How to Bridge the Generation Gap?: [(Pidar wa Farzand) A Comprehensive Dialogue About The Importance Of Religion Between A Son And Father]

How to Bridge the Generation Gap?: [(Pidar wa Farzand) A Comprehensive Dialogue About The Importance Of Religion Between A Son And Father] Author:
Translator: Sayyid Hussein Alamdar
Publisher: Ansariyan Publications – Qum
Category: Family and Child

How to Bridge the Generation Gap?: [(Pidar wa Farzand) A Comprehensive Dialogue About The Importance Of Religion Between A Son And Father]
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How to Bridge the Generation Gap?: [(Pidar wa Farzand) A Comprehensive Dialogue About The Importance Of Religion Between A Son And Father]

How to Bridge the Generation Gap?: [(Pidar wa Farzand) A Comprehensive Dialogue About The Importance Of Religion Between A Son And Father]

Author:
Publisher: Ansariyan Publications – Qum
English

www.alhassanain.org/english

How to Bridge the Generation Gap?

(Pidar wa Farzand) A Comprehensive Dialogue about the importance of Religion between a son and father

Author(s): Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Hakim

Translator(s): Sayyid Hussein Alamdar

Publisher(s): Ansariyan Publications - Qum

www.alhassanain.org/english

Miscellaneous information:

How to Bridge the Generation Gap? (Pidar wa Farzand) A Comprehensive Dialogue about the importance of Religion between a son and father Writings of Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Hakim Translated from Persian by Sayyid Hussein Alamdar Published by Ansariyan Publications Shohada Street, 22nd Alley P O Box 37185/187 Qum, Islamic Republic of Iran

Notice:

This version is published on behalf of www.alhassanain.org/english

The composing errors are not corrected.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Preface 13

The Printings of this Book 13

Topics of this Book 13

The Method used in this Book 13

The Aim 13

For What? 14

Countless Factors 14

Encouragement and Effectiveness 15

The Rich Culture 15

Why Then? 15

No Confusion 16

The Author's Expectations and Hopes 16

Notes 17

Biography of Hujjat al-Islam Wal-Muslimeen Sayyid Mohammad Taqi Hakim 19

Notes 20

An Atmosphere for Conversation 21

Hospitality and Appreciation 22

The Father 22

The Child 22

Mistakes and Apologies 23

The Father 23

The Child 23

The Most Sincere Caring 24

The Father 24

The Child 24

The Unmatchable Love 25

The Father 25

The Child 26

Note 26

A Gift of Allah 27

The Father 27

The Child 27

Notes 27

The Results of Good Behaviour 29

The Father 29

The Child 29

Note 29

The Fruits of Hard Work 30

The Father 30

The Child 30

A Good Reputation and the Family Environment 31

The Father 31

The Child 31

Notes 31

Harmony and Co-existence 32

The Father 32

The Child 32

Revenge and Forgiveness 33

The Father 33

The Child 33

Complaining and Hoping for Forgiveness 34

The Father 34

The Child 34

Sufferings and Hopes 35

The Father 35

The Child 35

The Religious Beliefs vs. Superstitions 36

The Father 36

The Child 36

Note 36

The Right Way 37

The Father 37

The Child 37

The Role of the Religion 38

The Father 38

The Child 38

Note 38

All about Religion 39

The Father 39

1. The Need for Religion 39

2. The Faith 40

3. The Complete Religion 42

4. Testimonies of Non-Muslims about Islam 42

5. Islam and Productivity 43

6. The Hidden Treasures in the East 44

The Child 46

Notes 47

The Natural and Intellectual Rights 49

The Father 49

The Child 49

Note 49

The Rights of Fathers and Mothers 50

The Father 50

The Child 51

Notes 51

The Child’s Rights 52

The Father 52

The Child 53

Notes 53

The Responsibilities of Fathers & Mothers 54

The Father 54

The Child 54

Rearing of a Child 55

The Father 55

The Child 55

Note 55

Importance of Mother's Rights 56

The Father 56

A. Motherly Affection 56

B. Mother's Influence on the Child's Character 56

The Child 58

Notes 58

The Exciting Words 59

The Father 59

The Child 61

Note 61

The Limited Obedience 62

The Father 62

The Child 62

Note 62

Forever 63

The Father 63

The Child 63

Note 63

The Eldest Brother 64

The Father 64

The Child 64

Note 64

Caring For the Family and the Mankind 65

The Father 65

The Child 65

Notes 65

The Spiritual Fathers 66

The Father 66

The Child 66

The Teacher's Rights 67

The Father 67

The Child 68

Notes 68

The Fatherly Guidance 69

The Father 69

The Child 69

A Word of Advise 70

The Father 70

The Child 70

Note 70

Words of Inspiration 71

The Father 71

The Child 77

Notes 77

A Word of Thanksgiving 78

The Father 78

The Child 78

Note 78

The Final Words 80

The Father 80

The Child 80

Introduction

The younger generations possess pure hearts and spirits which are full of sensations, emotions and enthusiasms. They are passing through the most sensitive and critical period of their lives and require guidance, support and sympathy. A young person is like a nascent sapling requiring the loving protection of sincere, experienced and wise gardener, against the diseases and accidents. The famous Persian poet Sa'di said:

A young man is like an arrow; rigid, hard and straight.

But it requires a flexible and bending bow (which is like a wise old man) for the arrow to hit the target.

The cultural maturity of a society, especially the Islamic one, is proportional to the importance to attaches towards the guidance, training, and continuous endeavours towards its younger generations. Notwithstanding, with the opinion of some people, in general training is a very difficult task, especially the training of younger generations, which is complicated and contains various delicate points. The famous German philosopher Kant has defined the training of younger generation and the government of a country as the most difficult tasks in the world.

Unfortunately, in today’s industrial societies parents, because of being surrounded by numerous mental involvements do not have the opportunity to think or ponder about the aim and days pass by speedily. Very often the days pass into nights; new day begin; and weeks and months pass by without parents finding suitable occasion to indulge into serious communications with their off springs.

Although, the problem of raising responsible, nature, conscientious, and righteous children is a serious matter that all parents are worried about; but how to deal with the younger generations and to establish a friendly, rational, and logical communications with them is an art, and naturally all of us are not skilled artists. So, the things remains within the chests of parents awaiting for an appropriate opportunity, which very often never arises or at least when it is already too late.

The author of the book: How to bridge? The Generations Gap, has provided you this God-given opportunity, so keenly desired by all the parents. The present book was first published in Persian in the year 1963, and deals with such important topics such as The Rights of Parents. The Child's Rights, The Responsibilities of Parents, The Teacher Rights, The Role and Necessity of Religious, Faith, and The Hidden Treasures of the East etc. in a simple logical manner. Then now, instead of wishing for the right opportunity and the right time, the parents may simply present book as a birth day gift to their children.

At this critical and sensitive juncture, when the enemies are determined to destroy all spiritual values of dear Islam with the empty materialistic ones; more than any other time in the past, there is a need to build the ideal monotheistic younger generations who could culturally and ideologically defend the fortress of Islam.

We, the Muslim parents have a duty to produce a generation who must believe that Allah is Great; Greater than all the power of which men might be afraid of; Greater than anybody who could dare to challenge His created laws. They must appreciate that Allah is not only the God of his race, his country and mankind; but also belongs to tiny creatures such as bees and ants.

He is the Creator of stars, sun, moon, heaven, milky ways and other galaxies. This future generation should be free from all sorts of prejudices, narrow-mindedness, nationalism, sectarianism, shortsightedness and should think about the domain of Islam for beyond the narrow limited national boundaries.

They must consider themselves like a fish in the ocean of Tawheed (Monotheism) as pro-claimed by Allamah Iqbal Lahori, fifty years ago.

The success of the Islamic movement in the near future will depend if we could bestow upon the young generations the enlightenment regarding the Principles, Beliefs, Monotheism, Day of Judgement, Prophethood, Imamat, Will of Allah, Ethics, Purification of Self, Desirable Characteristics. Forbidden Characteristics, and Social obligation etc. They should be thoroughly familiar with the discourses of the Holy Qur'an and narrations about Patience, Jihad, World and Hereafter.

They must be knowledgeable about the international political issues; identify the friends and foes; be aware about the enemy onslaughts and tactics and should know how to counteract them. We, the Muslim parents are duty bound to make the younger generation familiar with all the key issues facing the Islamic Ummah.

Simultaneously, we must do our utmost to produce, the younger generation who could orient their lives with the Holy Qur'an. They must feel the sweetness of the following verses in their own lives.

وَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ وَكِيلً

“And put thy trust in Allah for, Allah is sufficient as trustee.”(The Holy Qur’an 33:3)

بَلِ اللَّهُ مَوْلَاكُمْۖ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ النَّاصِرِينَ

“But Allah is your protection, and He is the best of Helpers.”(The Holy Qur’an 3:150)

إِنْ يَنْصُرْكُمُ اللَّهُ فَلَا غَالِبَ لَكُمْۖ وَإِنْ يَخْذُلْكُمْ فَمَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يَنْصُرُكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِهِۗ وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ

“If Allah is your helper, none can overcome you, and if He withdraw His help from you, who is there who can help you? In Allah let believers put their trust” (The Holy Qur’an 3:160)

وَمَنْ يُسْلِمْ وَجْهَهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌ فَقَدِ اسْتَمْسَكَ بِالْعُرْوَةِ الْوُثْقَىٰۗ وَإِلَى اللَّهِ عَاقِبَةُ الْأُمُورِ

“Whosoever surrender his purpose to Allah, while doing good, he verily has grasped the firm hand, unto Allah belongs the sequel of All things.”(The Holy Qur’an 31:22)

May Allah bless all the present, and coming future Muslim generations to pay heed to the wisdom of the following verses of The Holy Qur'an given by Loqman - the wise to his son;

يَا بُنَيَّ إِنَّهَا إِنْ تَكُ مِثْقَالَ حَبَّةٍ مِنْ خَرْدَلٍ فَتَكُنْ فِي صَخْرَةٍ أَوْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ أَوْ فِي الْأَرْضِ يَأْتِ بِهَا اللَّهُۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَطِيفٌ خَبِيرٌ

“O my son!” (said Loqman), If there be (but) the weight of a mustard-seed and it were (within a rock, or (anywhere) in the heavens or on earth, God will bring is forth: for God understands the finest mysteries, (and) is well-acquainted (with them).” (The Holy Qur’an 31:16)

يَا بُنَيَّ أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَانْهَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَاصْبِرْ عَلَىٰ مَا أَصَابَكَۖ إِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ

“O my son! establish regular prayer, enjoin what is just, and forbid what is wrong; and bear with patient constancy whatever betide thee; for this is firmness (of purpose) in (the conduct of) affairs.” (The Holy Qur’an 31:17)

وَلَا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ لِلنَّاسِ وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًاۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ

“And swell not they cheek (for pride) at men, nor walk in insolence through the earth; for Allah loveth not any arrogant boaster.” (The Holy Qur’an 31:18)

In this modern glittering age of science and technology in the present 20th century, together with the worldly education, if we could produce a generation, who could feel the presence of Allah in their daily lives then we as parents must thank Him for giving us the blessing of discharging our obligations successfully.

Since completion of this translation coincides with the“Week of Eight Years of Sacred Defence” in the Islamic Republic of Iran, it will be be-fitting to dedicate this translation to the martyrs of the imposed war, who scarified themselves so that the divine light of Allah's revelations remain ignited forever. The history will bear witness the heroic defence of the Islamic combatants who, with faith in Allah resisted the deadly pressures of all the arrogant powers for eight long years.

To the extent it was possible, I have tried to remain faithful to the original text but, at some places where word by word translation in English was not possible, efforts have been made to reflect the theme of main text by omitting some phrases and sentences. I wish to thank all those who have contributed to the realization of this translation, especially, Mr. Sayyid Mohammad Taqi Hakim for proof reading the Arabic text. Sincere thanks are due to Mr. Soulat Parviz for his diligence and quality work in type-setting.

I convey sincere gratitude to Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, the learned scholar jurisprudent from the Religious Learning Center of Qom, and Mr. Ansaryan for their valuable suggestions, guidance, and encouragement. Finally, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank my friends for editing, proof reading, and making helpful suggestions; and who out of modesty prefer to remain discreetly in the background.

Elucidatory footnotes added by the translator are identified with (Tr.): all other footnotes are by Mr. Hakim himself: For any errors of commission, I take responsibility.

Sayyid Hussein Alamdar

September 27, 1994

Rabi-attani 20, 1415

Tehran

Preface

The Printings of this Book

This book was first printed on the 10th day of Bahman, 1342 (January 30, 1964). In response to overwhelming requests for the book by the public, the second printing soon got underway. In addition to revealing many important truths to fathers and children, the book was also revised and republished in Mordad of 1343 (August 1964). Minor revisions were made in the third and fourth editions. The present work, the ninth edition, is being published by the Daftar-e-Nashr-e Farhang-e-Islami, Tehran.

Topics of this Book

The topics presented in this book are a series of discussions on responsibilities of fathers and mothers towards their children and vice versa. During these discussions, the parent's sincerity and love for their children as well as their mutual hopes and expectations are portrayed. There is no doubt that such topics are very important. Not only are they not to be ignored, but should be considered as top priorities by the caring head of every family.

The fact that youth are caught between the new and old schools of thought (the so called generation gap) on the one hand, and that parents are helplessly confronted with their children's new ways of thinking on the other, are not matters to be dealt with lightly. Both generations are troubled by these perplexities and thus ways and means by which to find an equitable solution are greatly needed. Towards fulfilling this important task, the present work attempts to point out the mutual compatibilities that do exist.

The Method used in this Book

The subjects discussed in this book are brought out through a series of dialogues. The fictitious characters of father and child carry on conversations in such a frank and lively fashion that they will undoubtedly touch the hearts of everyone. Current events and everyday situations have been taken under consideration in this book as much as possible. In each instance, the father and his child are engaged in truly frank heart-to-heart discussion and exchange their thoughts quite freely.exchange their thoughts quite freely.

The Aim

The author's aim, through the writing of this book, is to help parents and their children enjoy the best of relationships, which is also in accordance with the divine guidance of Islam. This relationship would be free of unpleasant encounters, there would be a recognition and respect of mutual rights, and above all, there would be mutual love and fulfillment of divine responsibilities. The author's aim, through the writing of this book, is to help parents and their children enjoy the best of relationships, which is also in accordance with the divine guidance of Islam. This relationship would be free of unpleasant encounters, there would be a recognition and respect of mutual rights, and above all, there would be mutual love and fulfillment of divine responsibilities.

For What?

Generally speaking, where do differences originate? Why are relations sometimes strained between parent and child? Why should each has his own separate ways unconcerned with the other's feelings? And finally, if one of them is following a righteous straight path, why not the other one joins him? Is such a mistrust brought about because of influence of the poisonous thoughts? Or is the environment to be blamed?

How about the differences of opinion and differences between the old and new ideas due to misunderstandings by the former? Finally, what has created such a wide Generation Gap? The answer is probably that any one of more of the above causes could be responsible for child deviation and friction with his father. But, in any case our job here is first to identify the cause and then to offer the remedy leading to a better understanding between them.

