greatest devotion in Mutahhari was Mirza Mahdi Shahidi Razavi (q.d.s.), a teacher of philosophy.