A name that we have all heard since childhood, be it on TV, the radio, school, college, papers, our parents, our mosque, some place some where, you have all heard the name Mutahhari. Have you ever wondered exactly who he was, what he did? Why is it that his name comes into any reasonable discussion on Islam? The day of his martyrdom is held as "Teacher's Day," for that was his passion.
His life...
Most of us during childhood wanted to stay home anytime school, or books, or studying came into the picture. But for Ayatollah Mutahhari, this love of learning, reading, and teaching was evident early on. "He loved going to school every since he was about six, in other words his mother or father never had to force him to get up, get ready, and get to school," says his son.
He began his official Islamic studies at about the age of thirteen, which left him in constant awe. He developed a great passion for phiolosophy, the theory of existence, humanity, and other spiritual studies. Aytollah Mutahhari says, "Every human has a tendence to be drawn towards good, be it from character, from society, from another individual, from a religion, you always want good in your life. My divergence into religion began at the age of thirteen where I really began to wonder, who could have created all of this good, I want to know Him!"
After twenty nine years of marraige, his wife says, I never saw him without wudhu for even half an hour. He would always advise us as well to be with Wudhu. His prayers and duas truly brought a different feeling into his house. He had made his home life in such a way that his children turned out to become great scholars, honest, truthful people. For three years when he was banned from speaking in Iran, all of his efforts were in his home. he was very punctual trying to make use of every minute of every day. After praying salatul Dhuhr, he would eat (bread and yogurt most of the time), then he slept for about an hour, woke up, made wudhu, and continue studying and reading until his students arrived to our house. Beofer sleeping, he woudl recite Quran for about 20-30 minutes and he would go to bed at about 11 pm. He would wake up at about 2:30 in the morning for Salatul Layl and continue praying all the way until salatul Fajr, where after praying Salatul Fajr he would begin his studies...
Interesting moment in his life...
On the 15th of Khordad, after giving a rather "thought-provoking" speech that called upon all speakers to stand and explain to people what is right and advise peopel to forbid evil in all of its forms, he was arrested. At about 12:30 in the morning, the guards came to his home. The guards came and constantly pulled Ayatollah Mutahari to get out of his house but he insisted that he wanted to change his clothes. His pockets were filled with proprietary information such as telephone numbers and other fliers for the revolution and he did not want that to fall into the wrong hands. He was prisoned for two months but, as we all know, nothing fell into the wrong hands and he was still able to become a very great asset to the Islamic revolution.
His Shahadat:
Ayatollah Mutahari, like all great scholars, had many enemies. But the one that stood out the most was a group known as Furqan. Aytaollah Mutahari warned many people of the dangers in a materialistic viewpoint of life, and he warned of tyring to mix these views with the interpretations of the Holy Quran. He did not want the Quranic verses to be used in a materialistic sense, which was becoming a very absurd trend at the time. The group, in some of its interpretations, warned of grave consequences to anyone who tried to stop them or spoke against them. When his students warned him of the danger, Ayatollah Mutahari would reply to them, "If I were to lose my life because I am trying to stop these ridiculous interpretations of Islam to surface, let it be so because it is the best way of living."
And so after publishing a book against this group, Ayatollah Mutahari was assasinated, and one of the greatest thinkers of our time had been taken from us...
Some short lessons from Ayatollah Mutahari
Let's take a look at some short lessons from Ayatollah Mutahari:
Freedom and It's Meaning:
What kind of freedom would be useful to me? It always has two sides to it, in other words, one thing must always be free from something else. But to truly define freedom, what does a person want to be free from? In reality, we have two types of freedom. There is personal freedom and then there is social freedom. Personal freedom is a peron's freedom from themselves. Societies freedom is personal freedom from outside forces. True freedom can only be granted from a person to himself/herself, and is the freedom from their own captivity, which is something society cannot provide.
Justice:
Justice means to observe other peoples rights. The problem people have though comes from both character and society and the mixing of the two together. There is no one who does not know their own character, or for that matter, good character and to know up to what limit they must provide justice. With all of this foresight, people do not provide the level which they see fit, and that is when problems begin to arise. Before someone does something they first weigh their benefits from its outcome. For example, truth on one side while their own personal benefit from telling the truth on the other. So now this person has a choice, you can lie or you can tell the truth. This is where a person can test their level of justice, will they pass, or fail...
The Habit of Thinking...
To exempt themselves from their own worldly desires, so that your body, mind, and spirit can be saved on the day of judgment, there is no other way than increasing your level of thought. One of the ways to strengthen your mind is to conduct your lives in a way that will make a habit out of thinking before doing. Do not be hasty in your lives to make a decision.
That does not mean that all a perosn has to do is sat back and think of the outcomes of a certain action, I'm just saying that as practice makes everything perfect, to perfect this quality within a person also needs practice. Before bearing the consequences of any of your deeds you should think about its effect in the long run, so that if it was a mistake, it will not happen again.
On Shiism the sect of Love and Logic
One of the best qualities of shiism is that it combines love with logic, reason. From the Prophet (SAW), this sect has been founded upon love and logic. From the hadith, Ale was Shiatuhu Humul Faaezoon, that whosoever loves Imam Ali (AS) and is attracted to him will surely be successful.
The Sincerity of Imam Ali (AS)
If Imam Ali (AS) did not have complete belief in Allah (SWT) and wasn't a godly man, he would have surely been forgotten. In history we see great champions of time, from speech, knowledge, philosophy, battle, sature, but all of them have either been forgotten or not understood. But we see that Ali (AS) began his life after being martyred!