Countless Factors

On the subject matter of the responsibilities of fathers and children towards each other, child rearing. Guidance in case of deviations, and the remedy of the differences of opinion between them, the topics are countless. Considering different parameters, we may expand the dimensions of our discussion and may enlarge the scope of research, especially in the present circumstances when the sun of Islam is slowly rising upon the horizon. In the same manner that his shining glory brightened the land of the Arabian Peninsula, and later spread to all distant corners of the earth, its glistening rays have engulfed our country.

The signs of blasphemy are being rid of one after another. The Islamic culture has come once again, out of the closet1 and is being accepted heartily by masses of the people. The suppressed and the underdog, as well as the oppressed and the poor, have found a new hope for the vindication of their natural rights. In such an environment, in addition to religious and moral questions, we are confronted with political and social ones, each of which is worthy of research and deliberation.

Thank Allah that the policies and the course of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran are becoming progressively clearer and the clouds of doubt are vanishing from them. However this does not mean that we should no longer investigate and research any problem to which we may encounter. Of course, a detailed comprehensive discussion regarding all the problems is out of the scope of such a brief book. Here, I have tried to address some of the problems to the extent it was possible to do so. Thank Allah that the policies and the course of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran are becoming progressively clearer and the clouds of doubt are vanishing from them. However this does not mean that we should no longer investigate and research any problem to which we may encounter. Of course, a detailed comprehensive discussion regarding all the problems is out of the scope of such a brief book. Here, I have tried to address some of the problems to the extent it was possible to do so.

Encouragement and Effectiveness

As soon as this book was published and reached in the hands of its readers, many of them conveyed their thanks to the author through their encouraging letters. More than anything else, the clarity and simplicity of the subjects implied in this book were appreciated. And as far as I know, these small efforts have not been ineffective as there are individuals who have been guided by them. And therewith, many fathers and children have replaced hard feelings and disagreements with peace and reconciliation between themselves, returning to a pleasant normal life.

Such is the story of one of the brothers in Islam who came one day to my house with his old father. He then explained about their difficulties and the fact that reading the book“How to bridge The Generation Gap?” has awakened him to this mistake and that he had expressed his apologies to his father and asked for forgiveness and reconciliation from him. has awakened him to this mistake and that he had expressed his apologies to his father and asked for forgiveness and reconciliation from him.

The Rich Culture

The Islamic Culture from the standpoints of social, ethical, daily family affairs, and human relations is a very rich one. Also, it has contributed significantly for enrichment of other cultures in the world. Besides the Glorious Holy Qur'an,1 such masterpieces as Nahjul-Balaghah,2 Al-Sahifah Al-Sajjadiyyah,3 and other authentic narrations Haddiths have for long offered us assistance and guidance in finding ways to an ideal society.

In fact, they act as if they have silent, but existing, teachers hidden between every other line throughout their pages. You shall notice a few samples in the following pages. They are all written in the Arabic language. It is with regret that not all of us are familiar with Arabic to be able to take advantage of these vast Islamic treasures. One cannot help but wonder why, in spite of all these, we are still seeking help from non-Islamic sources.

Of course, some authors have already translated some of these works and have offered them to the public. I am hoping that those of our learned and knowledgeable authors who have mastered the Arabic language, and who I am certain are well versed in these excellent culture sources; will fulfill their responsibilities to Islam through translating them not only into Persian but also into other languages. By doing so they may discharge their due obligations towards dear Islam and its ideal rich culture. Of course, some authors have already translated some of these works and have offered them to the public. I am hoping that those of our learned and knowledgeable authors who have mastered the Arabic language, and who I am certain are well versed in these excellent culture sources; will fulfill their responsibilities to Islam through translating them not only into Persian but also into other languages. By doing so they may discharge their due obligations towards dear Islam and its ideal rich culture.

Why Then?

Some of our readers may complain that why, in spite of such a rich Islamic Culture and able Muslim writers, we are relying on foreign sources. In response, I have to mention that unfortunately, due to the extensive Western propaganda in the past, they have created a sort of Westoxicated mentality, especially among our youth. This has made them strongly attracted towards the Western literary works.

Therefore, it was in this background that references were made to the quotations of some famous Western writers to attract the attention of the West-toxicated youths. Also to bring to their attention that the learned Western scholars have already acknowledged the greatness of the work done by the Islamic authors and have bowed their heads in front of the excellence of the rich Islamic culture.

However, thanks to Almighty Allah that, with the victory of Islamic Revolution, now the Muslim youth have gone through a deep internal intellectual revolution of their own throughout the world. A strong faith in the teachings of Islam is apparent in them. And in short, they have fallen in love with the Islamic Culture. However, thanks to Almighty Allah that, with the victory of Islamic Revolution, now the Muslim youth have gone through a deep internal intellectual revolution of their own throughout the world. A strong faith in the teachings of Islam is apparent in them. And in short, they have fallen in love with the Islamic Culture.

No Confusion

If at times, in order to prove a point of truth, we rely on someone's words, it does not necessarily mean that we always approve of all his words or deeds. We sometimes even quote our enemies. For instance, they say that Muawiyyah had said the following about Imam ‘Ali (a.s):

لوملك بيتا من تبروبيتا من تبن لا نفد تبره قبل تبنه

“If ‘Ali had two houses, one filled with gold and the other with straw, he would donate in the way of Allah, the former the later.” 4

Also, they say that Marwan has said the following about Imam Hassan (a.s):

يوازن حلمه الجبال

“Imam Hassan's clemency equates mountains.” 5

The Author's Expectations and Hopes

The author expects all the fathers and the children who wish to solve their problems and misunderstandings by reading this book to do so thoroughly and in an unbiased manner. And the, for the final decision, rely on their own intuitional judgement.

I hope and pray that through the blessings of the concealed facts beneath the words in this book and of the spirit of its sentences, and of the heart of its subject matters; each and every one of the readers will find the truth leading him?

Her to experience an internal spiritual revolution. May then, they be able to identify their wrongdoings they may have committed by depriving a person of his or her rights. And thereby, to offer their apologies and to make up for their past ill deeds. And, in case of they have been conducting themselves in a pleasing way, to keep up the good work.

I ask Allah to grant all fathers, mothers and their children sincerity, health and happiness.

Sayyid Mohammad Taqi Hakim

15th Rabiul Thani 1403

10th Bahman 1361

30th January 1982

Notes

1. Very recently, Radio Moscow (Russia) broadcasted a programme Face of Islam, announcing that the words of the Holy Qur'an are the words of an ever-living God for all the places and for all the times, and are not limited to the period of the prophet Mohammad (p.b. u. h.). Moscow is the capital of former USSR, where they waged war against God for last seventy years. Also, most recently in Holland a Muslim soldier in a ceremony for taking the Oath of Allegiance, refused to be sworn in the name of the Queen of Holland. He was able to get exceptional constitutional permission to take his oath in the name of Allah (Key han sept 26 1994)

2. Nahjul-Balagah: The Path of Eloquence is a book containing sermon, letters, orders and some of the sayings of the Commander of the Faithful Imam ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s) as compiled by Syed Razi. These sermons and preaching of Imam ‘Ali (as) were so highly valued and venerated in the Islamic world that within a century of his death they were taught and read as the last word on the philosophy of Monotheism, as the best lectures of character building, as exalted sources of inspiration, as persuasive sermons towards piety and as guiding beacons towards truth and justice. They present the marvellous eulogies of the Holy Prophet (S) and the Holy Qur'an. These sermons are the most convincing discourse on the spiritual values of Islam, and contain the most awe inspiring discussions about the attributes of Allah.

The Commander of the Faithful ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) was the first perfect exemplar of the teachings of the Most Noble Messenger (S.) 'Ali was raised by him from early childhood and followed him like a shadow until the very end of the latter's life. He was like a moth before the prophetic flame; the final moment when he was separated from the Most Noble Messenger (S.) was when he embraced his corpse and laid it to rest.

'‘Ali (as) was the first person after the Most Noble Messenger (S.) to approach spiritual realities in the manner of philosophical reflection, that is, by free exercise of reason. He used many technical terms and laid out and organized the rules of Arabic grammar in order to protect the Holy Qur'an from copyists’' error. The exact scholarship, spiritual culture, and consideration of ethical, social, political, and even mathematical Problems shown in ‘Ali's (as) discourses, letters, and other documents that have reached us are astonishing.

The wealth of these documents makes ‘Ali (as) the best known individual among Muslims to have a full realization of the sublime goals of the Holy Qur'an and the critical and practical concepts of Islam as they should be realized. They testify to the soundness of the Prophetic saying, I am the city of knowledge, and ‘Ali is its gate.

انَا مَدِينةٌ العِلم, و علَيٌّ بَابُهِا

Furthermore, he combined this knowledge with action. In short, Ali's outstanding character is beyond description, and is virtues are innumerable. Never in history has someone's character drawn the attention of the world's scholars and thinkers to such an extent.

3. Al Sahifah Al-Sajjadiyyah: includes certain supplications quoted from Imam Zain al-Abidin Ali b. Husain b. Ali ibn Abi Talib. (as) He is one of the Imams belonging to the household of the Prophet whom Allah has kept pure and free of defilement. The Imam was the fourth in line of the Imams of the Prophet's household. Imam Ali ibn Al-Husain (as), was born in the year 38 A.H or, perhaps as is conjucted, a little before that and lived for a period of 57 years.

Imam al-Shafi considered Imam “Ali ibn al-Husain (as) as the most supreme jurist of all the people of Medina” Abd al-Malik bin Marwan said to him, “In the area of religious sciences, in devotion and piety, you have been granted that which no one before you has had other than your ancestors”. Further Umar bin Abd al-Aziz said, The light of this life, the beauty of Islam is Zain al-Abidin” Al-Sahifah al-Sajjadiyyah represents and stands out as a profound social work of the time and a reflection of a supreme endeavor to meet the exigencies of spiritual ordeals facing the society at the time of the Imam. But beyond this it is a profound collection of supplications in the divine tradition, a unique compilation which will remain throughout the ages as a gift to mankind, a work of moral inspiration for worldly conduct and a torch of guidance. Human beings will constantly remain in need of this heavenly souvenir; and the need increases whenever Satan comes to increase the allurements of the world for people and by its fascination to keep them in bondage.

4. Nahjul Balagah ibn Abi Al-Hadith Vol. 1.p.22

5. Maqatul-Altalibeen p.49.

QOM; GEOGRAPHICALLY AND HISTORICALLY

There is no an accurate dating about the establishment of this city nor a certain reason behind its name. There are some historians confirming that its history belongs to the pre-Islamic conquest period relying on some historical manuscripts, which show clearly that the city has been available during the age of Anushirvan, the Persian king.[1] It (Qom) has been mentioned during the Islamic conquests when talking about the battle of Jalawla’ against Khosrow, the last king of the Sasanian dynasty, where Hijr bin Adiy was one of the leaders of the Islamic armies at that day.

Hence the history of the city belongs to the period before the year twenty-third A.H. (the year of (al-Fat~h-the Conquest) for a long time.

Many stories have been said about the name of the city each trying to give an explanation about it. Some have said that its name was “Kumondan”[2] and then some of its letters have been dropped and others have said that the original name was “Kam” meaning “little” that it was a small village and then it was Arabized into “Qom” after the Islamic conquests.[3]

But the name of the city began to shine on the Islamic map after it had been occupied by the Ash’arites[4] in ninety-four A.H. They had tried their best to build the city. It grew and became one of the important cities in Persia after its people had believed in Ahlul Bayt[5] (s) and after it had become independent of Isfahan[6] in 189 A.H.

The fate had willed that the city was to be one of the sacred cities after its ground had embraced the pure body of Fatima, the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kadhim[7] (s) in 201 A.H. Hence it could be said that since that date the city of Qom had begun to ascend the stairs of glory to be at the head of the Islamic capitals.

The city has paid the price of its allegiance and love to Ahlul Bayt (s) so expensively along all the ages. The Abbasid policy has followed a degrading means by imposing very heavy taxes.

In spite of that there was a kind of political ease towards Ahlul Bayt (s) during the reign of al-Ma’moon.[8] History has recorded that a revolution has broken out in Qom in 210 A.H. because of the heaviness of taxes but the revolution has been suppressed severely, the walls of the city have been destroyed and the taxes have been increased three and a half times.[9]

Some books of history mentions stories, which are like fables, about the name of the city. One of them says that the Prophet (s), during his ascension to the Heaven, has seen a place on the earth, which was more beautiful than the color of saffron and with a fragrance better than the fragrance of musk, and has seen an old man putting a long cap on his head. The Prophet (s) asked Gabriel and Gabriel said: “This is the place of your Shia and your guardian’s Shia and this old man is Iblis. He invites people to disbelieve.” The Prophet (s) asked Gabriel to swoop down and Gabriel swooped down faster than lightening. The Prophet (s) shouted at Iblis: “Get up (qom)[10] O you cursed!” Then the city was called as “Qom”!

In spite of the vicissitudes of time, the city has withstood throughout the ages of history and has remained as a capital of knowledge and intellect and as a refuge for the wronged and subdued people of the Prophet’s progeny. This is why there are many shrines of the Hashemites[11] in this great city.

Qom in traditions

Much praise has been mentioned in traditions related to Imam as-Sadiq[12] (s). He said:

“Above Qom there is an angel flapping his two wings. No arrogant intends to offend it (Qom), unless Allah will make him melt away like salt being melted in water.”[13]

He also said:

“If you are afflicted with distress and suffering, you are to resort to Qom because it is the refuge of the Fatimites[14] and the resort of the believers.”[15]

Imam Musa al-Kadhim (s) said:

“Qom is the shelter of Muhammad’s progeny and the resort of their Shia.”[16]

He also said in another tradition, which was as an astonishing prediction:

“There will be a man from Qom, who will invite people to the truth and great masses of people will join him. They will not be shaken by the most violent storms.”[17]

This tradition has become real after the Islamic revolution under the leadership of Imam Khomeini (may Allah be pleased with him).

There is another tradition of Imam as-Sadiq (s) deserving to be pondered on. Imam as-Sadiq (s) said:

“The ground of Qom is sacred. Its people are from us and we are from them. No arrogant tries to offend them, unless his punishment will be hastened to him as long as they do not betray their brothers. If they do that, then Allah will subject them to the offenses of the arrogants.”[18]

There is another tradition related to Imam as-Sadiq (s) talking about Fatima al-Ma’ssooma (s).

He said:

“We have a sanctum. It is the village of Qom, in which a woman from my progeny will be buried. Her name will be Fatima.”[19]

Biography of Fatima al-Ma’ssooma

Fatima al-Ma’ssooma (s) was born in Thil Qa’da,[20] 173 A.H. She was six years old when her father Imam al-Kadhim (s) was put in prison in 179 A.H.[21]

She had several surnames but she was known as “al-Ma’ssooma”. It not known exactly why she has been surnamed as al-Ma’ssooma but there might be some reasons behind that.

