When he was ready for higher learning he moved to Najaf Ashraf...

When he was ready for higher learning he moved to Najaf Ashraf, the biggest centre of scholarly activities. After acquiring as much knowledge as he could, he moved to Hijaz. In those days Mirza Muhammad, a traditional scholar originally from Ustarabad, was staying in Holy Mecca. Mullah Amin met him, immediately became his admirer and joined his study circle. Mirza Muhammad was not only quite impressed by Zahiria, a branch of Sunnah Fiqh, but was also fond of it.

Zahiria was founded by a Faqih from Isfahan, Daud Bin Ali (died in 370AH). One well known peculiarity about this school of thought was that its followers were arch enemies of Imam Abu Hanifa’s Ijtihadi ideas and were dead against taqleed. This religion was quite popular in Mecca and Madina in addition to Syria and Iraq. To spread this school of thought in Shia circles and in far flung areas, Mirza Muhammad persuaded his pupil, Mirza Muhammad Amin, to write a book called Alfawaid Ul Madniyya.

This book lacked scholarly qualities and was full of shallow stuff. When this piece of writing came into the hands of scholars, there was great hue and cry and for the next two hundred years a bitter debate ensued. May Allah give a high rank in heaven to the king of scholars, Muhammad Baqir Wahid Bahimani, who finished off this river of cheap journalism through his lectures, debates, writings and pupils.

Bahimani passed into eternal bliss on 29th Shawwal 1205AH at the age of 90 or 91 after winning a big scholarly battle. He was buried at the feet of King of Martyrs in Karbala. [^3]: Manaqib Ush Shafei, p 57 Previous…