First Anniversary of the demise of Grand Ayatollah Bahjat

Sunday May 16 is the first anniversary of the demise of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Bahjat, a Shii Marja (religious authority) who passed away at the age of 96 at a hospital in Qom last year.

Born in Fouman, Gilan province, Grand Ayatollah Bahjat completed his religious studies in the holy city of Qom and in the Iraqi holy citiy of Najaf.

He spent all his life studying and teaching, bringing up many scholars.

The IRI government announced three days of public mourning over the demise of Grand Ayatollah Bahjat.

Bahjat was born in 1334 A.H. (1915 A.D.) in Fuman (Iran). His father Karbala’i Muhammad Bahjat was a trustworthy and reliable personality of that region.

Ayatollah Bahjat finished his primary education in a Maktab School of Fuman. Later, in Fuman he began his religious education until 1929, when he went to Qom after completing studies in Arabic grammar and literature.

After a short stay in Qom, Ayatollah Bahjat migrated to the holy city of Karbala (Iraq) and attended the lectures of some great scholars such as Sayyid Abul Qasim al-Khu’i.

In 1933, he left Karbala for Najaf to complete his studies; there he attended the lectures of one of Akhund Khurasani’s students. After attending the classes of Ayatollah Dia’ al-`Iraqi and Ayatollah Mirza Na’ini’, he began attending the lectures of Ayatollah Hajj Shaykh Muhammad Husayn al-Gharawi al-Isfahani (known as al-Kumpani).

Shaykh Bahjat has also benefited a great deal from the lectures of Ayatollah al-Uzma Hajj Sayyid Abul Hasan al-Isfahani and Hajj Shaykh Muhammad Kazim Shirazi.

Apart from Fiqh (jurisprudence) and Usool (principles of jurisprudence) Ayatollah Bahjat studied the book “al-Isharat” of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and al-Asfar al-Arba`a of Mulla Sadra Shirazi under the late Sayyid Husayn al-Baadkoube’i.

In 1944, Bahjat returned to Iran and became Ayatollah al-Uzma al-Kouhkamar’i’s student, while also attending Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s lectures on Fiqh and Usool.

For the last fifty years, he had been teaching the Kharij level of Fiqh and Usool in his home to avoid publicity. As one of the Grand Religious Authorities, he taught Jurisprudence at the higher level.