The girl was pure and infallible besides that she was a daughter of the seventh imam of the infallible house of the Prophet (s), a sister of an infallible imam (Imam ar-Redha[22] (s)) and an aunt of an infallible imam (Imam al-Jawad[23] (s)).

We could add another reason that she had died oppressedly far from her nation while she was still a famous than her name.

In 201 A.H. Fatima al-Ma’ssooma[24] (s) decided, with some of her brothers, to travel to Marw,[25] which was then the capital of the Islamic state after the end of the war between the two Abbasid brothers, al-Ameen and al-Ma’moon, who won the war and killed his brother.

Al-Ma’moon, after becoming the caliph, took a decision, whose motives have been still disputable until now, to make, apparently, reconciliation between the Alawite[26] house and the Abbasid house and to put an end to the distresses of Ahlul Bayt (s). Many people doubted the intents of al-Ma’moon when he appointed Imam ar-Redha (s) as his crown prince. They had convincing justifications about doubting the real intents and aims of al-Ma’moon towards the progeny of Ali (s).

It was very probable that the travel of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) with her brothers, which was in tow separate caravans; one followed the way of Basra to Shiraz and then to Marw and the other followed the way of Hamadan-Sawa[27] and then to Marw, was to confirm the situation of Imam ar-Redha (s), whom al-Ma’moon had begun to confine. What confirmed these doubts that the two caravans did not reached Marw. The first one stopped at Shiraz and its people separated here and there after a clash with government forces and the other stopped at Sawa. Some historical sources mentioned that the second caravan had been attacked too and that Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) felt that she was about to die after she had felt too weak and this made her ask about the city of Qom. It was said to her that Qom was about eighty kilometers and so she asked to be taken there.

Whether her sickness was because of poison, which had been inserted into her food, or because of the great tiredness and sufferings that she had faced, she died after seventeen days only after arriving at Qom. She was as a guest of Musa bin[28] Khazraj until she died after some days to be buried in a land called Babulan belonging to this man.

After a period of time, this land became a great graveyard containing bodies of thousands of narrators, speechers, leaders and rulers. This peace of land became the central part of the city, which began to grow rapidly.

The Holy Shrine

The shrine (of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma) was at first as a shed of straw mat erected according to the order of Musa bin Khazraj al-Ash’ari to be now as a high gold dome, around which high minarets rising towards the Heaven.

Through twelve centuries the shrine has been rebuilt many times.

The first dome, after that straw mat shed, has been built after half a century by the order of Zaynab, the daughter of Imam al-Jawad (s) in the middle of the third century of hijra. It has been built with adobe, stone and plaster.

Then two other domes have been built after some Alawite ladies have been buried (in the same shrine). The three domes remained until the middle of the fifth century of hijra when the first high dome has been built to replace those three domes. It has been built by the vizier of Tugril the Great[29] after encouragement by Sheikh at-Toossi. This dome has been decorated with colored figures, bricks and tiles (kashi).

In 925 A.H. the roof of the dome has been decorated with mosaic according to the order of Lady Beigam, the daughter of Shah Issma’eel as-Safawi (the Safavid). Also a hall and two minarets have been built in the old yard.

Finally, Fathali (Fat~h Ali) Shah al-Qajari[30] has ordered to decorate the roof of the dome with gold plates to remain shining for two centuries.

After some damage had happen to some of the gold plates, the office of the custodian of the shrine decided to rebuild the dome. The old gold plates have been collected to be replaced with others in a great project,

whose cost might be twenty-five milliard Iranian rials (one dollar equals eight thousand rials).

In general the shrine is a structure with wonderful signs of Islamic architecture. It has been adorned with marvelous figures.

The total area of the shrine is about fourteen thousand square meters including the haram, the porches, the halls, the three yards,[31] the tombs of the kings and the two mosques; at-Tabataba’iy and Balasar (over the head). Lately the Great Mosque has been added to the shrine. The area of the Great Mosque alone is about twenty-five thousand square meters.

When a visitor arrives at the outskirts of the city, he will see two minarets shining distantly.

The dome leans over a silver tomb crowned with gold. The tomb is four meters high, five meters and twenty-five centimeters long and four meters and seventy-three centimeters wide.

The northern hall is fourteen meters and eighty centimeters high, eight meters and seventy centimeters wide and nine meters long. It is adorned with gold from inside and its figures are demarcated with gold too. Upon this hall the two minarets go high in the space until thirty-two meters and twenty centimeters from the ground. The diameter of each minaret is one hundred and fifty centimeters. This hall is called “the hall of gold” and its gate is called “the gate of gold”.

In the eastern side there is a hall decorated with hundreds of mirrors where lights reflect to make it more beautiful and wonderful. This hall adjoins with the haram by a porch, which is seven meters and eighty centimeters high, seven meters and eighty-seven centimeters wide and nine meters long. The porch stands on four stone pillars. Each of them is eleven meters high.

There are two minarets on this hall. Each of them is twenty-eight meters high from the roof of the hall. It is written on the top of them in one meter width “la hawla wela quwatta illa billah: there is no power save in Allah” and on the other one “subhanallah, wel hamdu lillah, wela ilaha illallah, wellahu akbar: glory be to Allah, praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah and Allah is Great”.

The visitors feel a state of spirituality and happiness under the shadows of the shrine and in the new yard where several minarets extend high towards the Heaven and lights reflect in the hall, which is decorated with hundreds of mirrors besides the flying flocks of doves, which have taken this holy shrine as warm nests while the fountains dance in a glittering pool.

In the past the visitors and tourists could come into a museum from the yard of the shrine directly but now this way is closed and the museum has a gate outside the shrine in the Moozeh (museum) street.

The museum, which consists of two floors, contains a good group of gifts and valuable things that have been gifted to the holy shrine throughout its long history.

Surely whoever visits the museum feels eager to see al-Faydiyya school beside it, which is one of the most famous religious schools and hawzas.[32] This school, according to certified facts, has replaced al-Aastana school. It is connected with the haram by a hall in the old yard.

A tourist’s attention may be drawn by the masses of the passer-bys between the small park adjacent to the street and between the school, the museum and the markets. He may think to take his way to the bazaar!

A tourist will feel that he enters a museum showing him different kinds of arts of architecture and different handworked goods in this ancient bazaar.

A tourist may ask, in the other side of the bazaar, about “Baytun noor: the house of light”, which is one of the important marks in the city that has become a school called as-Satiyya, where Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) had lived as a guest for seventeen days before she left to the better world.

Qom; Country and People

Qom is the smallest governorate in Iran. Previously it was as a district belonging to the governorate of Arak and then it was attached to Tehran until it was certificated to be as independent governorate.

Its population was not more than one hundred and fifty thousand in 1957 A.D. In 1979, when the Islamic revolution triumphed, the population of the city was about three hundred thousand.

The city has progressed so much and has gotten much attention from the government after the years of deliberate neglect during the reign of Shah. After the triumph of the Islamic revolution, the city began to grow rapidly until its population became more than one million besides the many foreign students coming from the different continents of the world. They have come to study in Qom and then they got married and make families or they have brought their families with them. There are also many Afghan emigrants, who are more than half a million besides some thousands of Iraqi emigrants.

The city has flourished and prospered in every side especially that there is cheap employment because of the great numbers of the emigrant Afghans.

The cultural life has become too prosperous because of the availability of learned Arabs, among whom the Iraqis form a great proportion.

As for the texture of the local population of the governorate, we can say that only nine percent live in the countryside whereas ninety percent live in the city.

Nearly half a century ago the farms and gardens covered most parts of Qom and then they began to abate little by little before the expansion of building.

Some people, who have lived in the city about fifty years ago or those who have been born in the city, refer to some main streets of the city and say that they were as gardens full of pomegranate and fig trees.

Some famous quarters in the city are still having names that refer to their rural origins.[33]

Nevertheless Qom was and is still as a district having a desert and semi-desert climate.

There are some certain areas having cold mountainous climate and others having moderate climate but the general climate of this governorate is the semi-desert climate.

At the shores of the “Lake of Salt” there is a long line of desert having many dunes. After that and towards the north and the west-north there are wide wild lands, in the western side of which Qom is. As for the moderate areas, they form the western line and have an area four times more than the area of the desert line. There is a small area having a cold mountainous climate around Mountain Ghaleek, which is 3171 meters high.

The western line has an important role in the life of the governorate because it has fertile agricultural lands and many water sources.

From among fourteen rivers flowing in the land of the governorate there are only two permanent rivers; one is “Qara Chai”, which flows from the mountains of “Shazand” in Arak to the west of Qom and the other is “Qamrood”, which flows from the mountains of “Khawansar” in the south.

The rate of raining in the governorate is about 138 millimeter. It is very little rate in comparison with the general rate of rain in Iran, which is about 255 millimeter.

Once Sayyid Muhsin al-Ameen al-Aamily has passed by this city and written down his notes about it in his Iraqi-Iranian travel in 1353 A. H., 1933 A/D.

Here are some lines of his notes:

“A flood has come and covered all the streets (of Qom) so we were obliged to walk away from the places being covered by the flood. We couldn’t reach Qom at that day. We spent the night some kilometers before Qom in a café near a village there. In the café there was an official having a high position in the army. He began to smoke opium with the keepers of the café. In the morning we set out towards Qom. We found that the flood had covered the way. We could not pass the bridge near Qom by the car so we passed it on foot.”

The Village of Qom

Qom is a flourishing village with an ancient history. Particular histories have been written about it. Most of its people are poor. They are famous of their Shiism since the ages of the infallible imams (s) like the people of Kufa.[34]

Most narrators (of traditions) of the Shia were from these two cities (Qom and Kufa). The Arab Ash’arites had come to live in Qom after the advent of Islam. They were followers of Ahlul Bayt (s) and from among the narrators of their (Ahlul Bayt’s) traditions. The people of Qom nowadays are well-known for their piety.

In Qom there was a big river, on which there was an arch, flowing from the west to the east in the north part of the city.

Most buildings of the city were made of adobe and some were made of brick.

The water of the city was and is somehow salty but it is said that it is useful. There are many old wells, to which it is come down by ladders. They are too deep. They were the source of drinking water.

Mosquitoes spread in the city in big numbers. The prices were satisfactory. Eggplants were sold singly. One hundred eggplants equaled one kiran (five Syrian piasters) in comparison with the Ottoman lira, which equals five hundred and fifty Syrian liras. Pistachio is much cultivated in the governorate.

One of the wonders of this governorate is that there is a sandy land near it, which no one can walk in. Whoever enters this land will sink as if he sinks in water and mud and he cannot save himself from that.

The river of the city flows until it reaches this sandy land to sink in it.

In Qom there is a high minaret. It is said that it has been erected during the reign of Umar bin Abdul Aziz, the Umayyad caliph.

Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Yazdi

He was the jurisprudent and teacher of Qom. He taught Sayyid Muhammad al-Isfahani. He was so prudent and strong-minded with great knowledge, high morals and deep thinking. We could not say that his knowledge was more than his mind or his mind was more than his knowledge because he was so skilled in both.

He lived in Sultanabad and then he moved to live in Qom, in which he established a religious school, until he died.

Everyday the postman came to the sheikh with a parcel of books and letters. The sheikh had a clerk, who used to receive the parcel. If there was something not so important, the clerk himself would answer it and bring it to the sheikh in order to sign it but if there was something important, the sheikh himself would reply to it.

In his meeting many scientific deliberations were held. I often attended them. They all were in Persian.

He had a disease in his stomach so he was confined to certain kinds of food and in certain times according to the doctors’ recommendations.

Because he was so prudent, he used not to take the monies that came to him (as religious rights) but he let them with a merchant and asked him to spend them in paying the students’ salaries and he himself took a salary from the merchant. By such he lived in ease and let none criticize him. The poor are always at his door. He either gave them from his own money or asked his companions to give them what they needed.

Al-Mutawally Bashi

From among the notables of Qom was al-Mutawally Bashi (the responsible) of the holy shrine of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s), whose name was Sayyid Muhammad Baqir bin Sayyid Hasan al-Husayni al-Aamily al-

Qommi. He was a lofty Hashemite man from Mountain Aamil in Lebanon. Once he went to perform hajj and we met him in Damascus.

When we came to Qom, we were told that he had been cripple. We visited him in his house. One day his son Sayyid Misbah visited us in our house. Now he undertakes the affairs of the shrine instead of his father.

The School of Qom

Sheikh Abdul Kareem (mentioned above) had established the (religious) school of Qom. It was said to us that the school had about nine hundred students. Sheikh Abdul Kareem paid the most of the students’ expenses. He had appointed to them a special doctor. Every six months and at the end of every year, Sheikh Abdul Kareem made a test for his students.

A delegate from the government attended this test to exempt the students from joining the military service. Sheikh Abdul Kareem often complained and said:

“We educate a student until he ripens and then he puts off the turban and the dress of the ulama to put on the dress of the people of rule to work in of the offices.”

Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani

In Qom there was a man from Tehran called Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani. He was one of the best students in the school of Sheikh Abdul Kareem. He was virtuous, prudent, with high morals, altruistic, sincere and kind. He often visited us, stayed with us and achieved our needs and affairs.

The flood in Qom

The flood-as we mentioned before-had occurred in Qom three days before we arrived. It had destroyed about three hundred houses in the new quarter because all the houses were built of adobe but no one was killed and no wealth was lost because usually the flood came to the city from a distant place and so the people had enough time to prepare their affairs.

A telegram had reached warning them of the flood. They got their furniture and animals out of the houses and they also got out of the houses, which were liable to fall down. When the flood came, the houses were empty; therefore no loss was among people, their cattle and furniture.

The Safavids had built a dam some distance away to prevent floods but it had been destroyed by time.

At the same time the news came saying that a flood had occurred in Tabriz and destroyed many houses there.

Ma’ssooma Qom

In Qom there is the holy shrine of Fatima, the sister of Imam ar-Redha (s). The Iranians call her Ma’ssooma (of) Qom. The shrine is so great and is visited by people from everywhere in the world. The shrine has its own officials and caretakers.

Inside the shrine, Mirza Ali Asghar Khan has been buried. He has been killed by the people of the (mashroota: constitutional movement). He was the vizier of Nasiruddeen Shah and the vizier of his son after him.

Tombs of the Ulama and Narrators in Qom

In Qom there is a graveyard called the graveyard of “Sheikhoon”, which means the sheikhs. Sheikhoon is the plural form of Sheikh in Persian. In fact it is sheikhan because the mark of plurality in Persian is by adding “AN” at the end of a word but when speaking the Iranians often change the “AN” into “O(O)N”.

In this graveyard there are many tombs of great narrators (of traditions) like Zakariyya bin Adam and some of bani[35] Babwayh and tombs of famous ulama like al-Mirza al-Qommi. These tombs are about to be obliterated because the government[36] has made streets in the graveyard without paying any attention to the tombs. In fact the government has intended to remove the graveyard totally.

Our Relatives in Qom

Sayyid Hasan bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Ameen, who was the brother of our grandfather Sayyid Ali bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Ameen, has traveled to Iraq to study (religious knowledges) with his brother Sayyid Husayn. His brother has stayed in Najaf and got a high position in knowledge but he himself has traveled to Qom and stayed there.

