4 ‘Allāmah Tabātabā’ī’s knowledge was so wide that he used to say...

4 ‘Allāmah Tabātabā’ī’s knowledge was so wide that he used to say: “If the opportunity arose, I could explain all the issues of the Qur’ān from a single small sūra”. Ayatullah Jawādī Āmulī Story n. 5 In the year 1350 S (1970), we wanted to visit Makkah. It was winter, snowy and cold. We went to see ‘Allāmah Tabātabā’ī to convey our greetings and say our goodbyes.

When God the All-Powerful remembers a human being who is in the midst of some work, he will never find himself incapable of doing something. And if a human being were to have a moral problem, God, who possesses the Divine and Beautiful Names and is described by these great Names, would most definitely remember him, removing the difficulty and freeing him of that problem”. Ayatullah Jawādī Ā mulī Story n.

6 ‘Allāmah once told us that he visited the outskirts of Tehran one summer, where ideas of Communism and Materialism were prevalent. Some of those who held materialist views wanted to freely discuss their thoughts with him. He went to them and participated in a discussion from morning until evening, that may have lasted 8 hours. He said, “I discussed with this one individual using the view point of burhāne sidīdqiyīn (a Shi’ite philosophical proof of the existence of God)” .

Thereafter, this individual who was a Marxist saw one of his peers on a street in Tehran who asked him, “where did you reach in your visit and discussion with Agha Tabātabā’ī?” He replied, “Agha Tabātabā’ī has made me a monotheist. He spent eight hours in discussion with us, and in the process he made one communist a believer in God and one Marxist a monotheist. He listened to every non-believer’s insult yet never took offense and never quarreled”. * * Ayatullah Jawādī Āmulī Story n.

7 Once ‘Allāmah Tabātabā’ī was informed that the Shah had decided to give him a PhD in philosophy. He became very upset and announced that under no circumstances would he accept such a thing. The head of the faculty of theology approached ‘Allāmah and insisted a great deal, but he continued to decline.