ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Elixir of Love The Passing Away of Ayatollah Hujjat As mentioned at the outset of this part, I deemed it worthwhile to narrate the passing away accounts of two other friends of God because of their similarity to that of the Shaykh and their instructiveness.

One of these two noblemen was Ayatollah Hujjat (ra) who was the Shaykh's marja' and the Shaykh adored him for his sincerity and viewed him as detached from worldly ambitions.[^1] Now we would hear the story of this great men's heavenly departure from his noble son-in- law, Ayatollah Haj Shaykh Murtaza Hairi (ra) whom I had the honor to humbly learn from as a student: House Repair First of all I should say that although the late Ayatollah Hujjat was my teacher and father-in-law, I would not go to his house very often and did not involve in the affairs relating to his chairmanship.

He was, however, at the time of Ayatollah Burujirdi (ra), the absolute marja ' or the marja' to the majority of the people in Azerbaijan. In Tehran also the Azerbaijanis as well as non-Azerbaijanis referred to him (to solve their religious problems). He paid monthly salary (to the talabas ) too, and was to some extent sufficiently authorized in (personal) expenditure.

Early the winter of that year, it was not too cold yet, and he was having the house repaired, with a comer of the courtyard excavated for constructing a new building, and some workers were doing other repair work in the house, including digging a well required for the extension of the building. The construction was supported financially not by himself but by one of his devotees residing in Tehran whose name – if I remember correctly – was Chaichi.

"I am About to Die!" One morning I[^2] went to visit him in the interior of the house. He was sitting on the bed feeling not sick. Due to some chronic bronchitis, he normally suffered from asthma when it would get cold. At that time, in spite of the beginning of the cold season, he did not seem to suffer very much (from asthma). I was told that he had dismissed the construction workers. I asked him why he dismissed the workers.

He answered firmly and explicitly: "I am about to die, so what the construction for"? I did not say anything, and do not remember that I was very surprised by his response. Then he said to me: "My dear! Come over for the next few days." He meant not to keep a distance like before. "O God!