He had a progeny in Qom but they became extinct. One of his daughters had got married to a sayyid[37] from the sayyids of Qom and had offspring from him. Two virtuous sayyids, who are two brothers, of her progeny have still been living in Qom till now. Each of them is an imam of a mosque.

One of them has told us about the coming of our grandfather’s brother to Iran and his living in Qom in a wonderful story.

Our Works in Qom

We found in Qom “Thayl as-Sulafa”, from which we quoted necessary things in our book “A’yan ash-Shia”.

We kept on looking in the libraries for the books that we might make use of in writing our book mentioned above. We found a volume of “al-Majmoo’ ar-Ra’iq” and quoted some things from it. Also we found some other books that we do not remember their titles now.

We were told that in Isfahan there was a copy of “Riyadhul Ulama’” for sale. We asked Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani about this and he confirmed the news and said:

“The keepers of the book want sixty tomans but we can buy it with less than this price.”

Sixty tomans equaled thirty Syrian liras or nearly five and a half Ottoman gold liras at that time.

We asked him to send a telegram to the keepers of the book. He said:

“The telegram will make them insist on the price. We send them a letter.”

Then he was told that the book had been bought by Hajji Agha Husayn at-Tehrani, the king of the merchants, with one hundred and twenty tomans, which was as twice as the previous price they wanted for the book.

We kept on looking for another copy. We found two volumes; the second and the third. We bought them with expensive price. The first and the fourth volumes of the book were lost. We could not find the fifth volume but we found a copy of it with somebody. We hired someone to copy it by hand and we gave him his wage. He said that it would be completed after our return from Khurasan. He corrected it and sent it to us in Tehran.

After buying the second and the third volumes and hiring somebody to copy the fourth volume, another volume, which was a manuscript written by the author himself, was offered to us. The keeper of this volume was a woman. She wanted thirty Ottoman liras for it. We would have bought it if she had deducted the price a little but she hadn’t. We could not buy it with this expensive price.

We stayed at Qom for about fifteen days and in the last of Safar,[38] 1353 A.H. we set out towards Tehran.

The Salty Lake

On the right side of the way between Qom and Tehran there was a salty lake, which was called in Iran as “Daryatcha Namak”.

It would be useful to mention here what the Egyptian writer and journalist Professor Fahmi Huwaydi had written about Qom through his visit to the city in 1983 A/D. nearly half a century after the visit of Sayyid Muhsin al-Ameen al-Aamily.

Professor Fahmi Huwaydi says:

“Qom remains as the key and the lock in Iran after the Islamic revolution.”

We often read longingly the reportages written by Professor Fahmi Huwaydi, which took the Arab readers to far horizons, especially when they (the reportages) were accompanied with the camera of the photographer Oscar Mitry. His writings had a great historical and scientific value.

Let us read what the professor and journalist has said about Qom:

Shahr-e-Muqaddas: The Other Face

[39]

With the sunshine of the next day we were at the gates of Qom. We moved on the wide and well-paved way, whose building started at the reign of the Shah to be completed at the age of the Revolution as the fate willed! We passed by wide wild land. We passed by the Lake of Salt, in which the men of SAVAK[40] used to throw whomever they wanted to get rid of to be swallowed by the lake and then to be dissolved by the salty water. We stopped at one of twelve checkpoints established recently to control coming and going. A bearded young man from the guards of the revolution with a machine gun on his shoulder gazed at us. His eyes stopped at me. The driver said to him: “He is a foreign Muslim”. He smiled and murmured: “Ya Allah!” he turned to check the bag of the car to be sure that there was no weapon or any kind of bombs or any forbidden thing else. Then he permitted us to move.

After two hundred meters we stopped at another checkpoint. The same procedures were done and then we entered Qom. The first thing we faced was a big signboard, on which it was written:

“Until the appearance of al-Mahdi our revolution will still be continuous.”

After some minutes, my host, whom I met for the first time, was leading me welcomingly to a rectangular hall, whose walls were hidden behind the shelves of the books and whose floor was covered with a modest rag whereas cushions and pads were here and there. No seat there was in the hall. We sat squatting on the ground and we were acquainted with each other so quickly. He said to me in good Arabic:

“Take your ease as if you are at your home or try here the life of the weak.”

Then he recommended his younger brother, who was one of the intelligent young students of the hawza, to take care of me and then he left to do his affairs. I did not see him during that week that I spent in his house-residing in that room-except two times only.

This was not my first visit to Qom although it was my first residence in it. I had come to Qom for the first time with Professor Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, the famous writer and journalist, who had visited Iran in 1980 when he was trying to write his book about the Islamic revolution in Iran, which was published later on under the title of “The guns of Aayatullah”. At that time Imam Khomeini was still in Qom. Professor Haykal went to meet Imam Khomeini in Qom where I accompanied him and then we went back to Tehran in the evening of the same day.

We saw the Leader of the Revolution where his house was surrounded by a sea of people, who had come from every spot in Iran to announce their allegiance to him. We did not see anything in Qom save the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma with its gold dome shining in the sky of the city and with its wonderful building, which seized the sights of the visitors and which no eye would miss even if the visitor was-like us-just a passerby in his car towards the abode of the Imam.

At first sight, Qom takes you some centuries backward in the past when the Islamic world was full of centers of knowledge and science from Bukhara and Samarqand in central Asia to al-Qayrawan in the north of Africa and to Timbuktu in the west of the continent. Your eye is caught by the great numbers of libraries, jurisprudents, who walk in the streets with their distinguished turbans and wide cloths, the minarets and domes, the activity of trade in the roofed markets with the narrow streets and the sellers of rosaries, perfumes and charms. The new thing may be the voices of the reciters and mourners, which follow you wherever you go and the loudspeakers impose them on your hearing. Then you see the ads of the only cinema “al-Fajr”, which has been established after the Revolution. The film, which was on at that time and whose title was “sincere repentance”, conformed to the general condition of people in the city.

But this scene changes little by little whenever you approach to the other parts of the city and knock at its many gates. After the first round in Qom, you will discover that it is not just a “Shahr Muqaddas” holy city but it is a big centre followed by many quarters and districts. Among these quarters there is one called “Neauphle-le-château”. It is the name of the place in which Imam Khomeini has resided when he resorted to France after he has been exiled from Iraq in 1978.

You will discover too that it is not the city of the hawza only because the old of the hawza is just a little more than half a century, since it has been established by Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Ha’iry after his departure from his birthplace Arak. Sheikh Abdul Kareem died in 1355 A.H. whereas the old of the city (Qom) is more than thirteen centuries.

As knowledge is what the city has become known of but it is just one face among its other faces, which have been prevailed by the hawza, whose fame has spread throughout the world during the last quarter of the century.

Just a few people know that Qom is an agricultural city having a good production of wheat, cotton, pomegranate, melon, fig and pistachio. Also a few people know that Qom is an industrial city. The merchants of carpets are more aware of Qom’s expensive silk carpets, which is enough to refer to and to say that they are made in Qom. As for its production of pottery, plastic products and materials of building no one outside Iran may have known about it.

At the same time the commercial Qom is unknown too. The city has gained its commercial value because it is a market that millions of peoples come to from everywhere to visit the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) and to be blessed by visiting the tombs of the progeny of the infallible imams and the other saints. The excellent location of Qom, which is at the crossroads that connect the north of Iran with the south, has contributed to gain this value. Besides these excellences that have been realized by the good location of the city, its people have tolerated unwillingly its only disadvantage. It is the one that the river coming from the mountains of Bakhtiyariyya in the middle of Iran has brought to them. The river is called “Roodkhana-e-shoor” which means the salty river. The fate has decided that the people of Qom have to coexist with this river and to swallow its salt willingly and submissively since the existence of the two; Qom and the river. This river is the main source of the city’s drinking and irrigating water because the rain water in general is little and have no value in this concern besides that the winter is not long here anyhow.

If these faces have been unknown to those, who have known Qom through the books and the media, the visitors of the city will meet them all when their feet lead them to the main streets like “Imam Khomeini Street”, “Musa al-Sadr Street” and “Talaqani Street” besides the bazaar. In fact these streets show you more and more about the city and give you an impression that the city lives in its golden age since the Revolution has broken out and that the age of the ulama has circulated to everything in Qom from the hawza until the bazaar.

This is the functional Qom. But as for Qom the city, since it has become as a center of attracting people after the Revolution its population has been tripled to be more than one million.

A visitor can easily distinguish between three faces of the city; the old Qom surrounding the shrine of al-Ma'ssooma (s) with its narrow, circuitous, roofed and earthy streets and with its houses decorated from inside with beautiful architectural figures that distinguish the city from among the other cities, the modern Qom with its wide paved streets, high buildings, restaurants and hotels, which swim in seas of fluorescent lights and the most modern Qom, which has appeared after the Revolution and the beginning of the age of prosperity and flourishing, which has brought with it the agencies of the most modern Mercedes cars and the big supermarkets. Salarya quarter (the quarter of the notables) is a part of the most modern Qom although it is in the southern part of the city on the contrary to Tehran, whose quarter of the notables is in the north.

What I wanted to concentrate on through showing all these faces of the city was the hawza, which would have not existed unless the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) had been there. The holy shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) was the cornerstone of the city and by which the birth certificate of the holy city had been written and then to have had a passport to enter into history.

Al-Ma’ssooma and the Hawza

Before I knocked at the doors, I had been busy with the meanings of the words that had succeeded in the record of time as the following: Qom, al-Ma'ssooma and the hawza and I found what I have looked for in the bookcase, which was above my head and against which I opened my eyes every morning along my residence in Qom.

The sayings were different about the name of the city although the likeliest of them was the story saying that there was a small village in the same location of the city called “Kam”, which means “small” or “little” in Persian, and when the Arabs conquered it in 23 A.H. and came to live in it, they changed its name from Kam into Qom. Some Arabs of the tribe of al-Asha’ira had come to live in the city and then some families of the Hashemites and the Alawites resorted to it in the first centuries of hijra when they had fled from the pursuits of the Umayyads and the Abbasids.

The Islamic encyclopedia of the Shia mentions that building has begun in Qom at the end of the first century of hijra whereas it does not refer to any history about the city before Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s), the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kadhim (s), has been buried in it in 201 A.H. It is said that she has come from Medina to Marw in order to see her brother Imam Ali bin Musa ar-Redha (s) but she has fallen ill and asked to be carried to Qom, where she has died some days later. Since then she has been called as Ma’ssooma Qom. Since she was from the progeny of Ahlul Bayt (s) her tomb has become a holy shrine and then it has been referred to as “the haram”.

The notables, the emirs and the kings have competed to spend on the shrine and to enrich it costly; therefore it has become as a splendid architectural masterpiece surrounded by gates and windows made of gold and silver. It has always been expanded and developed until it has become as big as 13500 square meters in area.

Another kind of competition has occurred in burying the notables, the emirs and the kings near the tomb of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s). Her shrine has been still as a center of attraction to the masses of the Shia everywhere. They come to be blessed by visiting the holy shrine and to attend the different religious occasions. This has given the city of Qom a high and distinguished position.[41]

As for “al-hawza al-ilmiyya” it is an accurate Arabic name. Hawza in Arabic means a place or an area, which if is assigned for studying and learning can be called as hawza ilmiyya.[42] According to the linguistic origin, a hawza can be assigned for any human activity. But this word, according to the Shia intellect, has been correlated with “learning” until it has been understood spontaneously that a hawza must be a center of knowledge. In fact the word “hawza” itself has been dealt with as having this meaning and nothing else until it has been used alone without assigning to give the meaning of the two; “hawza” and “ilmiyya” at the same time.

Al-hawza al-ilmiyya is not one scientific institute as many people think, but it refers to the whole city of Qom as a place of learning through many religious schools with different ranks. The government has nothing to do with spending on al-hawza al-ilmiyya, which is run by the heads of the sect (the Shia), who are called “maraji’ at-taqleed[43] ”.[44]

QOM IN PHOTOS

A spatial photo from about 705 kilometers high

Ansariyan Publications

In 1975 A/D a candle was lit. It began to shine and its light spread little by little.

Yes! Such was the beginning; mercy of Allah and interests undertaken by believers who have believed in Islam as a religion and as a mission.

Such was the beginning; the letters of the Iranians, who have roved throughout the world for studying and trading.

Faithful youths and “men who are true to the covenant which they made with Allah” have seen the world, which has drowned in confusion, stray and suspicion…they inquired: Where is the preaching of Islam? Where is its humane mission?

They lived there and saw closely the confusion of the human beings; Muslims and non-Muslims. Everyone was looking for the right path.

Moreover, the fruitful meetings with Allama (jurisprudent) Tabataba’iy, with Professor Mahmood ash-Shahabi after his return from a travel then, and with others of ulama and learned people of the world of Shiism of Ahlul Bayt (s); all that has led to the establishment of Ansariyan Publications in the holy city of Qom. Ansariyan Publications has been granted with blessings of Allah, His messenger and Ahlul Bayt (s). The beginning was as any beginning. It opened its way slowly and step by step and when the Islamic Revolution triumphed the establishment of Ansariyan flourished to grow up, be firm and fruitful.

Worth mentioning that Ansariyan Publications is proud, in spite of all problems and defects, of suffering what it has suffered while opening its way to stand up nowadays with honor of what it has achieved and what it has presented to the Arabic, Islamic and international libraries, of witnessed services in this concern in spite that it has not got any official or personal subsidy.

And this book before you is one of the fruits of its efforts, which have continued for thirty years of perseverance. Nevertheless, it considers itself as in the beginning of the way beseeching Allah for help and invoking our master and imam al-Mahdi, the authority of Allah on His earth, to keep on this blessed work determinedly and sincerely.

Respectable visitor:

O you, whose heart burns for pure Islam!

O you, whose heart flourishes with loving the Prophet and his progeny!

O you, whose soul has absorbed allegiance to Ameerul Mo’mineen Ali (s)!

You undertake, today, a serious responsibility before Allah, the Almighty, with your tongue, pen, social position and moral and material capabilities and know well that Allah will ask us all about our deeds!

O our brothers in belief and humanity, come on to work and to cooperate and to invoke Allah to grant success to our Islamic Umma.

In Tehran International Book Fair

The meeting of the head of the establishment Professor Muhammad Taqi Ansariyan with the president of the Islamic Republic

QOM; GEOGRAPHICALLY AND HISTORICALLY

There is no an accurate dating about the establishment of this city nor a certain reason behind its name. There are some historians confirming that its history belongs to the pre-Islamic conquest period relying on some historical manuscripts, which show clearly that the city has been available during the age of Anushirvan, the Persian king.[1] It (Qom) has been mentioned during the Islamic conquests when talking about the battle of Jalawla’ against Khosrow, the last king of the Sasanian dynasty, where Hijr bin Adiy was one of the leaders of the Islamic armies at that day.

Hence the history of the city belongs to the period before the year twenty-third A.H. (the year of (al-Fat~h-the Conquest) for a long time.

Many stories have been said about the name of the city each trying to give an explanation about it. Some have said that its name was “Kumondan”[2] and then some of its letters have been dropped and others have said that the original name was “Kam” meaning “little” that it was a small village and then it was Arabized into “Qom” after the Islamic conquests.[3]

But the name of the city began to shine on the Islamic map after it had been occupied by the Ash’arites[4] in ninety-four A.H. They had tried their best to build the city. It grew and became one of the important cities in Persia after its people had believed in Ahlul Bayt[5] (s) and after it had become independent of Isfahan[6] in 189 A.H.

The fate had willed that the city was to be one of the sacred cities after its ground had embraced the pure body of Fatima, the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kadhim[7] (s) in 201 A.H. Hence it could be said that since that date the city of Qom had begun to ascend the stairs of glory to be at the head of the Islamic capitals.

The city has paid the price of its allegiance and love to Ahlul Bayt (s) so expensively along all the ages. The Abbasid policy has followed a degrading means by imposing very heavy taxes.

In spite of that there was a kind of political ease towards Ahlul Bayt (s) during the reign of al-Ma’moon.[8] History has recorded that a revolution has broken out in Qom in 210 A.H. because of the heaviness of taxes but the revolution has been suppressed severely, the walls of the city have been destroyed and the taxes have been increased three and a half times.[9]

Some books of history mentions stories, which are like fables, about the name of the city. One of them says that the Prophet (s), during his ascension to the Heaven, has seen a place on the earth, which was more beautiful than the color of saffron and with a fragrance better than the fragrance of musk, and has seen an old man putting a long cap on his head. The Prophet (s) asked Gabriel and Gabriel said: “This is the place of your Shia and your guardian’s Shia and this old man is Iblis. He invites people to disbelieve.” The Prophet (s) asked Gabriel to swoop down and Gabriel swooped down faster than lightening. The Prophet (s) shouted at Iblis: “Get up (qom)[10] O you cursed!” Then the city was called as “Qom”!

In spite of the vicissitudes of time, the city has withstood throughout the ages of history and has remained as a capital of knowledge and intellect and as a refuge for the wronged and subdued people of the Prophet’s progeny. This is why there are many shrines of the Hashemites[11] in this great city.

Qom in traditions

Much praise has been mentioned in traditions related to Imam as-Sadiq[12] (s). He said:

“Above Qom there is an angel flapping his two wings. No arrogant intends to offend it (Qom), unless Allah will make him melt away like salt being melted in water.”[13]

He also said:

“If you are afflicted with distress and suffering, you are to resort to Qom because it is the refuge of the Fatimites[14] and the resort of the believers.”[15]

Imam Musa al-Kadhim (s) said:

“Qom is the shelter of Muhammad’s progeny and the resort of their Shia.”[16]

He also said in another tradition, which was as an astonishing prediction:

“There will be a man from Qom, who will invite people to the truth and great masses of people will join him. They will not be shaken by the most violent storms.”[17]

This tradition has become real after the Islamic revolution under the leadership of Imam Khomeini (may Allah be pleased with him).

There is another tradition of Imam as-Sadiq (s) deserving to be pondered on. Imam as-Sadiq (s) said:

“The ground of Qom is sacred. Its people are from us and we are from them. No arrogant tries to offend them, unless his punishment will be hastened to him as long as they do not betray their brothers. If they do that, then Allah will subject them to the offenses of the arrogants.”[18]

There is another tradition related to Imam as-Sadiq (s) talking about Fatima al-Ma’ssooma (s).

He said:

“We have a sanctum. It is the village of Qom, in which a woman from my progeny will be buried. Her name will be Fatima.”[19]

Biography of Fatima al-Ma’ssooma

Fatima al-Ma’ssooma (s) was born in Thil Qa’da,[20] 173 A.H. She was six years old when her father Imam al-Kadhim (s) was put in prison in 179 A.H.[21]

She had several surnames but she was known as “al-Ma’ssooma”. It not known exactly why she has been surnamed as al-Ma’ssooma but there might be some reasons behind that.

The girl was pure and infallible besides that she was a daughter of the seventh imam of the infallible house of the Prophet (s), a sister of an infallible imam (Imam ar-Redha[22] (s)) and an aunt of an infallible imam (Imam al-Jawad[23] (s)).

We could add another reason that she had died oppressedly far from her nation while she was still a famous than her name.

In 201 A.H. Fatima al-Ma’ssooma[24] (s) decided, with some of her brothers, to travel to Marw,[25] which was then the capital of the Islamic state after the end of the war between the two Abbasid brothers, al-Ameen and al-Ma’moon, who won the war and killed his brother.

Al-Ma’moon, after becoming the caliph, took a decision, whose motives have been still disputable until now, to make, apparently, reconciliation between the Alawite[26] house and the Abbasid house and to put an end to the distresses of Ahlul Bayt (s). Many people doubted the intents of al-Ma’moon when he appointed Imam ar-Redha (s) as his crown prince. They had convincing justifications about doubting the real intents and aims of al-Ma’moon towards the progeny of Ali (s).

It was very probable that the travel of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) with her brothers, which was in tow separate caravans; one followed the way of Basra to Shiraz and then to Marw and the other followed the way of Hamadan-Sawa[27] and then to Marw, was to confirm the situation of Imam ar-Redha (s), whom al-Ma’moon had begun to confine. What confirmed these doubts that the two caravans did not reached Marw. The first one stopped at Shiraz and its people separated here and there after a clash with government forces and the other stopped at Sawa. Some historical sources mentioned that the second caravan had been attacked too and that Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) felt that she was about to die after she had felt too weak and this made her ask about the city of Qom. It was said to her that Qom was about eighty kilometers and so she asked to be taken there.

Whether her sickness was because of poison, which had been inserted into her food, or because of the great tiredness and sufferings that she had faced, she died after seventeen days only after arriving at Qom. She was as a guest of Musa bin[28] Khazraj until she died after some days to be buried in a land called Babulan belonging to this man.

After a period of time, this land became a great graveyard containing bodies of thousands of narrators, speechers, leaders and rulers. This peace of land became the central part of the city, which began to grow rapidly.

The Holy Shrine

The shrine (of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma) was at first as a shed of straw mat erected according to the order of Musa bin Khazraj al-Ash’ari to be now as a high gold dome, around which high minarets rising towards the Heaven.

Through twelve centuries the shrine has been rebuilt many times.

The first dome, after that straw mat shed, has been built after half a century by the order of Zaynab, the daughter of Imam al-Jawad (s) in the middle of the third century of hijra. It has been built with adobe, stone and plaster.

Then two other domes have been built after some Alawite ladies have been buried (in the same shrine). The three domes remained until the middle of the fifth century of hijra when the first high dome has been built to replace those three domes. It has been built by the vizier of Tugril the Great[29] after encouragement by Sheikh at-Toossi. This dome has been decorated with colored figures, bricks and tiles (kashi).

In 925 A.H. the roof of the dome has been decorated with mosaic according to the order of Lady Beigam, the daughter of Shah Issma’eel as-Safawi (the Safavid). Also a hall and two minarets have been built in the old yard.

Finally, Fathali (Fat~h Ali) Shah al-Qajari[30] has ordered to decorate the roof of the dome with gold plates to remain shining for two centuries.

After some damage had happen to some of the gold plates, the office of the custodian of the shrine decided to rebuild the dome. The old gold plates have been collected to be replaced with others in a great project,

whose cost might be twenty-five milliard Iranian rials (one dollar equals eight thousand rials).

In general the shrine is a structure with wonderful signs of Islamic architecture. It has been adorned with marvelous figures.

The total area of the shrine is about fourteen thousand square meters including the haram, the porches, the halls, the three yards,[31] the tombs of the kings and the two mosques; at-Tabataba’iy and Balasar (over the head). Lately the Great Mosque has been added to the shrine. The area of the Great Mosque alone is about twenty-five thousand square meters.

When a visitor arrives at the outskirts of the city, he will see two minarets shining distantly.

The dome leans over a silver tomb crowned with gold. The tomb is four meters high, five meters and twenty-five centimeters long and four meters and seventy-three centimeters wide.

The northern hall is fourteen meters and eighty centimeters high, eight meters and seventy centimeters wide and nine meters long. It is adorned with gold from inside and its figures are demarcated with gold too. Upon this hall the two minarets go high in the space until thirty-two meters and twenty centimeters from the ground. The diameter of each minaret is one hundred and fifty centimeters. This hall is called “the hall of gold” and its gate is called “the gate of gold”.

In the eastern side there is a hall decorated with hundreds of mirrors where lights reflect to make it more beautiful and wonderful. This hall adjoins with the haram by a porch, which is seven meters and eighty centimeters high, seven meters and eighty-seven centimeters wide and nine meters long. The porch stands on four stone pillars. Each of them is eleven meters high.

There are two minarets on this hall. Each of them is twenty-eight meters high from the roof of the hall. It is written on the top of them in one meter width “la hawla wela quwatta illa billah: there is no power save in Allah” and on the other one “subhanallah, wel hamdu lillah, wela ilaha illallah, wellahu akbar: glory be to Allah, praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah and Allah is Great”.

The visitors feel a state of spirituality and happiness under the shadows of the shrine and in the new yard where several minarets extend high towards the Heaven and lights reflect in the hall, which is decorated with hundreds of mirrors besides the flying flocks of doves, which have taken this holy shrine as warm nests while the fountains dance in a glittering pool.

In the past the visitors and tourists could come into a museum from the yard of the shrine directly but now this way is closed and the museum has a gate outside the shrine in the Moozeh (museum) street.

The museum, which consists of two floors, contains a good group of gifts and valuable things that have been gifted to the holy shrine throughout its long history.

Surely whoever visits the museum feels eager to see al-Faydiyya school beside it, which is one of the most famous religious schools and hawzas.[32] This school, according to certified facts, has replaced al-Aastana school. It is connected with the haram by a hall in the old yard.

A tourist’s attention may be drawn by the masses of the passer-bys between the small park adjacent to the street and between the school, the museum and the markets. He may think to take his way to the bazaar!

A tourist will feel that he enters a museum showing him different kinds of arts of architecture and different handworked goods in this ancient bazaar.

A tourist may ask, in the other side of the bazaar, about “Baytun noor: the house of light”, which is one of the important marks in the city that has become a school called as-Satiyya, where Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) had lived as a guest for seventeen days before she left to the better world.

Qom; Country and People

Qom is the smallest governorate in Iran. Previously it was as a district belonging to the governorate of Arak and then it was attached to Tehran until it was certificated to be as independent governorate.

Its population was not more than one hundred and fifty thousand in 1957 A.D. In 1979, when the Islamic revolution triumphed, the population of the city was about three hundred thousand.

The city has progressed so much and has gotten much attention from the government after the years of deliberate neglect during the reign of Shah. After the triumph of the Islamic revolution, the city began to grow rapidly until its population became more than one million besides the many foreign students coming from the different continents of the world. They have come to study in Qom and then they got married and make families or they have brought their families with them. There are also many Afghan emigrants, who are more than half a million besides some thousands of Iraqi emigrants.

The city has flourished and prospered in every side especially that there is cheap employment because of the great numbers of the emigrant Afghans.

The cultural life has become too prosperous because of the availability of learned Arabs, among whom the Iraqis form a great proportion.

As for the texture of the local population of the governorate, we can say that only nine percent live in the countryside whereas ninety percent live in the city.

Nearly half a century ago the farms and gardens covered most parts of Qom and then they began to abate little by little before the expansion of building.

Some people, who have lived in the city about fifty years ago or those who have been born in the city, refer to some main streets of the city and say that they were as gardens full of pomegranate and fig trees.

Some famous quarters in the city are still having names that refer to their rural origins.[33]

Nevertheless Qom was and is still as a district having a desert and semi-desert climate.

There are some certain areas having cold mountainous climate and others having moderate climate but the general climate of this governorate is the semi-desert climate.

At the shores of the “Lake of Salt” there is a long line of desert having many dunes. After that and towards the north and the west-north there are wide wild lands, in the western side of which Qom is. As for the moderate areas, they form the western line and have an area four times more than the area of the desert line. There is a small area having a cold mountainous climate around Mountain Ghaleek, which is 3171 meters high.

The western line has an important role in the life of the governorate because it has fertile agricultural lands and many water sources.

From among fourteen rivers flowing in the land of the governorate there are only two permanent rivers; one is “Qara Chai”, which flows from the mountains of “Shazand” in Arak to the west of Qom and the other is “Qamrood”, which flows from the mountains of “Khawansar” in the south.

The rate of raining in the governorate is about 138 millimeter. It is very little rate in comparison with the general rate of rain in Iran, which is about 255 millimeter.

Once Sayyid Muhsin al-Ameen al-Aamily has passed by this city and written down his notes about it in his Iraqi-Iranian travel in 1353 A. H., 1933 A/D.

Here are some lines of his notes:

“A flood has come and covered all the streets (of Qom) so we were obliged to walk away from the places being covered by the flood. We couldn’t reach Qom at that day. We spent the night some kilometers before Qom in a café near a village there. In the café there was an official having a high position in the army. He began to smoke opium with the keepers of the café. In the morning we set out towards Qom. We found that the flood had covered the way. We could not pass the bridge near Qom by the car so we passed it on foot.”

The Village of Qom

Qom is a flourishing village with an ancient history. Particular histories have been written about it. Most of its people are poor. They are famous of their Shiism since the ages of the infallible imams (s) like the people of Kufa.[34]

Most narrators (of traditions) of the Shia were from these two cities (Qom and Kufa). The Arab Ash’arites had come to live in Qom after the advent of Islam. They were followers of Ahlul Bayt (s) and from among the narrators of their (Ahlul Bayt’s) traditions. The people of Qom nowadays are well-known for their piety.

In Qom there was a big river, on which there was an arch, flowing from the west to the east in the north part of the city.

Most buildings of the city were made of adobe and some were made of brick.

The water of the city was and is somehow salty but it is said that it is useful. There are many old wells, to which it is come down by ladders. They are too deep. They were the source of drinking water.

Mosquitoes spread in the city in big numbers. The prices were satisfactory. Eggplants were sold singly. One hundred eggplants equaled one kiran (five Syrian piasters) in comparison with the Ottoman lira, which equals five hundred and fifty Syrian liras. Pistachio is much cultivated in the governorate.

One of the wonders of this governorate is that there is a sandy land near it, which no one can walk in. Whoever enters this land will sink as if he sinks in water and mud and he cannot save himself from that.

The river of the city flows until it reaches this sandy land to sink in it.

In Qom there is a high minaret. It is said that it has been erected during the reign of Umar bin Abdul Aziz, the Umayyad caliph.

Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Yazdi

He was the jurisprudent and teacher of Qom. He taught Sayyid Muhammad al-Isfahani. He was so prudent and strong-minded with great knowledge, high morals and deep thinking. We could not say that his knowledge was more than his mind or his mind was more than his knowledge because he was so skilled in both.

He lived in Sultanabad and then he moved to live in Qom, in which he established a religious school, until he died.

Everyday the postman came to the sheikh with a parcel of books and letters. The sheikh had a clerk, who used to receive the parcel. If there was something not so important, the clerk himself would answer it and bring it to the sheikh in order to sign it but if there was something important, the sheikh himself would reply to it.

In his meeting many scientific deliberations were held. I often attended them. They all were in Persian.

He had a disease in his stomach so he was confined to certain kinds of food and in certain times according to the doctors’ recommendations.

Because he was so prudent, he used not to take the monies that came to him (as religious rights) but he let them with a merchant and asked him to spend them in paying the students’ salaries and he himself took a salary from the merchant. By such he lived in ease and let none criticize him. The poor are always at his door. He either gave them from his own money or asked his companions to give them what they needed.

Al-Mutawally Bashi

From among the notables of Qom was al-Mutawally Bashi (the responsible) of the holy shrine of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s), whose name was Sayyid Muhammad Baqir bin Sayyid Hasan al-Husayni al-Aamily al-

Qommi. He was a lofty Hashemite man from Mountain Aamil in Lebanon. Once he went to perform hajj and we met him in Damascus.

When we came to Qom, we were told that he had been cripple. We visited him in his house. One day his son Sayyid Misbah visited us in our house. Now he undertakes the affairs of the shrine instead of his father.

The School of Qom

Sheikh Abdul Kareem (mentioned above) had established the (religious) school of Qom. It was said to us that the school had about nine hundred students. Sheikh Abdul Kareem paid the most of the students’ expenses. He had appointed to them a special doctor. Every six months and at the end of every year, Sheikh Abdul Kareem made a test for his students.

A delegate from the government attended this test to exempt the students from joining the military service. Sheikh Abdul Kareem often complained and said:

“We educate a student until he ripens and then he puts off the turban and the dress of the ulama to put on the dress of the people of rule to work in of the offices.”

Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani

In Qom there was a man from Tehran called Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani. He was one of the best students in the school of Sheikh Abdul Kareem. He was virtuous, prudent, with high morals, altruistic, sincere and kind. He often visited us, stayed with us and achieved our needs and affairs.

The flood in Qom

The flood-as we mentioned before-had occurred in Qom three days before we arrived. It had destroyed about three hundred houses in the new quarter because all the houses were built of adobe but no one was killed and no wealth was lost because usually the flood came to the city from a distant place and so the people had enough time to prepare their affairs.

A telegram had reached warning them of the flood. They got their furniture and animals out of the houses and they also got out of the houses, which were liable to fall down. When the flood came, the houses were empty; therefore no loss was among people, their cattle and furniture.

The Safavids had built a dam some distance away to prevent floods but it had been destroyed by time.

At the same time the news came saying that a flood had occurred in Tabriz and destroyed many houses there.

Ma’ssooma Qom

In Qom there is the holy shrine of Fatima, the sister of Imam ar-Redha (s). The Iranians call her Ma’ssooma (of) Qom. The shrine is so great and is visited by people from everywhere in the world. The shrine has its own officials and caretakers.

Inside the shrine, Mirza Ali Asghar Khan has been buried. He has been killed by the people of the (mashroota: constitutional movement). He was the vizier of Nasiruddeen Shah and the vizier of his son after him.

Tombs of the Ulama and Narrators in Qom

In Qom there is a graveyard called the graveyard of “Sheikhoon”, which means the sheikhs. Sheikhoon is the plural form of Sheikh in Persian. In fact it is sheikhan because the mark of plurality in Persian is by adding “AN” at the end of a word but when speaking the Iranians often change the “AN” into “O(O)N”.

In this graveyard there are many tombs of great narrators (of traditions) like Zakariyya bin Adam and some of bani[35] Babwayh and tombs of famous ulama like al-Mirza al-Qommi. These tombs are about to be obliterated because the government[36] has made streets in the graveyard without paying any attention to the tombs. In fact the government has intended to remove the graveyard totally.

Our Relatives in Qom

Sayyid Hasan bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Ameen, who was the brother of our grandfather Sayyid Ali bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Ameen, has traveled to Iraq to study (religious knowledges) with his brother Sayyid Husayn. His brother has stayed in Najaf and got a high position in knowledge but he himself has traveled to Qom and stayed there.

He had a progeny in Qom but they became extinct. One of his daughters had got married to a sayyid[37] from the sayyids of Qom and had offspring from him. Two virtuous sayyids, who are two brothers, of her progeny have still been living in Qom till now. Each of them is an imam of a mosque.

One of them has told us about the coming of our grandfather’s brother to Iran and his living in Qom in a wonderful story.

Our Works in Qom

We found in Qom “Thayl as-Sulafa”, from which we quoted necessary things in our book “A’yan ash-Shia”.

We kept on looking in the libraries for the books that we might make use of in writing our book mentioned above. We found a volume of “al-Majmoo’ ar-Ra’iq” and quoted some things from it. Also we found some other books that we do not remember their titles now.

We were told that in Isfahan there was a copy of “Riyadhul Ulama’” for sale. We asked Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani about this and he confirmed the news and said:

“The keepers of the book want sixty tomans but we can buy it with less than this price.”

Sixty tomans equaled thirty Syrian liras or nearly five and a half Ottoman gold liras at that time.

We asked him to send a telegram to the keepers of the book. He said:

“The telegram will make them insist on the price. We send them a letter.”

Then he was told that the book had been bought by Hajji Agha Husayn at-Tehrani, the king of the merchants, with one hundred and twenty tomans, which was as twice as the previous price they wanted for the book.

We kept on looking for another copy. We found two volumes; the second and the third. We bought them with expensive price. The first and the fourth volumes of the book were lost. We could not find the fifth volume but we found a copy of it with somebody. We hired someone to copy it by hand and we gave him his wage. He said that it would be completed after our return from Khurasan. He corrected it and sent it to us in Tehran.

After buying the second and the third volumes and hiring somebody to copy the fourth volume, another volume, which was a manuscript written by the author himself, was offered to us. The keeper of this volume was a woman. She wanted thirty Ottoman liras for it. We would have bought it if she had deducted the price a little but she hadn’t. We could not buy it with this expensive price.

We stayed at Qom for about fifteen days and in the last of Safar,[38] 1353 A.H. we set out towards Tehran.

The Salty Lake

On the right side of the way between Qom and Tehran there was a salty lake, which was called in Iran as “Daryatcha Namak”.

It would be useful to mention here what the Egyptian writer and journalist Professor Fahmi Huwaydi had written about Qom through his visit to the city in 1983 A/D. nearly half a century after the visit of Sayyid Muhsin al-Ameen al-Aamily.

Professor Fahmi Huwaydi says:

“Qom remains as the key and the lock in Iran after the Islamic revolution.”

We often read longingly the reportages written by Professor Fahmi Huwaydi, which took the Arab readers to far horizons, especially when they (the reportages) were accompanied with the camera of the photographer Oscar Mitry. His writings had a great historical and scientific value.

Let us read what the professor and journalist has said about Qom:

Shahr-e-Muqaddas: The Other Face

[39]

With the sunshine of the next day we were at the gates of Qom. We moved on the wide and well-paved way, whose building started at the reign of the Shah to be completed at the age of the Revolution as the fate willed! We passed by wide wild land. We passed by the Lake of Salt, in which the men of SAVAK[40] used to throw whomever they wanted to get rid of to be swallowed by the lake and then to be dissolved by the salty water. We stopped at one of twelve checkpoints established recently to control coming and going. A bearded young man from the guards of the revolution with a machine gun on his shoulder gazed at us. His eyes stopped at me. The driver said to him: “He is a foreign Muslim”. He smiled and murmured: “Ya Allah!” he turned to check the bag of the car to be sure that there was no weapon or any kind of bombs or any forbidden thing else. Then he permitted us to move.

After two hundred meters we stopped at another checkpoint. The same procedures were done and then we entered Qom. The first thing we faced was a big signboard, on which it was written:

“Until the appearance of al-Mahdi our revolution will still be continuous.”

After some minutes, my host, whom I met for the first time, was leading me welcomingly to a rectangular hall, whose walls were hidden behind the shelves of the books and whose floor was covered with a modest rag whereas cushions and pads were here and there. No seat there was in the hall. We sat squatting on the ground and we were acquainted with each other so quickly. He said to me in good Arabic:

“Take your ease as if you are at your home or try here the life of the weak.”

Then he recommended his younger brother, who was one of the intelligent young students of the hawza, to take care of me and then he left to do his affairs. I did not see him during that week that I spent in his house-residing in that room-except two times only.

This was not my first visit to Qom although it was my first residence in it. I had come to Qom for the first time with Professor Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, the famous writer and journalist, who had visited Iran in 1980 when he was trying to write his book about the Islamic revolution in Iran, which was published later on under the title of “The guns of Aayatullah”. At that time Imam Khomeini was still in Qom. Professor Haykal went to meet Imam Khomeini in Qom where I accompanied him and then we went back to Tehran in the evening of the same day.

We saw the Leader of the Revolution where his house was surrounded by a sea of people, who had come from every spot in Iran to announce their allegiance to him. We did not see anything in Qom save the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma with its gold dome shining in the sky of the city and with its wonderful building, which seized the sights of the visitors and which no eye would miss even if the visitor was-like us-just a passerby in his car towards the abode of the Imam.

At first sight, Qom takes you some centuries backward in the past when the Islamic world was full of centers of knowledge and science from Bukhara and Samarqand in central Asia to al-Qayrawan in the north of Africa and to Timbuktu in the west of the continent. Your eye is caught by the great numbers of libraries, jurisprudents, who walk in the streets with their distinguished turbans and wide cloths, the minarets and domes, the activity of trade in the roofed markets with the narrow streets and the sellers of rosaries, perfumes and charms. The new thing may be the voices of the reciters and mourners, which follow you wherever you go and the loudspeakers impose them on your hearing. Then you see the ads of the only cinema “al-Fajr”, which has been established after the Revolution. The film, which was on at that time and whose title was “sincere repentance”, conformed to the general condition of people in the city.

But this scene changes little by little whenever you approach to the other parts of the city and knock at its many gates. After the first round in Qom, you will discover that it is not just a “Shahr Muqaddas” holy city but it is a big centre followed by many quarters and districts. Among these quarters there is one called “Neauphle-le-château”. It is the name of the place in which Imam Khomeini has resided when he resorted to France after he has been exiled from Iraq in 1978.

You will discover too that it is not the city of the hawza only because the old of the hawza is just a little more than half a century, since it has been established by Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Ha’iry after his departure from his birthplace Arak. Sheikh Abdul Kareem died in 1355 A.H. whereas the old of the city (Qom) is more than thirteen centuries.

As knowledge is what the city has become known of but it is just one face among its other faces, which have been prevailed by the hawza, whose fame has spread throughout the world during the last quarter of the century.

Just a few people know that Qom is an agricultural city having a good production of wheat, cotton, pomegranate, melon, fig and pistachio. Also a few people know that Qom is an industrial city. The merchants of carpets are more aware of Qom’s expensive silk carpets, which is enough to refer to and to say that they are made in Qom. As for its production of pottery, plastic products and materials of building no one outside Iran may have known about it.

At the same time the commercial Qom is unknown too. The city has gained its commercial value because it is a market that millions of peoples come to from everywhere to visit the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) and to be blessed by visiting the tombs of the progeny of the infallible imams and the other saints. The excellent location of Qom, which is at the crossroads that connect the north of Iran with the south, has contributed to gain this value. Besides these excellences that have been realized by the good location of the city, its people have tolerated unwillingly its only disadvantage. It is the one that the river coming from the mountains of Bakhtiyariyya in the middle of Iran has brought to them. The river is called “Roodkhana-e-shoor” which means the salty river. The fate has decided that the people of Qom have to coexist with this river and to swallow its salt willingly and submissively since the existence of the two; Qom and the river. This river is the main source of the city’s drinking and irrigating water because the rain water in general is little and have no value in this concern besides that the winter is not long here anyhow.

If these faces have been unknown to those, who have known Qom through the books and the media, the visitors of the city will meet them all when their feet lead them to the main streets like “Imam Khomeini Street”, “Musa al-Sadr Street” and “Talaqani Street” besides the bazaar. In fact these streets show you more and more about the city and give you an impression that the city lives in its golden age since the Revolution has broken out and that the age of the ulama has circulated to everything in Qom from the hawza until the bazaar.

This is the functional Qom. But as for Qom the city, since it has become as a center of attracting people after the Revolution its population has been tripled to be more than one million.

A visitor can easily distinguish between three faces of the city; the old Qom surrounding the shrine of al-Ma'ssooma (s) with its narrow, circuitous, roofed and earthy streets and with its houses decorated from inside with beautiful architectural figures that distinguish the city from among the other cities, the modern Qom with its wide paved streets, high buildings, restaurants and hotels, which swim in seas of fluorescent lights and the most modern Qom, which has appeared after the Revolution and the beginning of the age of prosperity and flourishing, which has brought with it the agencies of the most modern Mercedes cars and the big supermarkets. Salarya quarter (the quarter of the notables) is a part of the most modern Qom although it is in the southern part of the city on the contrary to Tehran, whose quarter of the notables is in the north.

What I wanted to concentrate on through showing all these faces of the city was the hawza, which would have not existed unless the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) had been there. The holy shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) was the cornerstone of the city and by which the birth certificate of the holy city had been written and then to have had a passport to enter into history.

Al-Ma’ssooma and the Hawza

Before I knocked at the doors, I had been busy with the meanings of the words that had succeeded in the record of time as the following: Qom, al-Ma'ssooma and the hawza and I found what I have looked for in the bookcase, which was above my head and against which I opened my eyes every morning along my residence in Qom.

The sayings were different about the name of the city although the likeliest of them was the story saying that there was a small village in the same location of the city called “Kam”, which means “small” or “little” in Persian, and when the Arabs conquered it in 23 A.H. and came to live in it, they changed its name from Kam into Qom. Some Arabs of the tribe of al-Asha’ira had come to live in the city and then some families of the Hashemites and the Alawites resorted to it in the first centuries of hijra when they had fled from the pursuits of the Umayyads and the Abbasids.

The Islamic encyclopedia of the Shia mentions that building has begun in Qom at the end of the first century of hijra whereas it does not refer to any history about the city before Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s), the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kadhim (s), has been buried in it in 201 A.H. It is said that she has come from Medina to Marw in order to see her brother Imam Ali bin Musa ar-Redha (s) but she has fallen ill and asked to be carried to Qom, where she has died some days later. Since then she has been called as Ma’ssooma Qom. Since she was from the progeny of Ahlul Bayt (s) her tomb has become a holy shrine and then it has been referred to as “the haram”.

The notables, the emirs and the kings have competed to spend on the shrine and to enrich it costly; therefore it has become as a splendid architectural masterpiece surrounded by gates and windows made of gold and silver. It has always been expanded and developed until it has become as big as 13500 square meters in area.

Another kind of competition has occurred in burying the notables, the emirs and the kings near the tomb of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s). Her shrine has been still as a center of attraction to the masses of the Shia everywhere. They come to be blessed by visiting the holy shrine and to attend the different religious occasions. This has given the city of Qom a high and distinguished position.[41]

As for “al-hawza al-ilmiyya” it is an accurate Arabic name. Hawza in Arabic means a place or an area, which if is assigned for studying and learning can be called as hawza ilmiyya.[42] According to the linguistic origin, a hawza can be assigned for any human activity. But this word, according to the Shia intellect, has been correlated with “learning” until it has been understood spontaneously that a hawza must be a center of knowledge. In fact the word “hawza” itself has been dealt with as having this meaning and nothing else until it has been used alone without assigning to give the meaning of the two; “hawza” and “ilmiyya” at the same time.

Al-hawza al-ilmiyya is not one scientific institute as many people think, but it refers to the whole city of Qom as a place of learning through many religious schools with different ranks. The government has nothing to do with spending on al-hawza al-ilmiyya, which is run by the heads of the sect (the Shia), who are called “maraji’ at-taqleed[43] ”.[44]

QOM IN PHOTOS

A spatial photo from about 705 kilometers high

Ansariyan Publications

In 1975 A/D a candle was lit. It began to shine and its light spread little by little.

Yes! Such was the beginning; mercy of Allah and interests undertaken by believers who have believed in Islam as a religion and as a mission.

Such was the beginning; the letters of the Iranians, who have roved throughout the world for studying and trading.

Faithful youths and “men who are true to the covenant which they made with Allah” have seen the world, which has drowned in confusion, stray and suspicion…they inquired: Where is the preaching of Islam? Where is its humane mission?

They lived there and saw closely the confusion of the human beings; Muslims and non-Muslims. Everyone was looking for the right path.

Moreover, the fruitful meetings with Allama (jurisprudent) Tabataba’iy, with Professor Mahmood ash-Shahabi after his return from a travel then, and with others of ulama and learned people of the world of Shiism of Ahlul Bayt (s); all that has led to the establishment of Ansariyan Publications in the holy city of Qom. Ansariyan Publications has been granted with blessings of Allah, His messenger and Ahlul Bayt (s). The beginning was as any beginning. It opened its way slowly and step by step and when the Islamic Revolution triumphed the establishment of Ansariyan flourished to grow up, be firm and fruitful.

Worth mentioning that Ansariyan Publications is proud, in spite of all problems and defects, of suffering what it has suffered while opening its way to stand up nowadays with honor of what it has achieved and what it has presented to the Arabic, Islamic and international libraries, of witnessed services in this concern in spite that it has not got any official or personal subsidy.

And this book before you is one of the fruits of its efforts, which have continued for thirty years of perseverance. Nevertheless, it considers itself as in the beginning of the way beseeching Allah for help and invoking our master and imam al-Mahdi, the authority of Allah on His earth, to keep on this blessed work determinedly and sincerely.

Respectable visitor:

O you, whose heart burns for pure Islam!

O you, whose heart flourishes with loving the Prophet and his progeny!

O you, whose soul has absorbed allegiance to Ameerul Mo’mineen Ali (s)!

You undertake, today, a serious responsibility before Allah, the Almighty, with your tongue, pen, social position and moral and material capabilities and know well that Allah will ask us all about our deeds!

O our brothers in belief and humanity, come on to work and to cooperate and to invoke Allah to grant success to our Islamic Umma.

In Tehran International Book Fair

The meeting of the head of the establishment Professor Muhammad Taqi Ansariyan with the president of the Islamic Republic

QOM; GEOGRAPHICALLY AND HISTORICALLY

There is no an accurate dating about the establishment of this city nor a certain reason behind its name. There are some historians confirming that its history belongs to the pre-Islamic conquest period relying on some historical manuscripts, which show clearly that the city has been available during the age of Anushirvan, the Persian king.[1] It (Qom) has been mentioned during the Islamic conquests when talking about the battle of Jalawla’ against Khosrow, the last king of the Sasanian dynasty, where Hijr bin Adiy was one of the leaders of the Islamic armies at that day.

Hence the history of the city belongs to the period before the year twenty-third A.H. (the year of (al-Fat~h-the Conquest) for a long time.

Many stories have been said about the name of the city each trying to give an explanation about it. Some have said that its name was “Kumondan”[2] and then some of its letters have been dropped and others have said that the original name was “Kam” meaning “little” that it was a small village and then it was Arabized into “Qom” after the Islamic conquests.[3]

But the name of the city began to shine on the Islamic map after it had been occupied by the Ash’arites[4] in ninety-four A.H. They had tried their best to build the city. It grew and became one of the important cities in Persia after its people had believed in Ahlul Bayt[5] (s) and after it had become independent of Isfahan[6] in 189 A.H.

The fate had willed that the city was to be one of the sacred cities after its ground had embraced the pure body of Fatima, the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kadhim[7] (s) in 201 A.H. Hence it could be said that since that date the city of Qom had begun to ascend the stairs of glory to be at the head of the Islamic capitals.

The city has paid the price of its allegiance and love to Ahlul Bayt (s) so expensively along all the ages. The Abbasid policy has followed a degrading means by imposing very heavy taxes.

In spite of that there was a kind of political ease towards Ahlul Bayt (s) during the reign of al-Ma’moon.[8] History has recorded that a revolution has broken out in Qom in 210 A.H. because of the heaviness of taxes but the revolution has been suppressed severely, the walls of the city have been destroyed and the taxes have been increased three and a half times.[9]

Some books of history mentions stories, which are like fables, about the name of the city. One of them says that the Prophet (s), during his ascension to the Heaven, has seen a place on the earth, which was more beautiful than the color of saffron and with a fragrance better than the fragrance of musk, and has seen an old man putting a long cap on his head. The Prophet (s) asked Gabriel and Gabriel said: “This is the place of your Shia and your guardian’s Shia and this old man is Iblis. He invites people to disbelieve.” The Prophet (s) asked Gabriel to swoop down and Gabriel swooped down faster than lightening. The Prophet (s) shouted at Iblis: “Get up (qom)[10] O you cursed!” Then the city was called as “Qom”!

In spite of the vicissitudes of time, the city has withstood throughout the ages of history and has remained as a capital of knowledge and intellect and as a refuge for the wronged and subdued people of the Prophet’s progeny. This is why there are many shrines of the Hashemites[11] in this great city.

Qom in traditions

Much praise has been mentioned in traditions related to Imam as-Sadiq[12] (s). He said:

“Above Qom there is an angel flapping his two wings. No arrogant intends to offend it (Qom), unless Allah will make him melt away like salt being melted in water.”[13]

He also said:

“If you are afflicted with distress and suffering, you are to resort to Qom because it is the refuge of the Fatimites[14] and the resort of the believers.”[15]

Imam Musa al-Kadhim (s) said:

“Qom is the shelter of Muhammad’s progeny and the resort of their Shia.”[16]

He also said in another tradition, which was as an astonishing prediction:

“There will be a man from Qom, who will invite people to the truth and great masses of people will join him. They will not be shaken by the most violent storms.”[17]

This tradition has become real after the Islamic revolution under the leadership of Imam Khomeini (may Allah be pleased with him).

There is another tradition of Imam as-Sadiq (s) deserving to be pondered on. Imam as-Sadiq (s) said:

“The ground of Qom is sacred. Its people are from us and we are from them. No arrogant tries to offend them, unless his punishment will be hastened to him as long as they do not betray their brothers. If they do that, then Allah will subject them to the offenses of the arrogants.”[18]

There is another tradition related to Imam as-Sadiq (s) talking about Fatima al-Ma’ssooma (s).

He said:

“We have a sanctum. It is the village of Qom, in which a woman from my progeny will be buried. Her name will be Fatima.”[19]

Biography of Fatima al-Ma’ssooma

Fatima al-Ma’ssooma (s) was born in Thil Qa’da,[20] 173 A.H. She was six years old when her father Imam al-Kadhim (s) was put in prison in 179 A.H.[21]

She had several surnames but she was known as “al-Ma’ssooma”. It not known exactly why she has been surnamed as al-Ma’ssooma but there might be some reasons behind that.

The girl was pure and infallible besides that she was a daughter of the seventh imam of the infallible house of the Prophet (s), a sister of an infallible imam (Imam ar-Redha[22] (s)) and an aunt of an infallible imam (Imam al-Jawad[23] (s)).

We could add another reason that she had died oppressedly far from her nation while she was still a famous than her name.

In 201 A.H. Fatima al-Ma’ssooma[24] (s) decided, with some of her brothers, to travel to Marw,[25] which was then the capital of the Islamic state after the end of the war between the two Abbasid brothers, al-Ameen and al-Ma’moon, who won the war and killed his brother.

Al-Ma’moon, after becoming the caliph, took a decision, whose motives have been still disputable until now, to make, apparently, reconciliation between the Alawite[26] house and the Abbasid house and to put an end to the distresses of Ahlul Bayt (s). Many people doubted the intents of al-Ma’moon when he appointed Imam ar-Redha (s) as his crown prince. They had convincing justifications about doubting the real intents and aims of al-Ma’moon towards the progeny of Ali (s).

It was very probable that the travel of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) with her brothers, which was in tow separate caravans; one followed the way of Basra to Shiraz and then to Marw and the other followed the way of Hamadan-Sawa[27] and then to Marw, was to confirm the situation of Imam ar-Redha (s), whom al-Ma’moon had begun to confine. What confirmed these doubts that the two caravans did not reached Marw. The first one stopped at Shiraz and its people separated here and there after a clash with government forces and the other stopped at Sawa. Some historical sources mentioned that the second caravan had been attacked too and that Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) felt that she was about to die after she had felt too weak and this made her ask about the city of Qom. It was said to her that Qom was about eighty kilometers and so she asked to be taken there.

Whether her sickness was because of poison, which had been inserted into her food, or because of the great tiredness and sufferings that she had faced, she died after seventeen days only after arriving at Qom. She was as a guest of Musa bin[28] Khazraj until she died after some days to be buried in a land called Babulan belonging to this man.

After a period of time, this land became a great graveyard containing bodies of thousands of narrators, speechers, leaders and rulers. This peace of land became the central part of the city, which began to grow rapidly.

The Holy Shrine

The shrine (of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma) was at first as a shed of straw mat erected according to the order of Musa bin Khazraj al-Ash’ari to be now as a high gold dome, around which high minarets rising towards the Heaven.

Through twelve centuries the shrine has been rebuilt many times.

The first dome, after that straw mat shed, has been built after half a century by the order of Zaynab, the daughter of Imam al-Jawad (s) in the middle of the third century of hijra. It has been built with adobe, stone and plaster.

Then two other domes have been built after some Alawite ladies have been buried (in the same shrine). The three domes remained until the middle of the fifth century of hijra when the first high dome has been built to replace those three domes. It has been built by the vizier of Tugril the Great[29] after encouragement by Sheikh at-Toossi. This dome has been decorated with colored figures, bricks and tiles (kashi).

In 925 A.H. the roof of the dome has been decorated with mosaic according to the order of Lady Beigam, the daughter of Shah Issma’eel as-Safawi (the Safavid). Also a hall and two minarets have been built in the old yard.

Finally, Fathali (Fat~h Ali) Shah al-Qajari[30] has ordered to decorate the roof of the dome with gold plates to remain shining for two centuries.

After some damage had happen to some of the gold plates, the office of the custodian of the shrine decided to rebuild the dome. The old gold plates have been collected to be replaced with others in a great project,

whose cost might be twenty-five milliard Iranian rials (one dollar equals eight thousand rials).

In general the shrine is a structure with wonderful signs of Islamic architecture. It has been adorned with marvelous figures.

The total area of the shrine is about fourteen thousand square meters including the haram, the porches, the halls, the three yards,[31] the tombs of the kings and the two mosques; at-Tabataba’iy and Balasar (over the head). Lately the Great Mosque has been added to the shrine. The area of the Great Mosque alone is about twenty-five thousand square meters.

When a visitor arrives at the outskirts of the city, he will see two minarets shining distantly.

The dome leans over a silver tomb crowned with gold. The tomb is four meters high, five meters and twenty-five centimeters long and four meters and seventy-three centimeters wide.

The northern hall is fourteen meters and eighty centimeters high, eight meters and seventy centimeters wide and nine meters long. It is adorned with gold from inside and its figures are demarcated with gold too. Upon this hall the two minarets go high in the space until thirty-two meters and twenty centimeters from the ground. The diameter of each minaret is one hundred and fifty centimeters. This hall is called “the hall of gold” and its gate is called “the gate of gold”.

In the eastern side there is a hall decorated with hundreds of mirrors where lights reflect to make it more beautiful and wonderful. This hall adjoins with the haram by a porch, which is seven meters and eighty centimeters high, seven meters and eighty-seven centimeters wide and nine meters long. The porch stands on four stone pillars. Each of them is eleven meters high.

There are two minarets on this hall. Each of them is twenty-eight meters high from the roof of the hall. It is written on the top of them in one meter width “la hawla wela quwatta illa billah: there is no power save in Allah” and on the other one “subhanallah, wel hamdu lillah, wela ilaha illallah, wellahu akbar: glory be to Allah, praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah and Allah is Great”.

The visitors feel a state of spirituality and happiness under the shadows of the shrine and in the new yard where several minarets extend high towards the Heaven and lights reflect in the hall, which is decorated with hundreds of mirrors besides the flying flocks of doves, which have taken this holy shrine as warm nests while the fountains dance in a glittering pool.

In the past the visitors and tourists could come into a museum from the yard of the shrine directly but now this way is closed and the museum has a gate outside the shrine in the Moozeh (museum) street.

The museum, which consists of two floors, contains a good group of gifts and valuable things that have been gifted to the holy shrine throughout its long history.

Surely whoever visits the museum feels eager to see al-Faydiyya school beside it, which is one of the most famous religious schools and hawzas.[32] This school, according to certified facts, has replaced al-Aastana school. It is connected with the haram by a hall in the old yard.

A tourist’s attention may be drawn by the masses of the passer-bys between the small park adjacent to the street and between the school, the museum and the markets. He may think to take his way to the bazaar!

A tourist will feel that he enters a museum showing him different kinds of arts of architecture and different handworked goods in this ancient bazaar.

A tourist may ask, in the other side of the bazaar, about “Baytun noor: the house of light”, which is one of the important marks in the city that has become a school called as-Satiyya, where Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) had lived as a guest for seventeen days before she left to the better world.

Qom; Country and People

Qom is the smallest governorate in Iran. Previously it was as a district belonging to the governorate of Arak and then it was attached to Tehran until it was certificated to be as independent governorate.

Its population was not more than one hundred and fifty thousand in 1957 A.D. In 1979, when the Islamic revolution triumphed, the population of the city was about three hundred thousand.

The city has progressed so much and has gotten much attention from the government after the years of deliberate neglect during the reign of Shah. After the triumph of the Islamic revolution, the city began to grow rapidly until its population became more than one million besides the many foreign students coming from the different continents of the world. They have come to study in Qom and then they got married and make families or they have brought their families with them. There are also many Afghan emigrants, who are more than half a million besides some thousands of Iraqi emigrants.

The city has flourished and prospered in every side especially that there is cheap employment because of the great numbers of the emigrant Afghans.

The cultural life has become too prosperous because of the availability of learned Arabs, among whom the Iraqis form a great proportion.

As for the texture of the local population of the governorate, we can say that only nine percent live in the countryside whereas ninety percent live in the city.

Nearly half a century ago the farms and gardens covered most parts of Qom and then they began to abate little by little before the expansion of building.

Some people, who have lived in the city about fifty years ago or those who have been born in the city, refer to some main streets of the city and say that they were as gardens full of pomegranate and fig trees.

Some famous quarters in the city are still having names that refer to their rural origins.[33]

Nevertheless Qom was and is still as a district having a desert and semi-desert climate.

There are some certain areas having cold mountainous climate and others having moderate climate but the general climate of this governorate is the semi-desert climate.

At the shores of the “Lake of Salt” there is a long line of desert having many dunes. After that and towards the north and the west-north there are wide wild lands, in the western side of which Qom is. As for the moderate areas, they form the western line and have an area four times more than the area of the desert line. There is a small area having a cold mountainous climate around Mountain Ghaleek, which is 3171 meters high.

The western line has an important role in the life of the governorate because it has fertile agricultural lands and many water sources.

From among fourteen rivers flowing in the land of the governorate there are only two permanent rivers; one is “Qara Chai”, which flows from the mountains of “Shazand” in Arak to the west of Qom and the other is “Qamrood”, which flows from the mountains of “Khawansar” in the south.

The rate of raining in the governorate is about 138 millimeter. It is very little rate in comparison with the general rate of rain in Iran, which is about 255 millimeter.

Once Sayyid Muhsin al-Ameen al-Aamily has passed by this city and written down his notes about it in his Iraqi-Iranian travel in 1353 A. H., 1933 A/D.

Here are some lines of his notes:

“A flood has come and covered all the streets (of Qom) so we were obliged to walk away from the places being covered by the flood. We couldn’t reach Qom at that day. We spent the night some kilometers before Qom in a café near a village there. In the café there was an official having a high position in the army. He began to smoke opium with the keepers of the café. In the morning we set out towards Qom. We found that the flood had covered the way. We could not pass the bridge near Qom by the car so we passed it on foot.”

The Village of Qom

Qom is a flourishing village with an ancient history. Particular histories have been written about it. Most of its people are poor. They are famous of their Shiism since the ages of the infallible imams (s) like the people of Kufa.[34]

Most narrators (of traditions) of the Shia were from these two cities (Qom and Kufa). The Arab Ash’arites had come to live in Qom after the advent of Islam. They were followers of Ahlul Bayt (s) and from among the narrators of their (Ahlul Bayt’s) traditions. The people of Qom nowadays are well-known for their piety.

In Qom there was a big river, on which there was an arch, flowing from the west to the east in the north part of the city.

Most buildings of the city were made of adobe and some were made of brick.

The water of the city was and is somehow salty but it is said that it is useful. There are many old wells, to which it is come down by ladders. They are too deep. They were the source of drinking water.

Mosquitoes spread in the city in big numbers. The prices were satisfactory. Eggplants were sold singly. One hundred eggplants equaled one kiran (five Syrian piasters) in comparison with the Ottoman lira, which equals five hundred and fifty Syrian liras. Pistachio is much cultivated in the governorate.

One of the wonders of this governorate is that there is a sandy land near it, which no one can walk in. Whoever enters this land will sink as if he sinks in water and mud and he cannot save himself from that.

The river of the city flows until it reaches this sandy land to sink in it.

In Qom there is a high minaret. It is said that it has been erected during the reign of Umar bin Abdul Aziz, the Umayyad caliph.

Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Yazdi

He was the jurisprudent and teacher of Qom. He taught Sayyid Muhammad al-Isfahani. He was so prudent and strong-minded with great knowledge, high morals and deep thinking. We could not say that his knowledge was more than his mind or his mind was more than his knowledge because he was so skilled in both.

He lived in Sultanabad and then he moved to live in Qom, in which he established a religious school, until he died.

Everyday the postman came to the sheikh with a parcel of books and letters. The sheikh had a clerk, who used to receive the parcel. If there was something not so important, the clerk himself would answer it and bring it to the sheikh in order to sign it but if there was something important, the sheikh himself would reply to it.

In his meeting many scientific deliberations were held. I often attended them. They all were in Persian.

He had a disease in his stomach so he was confined to certain kinds of food and in certain times according to the doctors’ recommendations.

Because he was so prudent, he used not to take the monies that came to him (as religious rights) but he let them with a merchant and asked him to spend them in paying the students’ salaries and he himself took a salary from the merchant. By such he lived in ease and let none criticize him. The poor are always at his door. He either gave them from his own money or asked his companions to give them what they needed.

Al-Mutawally Bashi

From among the notables of Qom was al-Mutawally Bashi (the responsible) of the holy shrine of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s), whose name was Sayyid Muhammad Baqir bin Sayyid Hasan al-Husayni al-Aamily al-

Qommi. He was a lofty Hashemite man from Mountain Aamil in Lebanon. Once he went to perform hajj and we met him in Damascus.

When we came to Qom, we were told that he had been cripple. We visited him in his house. One day his son Sayyid Misbah visited us in our house. Now he undertakes the affairs of the shrine instead of his father.

The School of Qom

Sheikh Abdul Kareem (mentioned above) had established the (religious) school of Qom. It was said to us that the school had about nine hundred students. Sheikh Abdul Kareem paid the most of the students’ expenses. He had appointed to them a special doctor. Every six months and at the end of every year, Sheikh Abdul Kareem made a test for his students.

A delegate from the government attended this test to exempt the students from joining the military service. Sheikh Abdul Kareem often complained and said:

“We educate a student until he ripens and then he puts off the turban and the dress of the ulama to put on the dress of the people of rule to work in of the offices.”

Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani

In Qom there was a man from Tehran called Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani. He was one of the best students in the school of Sheikh Abdul Kareem. He was virtuous, prudent, with high morals, altruistic, sincere and kind. He often visited us, stayed with us and achieved our needs and affairs.

The flood in Qom

The flood-as we mentioned before-had occurred in Qom three days before we arrived. It had destroyed about three hundred houses in the new quarter because all the houses were built of adobe but no one was killed and no wealth was lost because usually the flood came to the city from a distant place and so the people had enough time to prepare their affairs.

A telegram had reached warning them of the flood. They got their furniture and animals out of the houses and they also got out of the houses, which were liable to fall down. When the flood came, the houses were empty; therefore no loss was among people, their cattle and furniture.

The Safavids had built a dam some distance away to prevent floods but it had been destroyed by time.

At the same time the news came saying that a flood had occurred in Tabriz and destroyed many houses there.

Ma’ssooma Qom

In Qom there is the holy shrine of Fatima, the sister of Imam ar-Redha (s). The Iranians call her Ma’ssooma (of) Qom. The shrine is so great and is visited by people from everywhere in the world. The shrine has its own officials and caretakers.

Inside the shrine, Mirza Ali Asghar Khan has been buried. He has been killed by the people of the (mashroota: constitutional movement). He was the vizier of Nasiruddeen Shah and the vizier of his son after him.

Tombs of the Ulama and Narrators in Qom

In Qom there is a graveyard called the graveyard of “Sheikhoon”, which means the sheikhs. Sheikhoon is the plural form of Sheikh in Persian. In fact it is sheikhan because the mark of plurality in Persian is by adding “AN” at the end of a word but when speaking the Iranians often change the “AN” into “O(O)N”.

In this graveyard there are many tombs of great narrators (of traditions) like Zakariyya bin Adam and some of bani[35] Babwayh and tombs of famous ulama like al-Mirza al-Qommi. These tombs are about to be obliterated because the government[36] has made streets in the graveyard without paying any attention to the tombs. In fact the government has intended to remove the graveyard totally.

Our Relatives in Qom

Sayyid Hasan bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Ameen, who was the brother of our grandfather Sayyid Ali bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Ameen, has traveled to Iraq to study (religious knowledges) with his brother Sayyid Husayn. His brother has stayed in Najaf and got a high position in knowledge but he himself has traveled to Qom and stayed there.

He had a progeny in Qom but they became extinct. One of his daughters had got married to a sayyid[37] from the sayyids of Qom and had offspring from him. Two virtuous sayyids, who are two brothers, of her progeny have still been living in Qom till now. Each of them is an imam of a mosque.

One of them has told us about the coming of our grandfather’s brother to Iran and his living in Qom in a wonderful story.

Our Works in Qom

We found in Qom “Thayl as-Sulafa”, from which we quoted necessary things in our book “A’yan ash-Shia”.

We kept on looking in the libraries for the books that we might make use of in writing our book mentioned above. We found a volume of “al-Majmoo’ ar-Ra’iq” and quoted some things from it. Also we found some other books that we do not remember their titles now.

We were told that in Isfahan there was a copy of “Riyadhul Ulama’” for sale. We asked Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani about this and he confirmed the news and said:

“The keepers of the book want sixty tomans but we can buy it with less than this price.”

Sixty tomans equaled thirty Syrian liras or nearly five and a half Ottoman gold liras at that time.

We asked him to send a telegram to the keepers of the book. He said:

“The telegram will make them insist on the price. We send them a letter.”

Then he was told that the book had been bought by Hajji Agha Husayn at-Tehrani, the king of the merchants, with one hundred and twenty tomans, which was as twice as the previous price they wanted for the book.

We kept on looking for another copy. We found two volumes; the second and the third. We bought them with expensive price. The first and the fourth volumes of the book were lost. We could not find the fifth volume but we found a copy of it with somebody. We hired someone to copy it by hand and we gave him his wage. He said that it would be completed after our return from Khurasan. He corrected it and sent it to us in Tehran.

After buying the second and the third volumes and hiring somebody to copy the fourth volume, another volume, which was a manuscript written by the author himself, was offered to us. The keeper of this volume was a woman. She wanted thirty Ottoman liras for it. We would have bought it if she had deducted the price a little but she hadn’t. We could not buy it with this expensive price.

We stayed at Qom for about fifteen days and in the last of Safar,[38] 1353 A.H. we set out towards Tehran.

The Salty Lake

On the right side of the way between Qom and Tehran there was a salty lake, which was called in Iran as “Daryatcha Namak”.

It would be useful to mention here what the Egyptian writer and journalist Professor Fahmi Huwaydi had written about Qom through his visit to the city in 1983 A/D. nearly half a century after the visit of Sayyid Muhsin al-Ameen al-Aamily.

Professor Fahmi Huwaydi says:

“Qom remains as the key and the lock in Iran after the Islamic revolution.”

We often read longingly the reportages written by Professor Fahmi Huwaydi, which took the Arab readers to far horizons, especially when they (the reportages) were accompanied with the camera of the photographer Oscar Mitry. His writings had a great historical and scientific value.

Let us read what the professor and journalist has said about Qom:

Shahr-e-Muqaddas: The Other Face

[39]

With the sunshine of the next day we were at the gates of Qom. We moved on the wide and well-paved way, whose building started at the reign of the Shah to be completed at the age of the Revolution as the fate willed! We passed by wide wild land. We passed by the Lake of Salt, in which the men of SAVAK[40] used to throw whomever they wanted to get rid of to be swallowed by the lake and then to be dissolved by the salty water. We stopped at one of twelve checkpoints established recently to control coming and going. A bearded young man from the guards of the revolution with a machine gun on his shoulder gazed at us. His eyes stopped at me. The driver said to him: “He is a foreign Muslim”. He smiled and murmured: “Ya Allah!” he turned to check the bag of the car to be sure that there was no weapon or any kind of bombs or any forbidden thing else. Then he permitted us to move.

After two hundred meters we stopped at another checkpoint. The same procedures were done and then we entered Qom. The first thing we faced was a big signboard, on which it was written:

“Until the appearance of al-Mahdi our revolution will still be continuous.”

After some minutes, my host, whom I met for the first time, was leading me welcomingly to a rectangular hall, whose walls were hidden behind the shelves of the books and whose floor was covered with a modest rag whereas cushions and pads were here and there. No seat there was in the hall. We sat squatting on the ground and we were acquainted with each other so quickly. He said to me in good Arabic:

“Take your ease as if you are at your home or try here the life of the weak.”

Then he recommended his younger brother, who was one of the intelligent young students of the hawza, to take care of me and then he left to do his affairs. I did not see him during that week that I spent in his house-residing in that room-except two times only.

This was not my first visit to Qom although it was my first residence in it. I had come to Qom for the first time with Professor Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, the famous writer and journalist, who had visited Iran in 1980 when he was trying to write his book about the Islamic revolution in Iran, which was published later on under the title of “The guns of Aayatullah”. At that time Imam Khomeini was still in Qom. Professor Haykal went to meet Imam Khomeini in Qom where I accompanied him and then we went back to Tehran in the evening of the same day.

We saw the Leader of the Revolution where his house was surrounded by a sea of people, who had come from every spot in Iran to announce their allegiance to him. We did not see anything in Qom save the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma with its gold dome shining in the sky of the city and with its wonderful building, which seized the sights of the visitors and which no eye would miss even if the visitor was-like us-just a passerby in his car towards the abode of the Imam.

At first sight, Qom takes you some centuries backward in the past when the Islamic world was full of centers of knowledge and science from Bukhara and Samarqand in central Asia to al-Qayrawan in the north of Africa and to Timbuktu in the west of the continent. Your eye is caught by the great numbers of libraries, jurisprudents, who walk in the streets with their distinguished turbans and wide cloths, the minarets and domes, the activity of trade in the roofed markets with the narrow streets and the sellers of rosaries, perfumes and charms. The new thing may be the voices of the reciters and mourners, which follow you wherever you go and the loudspeakers impose them on your hearing. Then you see the ads of the only cinema “al-Fajr”, which has been established after the Revolution. The film, which was on at that time and whose title was “sincere repentance”, conformed to the general condition of people in the city.

But this scene changes little by little whenever you approach to the other parts of the city and knock at its many gates. After the first round in Qom, you will discover that it is not just a “Shahr Muqaddas” holy city but it is a big centre followed by many quarters and districts. Among these quarters there is one called “Neauphle-le-château”. It is the name of the place in which Imam Khomeini has resided when he resorted to France after he has been exiled from Iraq in 1978.

You will discover too that it is not the city of the hawza only because the old of the hawza is just a little more than half a century, since it has been established by Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Ha’iry after his departure from his birthplace Arak. Sheikh Abdul Kareem died in 1355 A.H. whereas the old of the city (Qom) is more than thirteen centuries.

As knowledge is what the city has become known of but it is just one face among its other faces, which have been prevailed by the hawza, whose fame has spread throughout the world during the last quarter of the century.

Just a few people know that Qom is an agricultural city having a good production of wheat, cotton, pomegranate, melon, fig and pistachio. Also a few people know that Qom is an industrial city. The merchants of carpets are more aware of Qom’s expensive silk carpets, which is enough to refer to and to say that they are made in Qom. As for its production of pottery, plastic products and materials of building no one outside Iran may have known about it.

At the same time the commercial Qom is unknown too. The city has gained its commercial value because it is a market that millions of peoples come to from everywhere to visit the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) and to be blessed by visiting the tombs of the progeny of the infallible imams and the other saints. The excellent location of Qom, which is at the crossroads that connect the north of Iran with the south, has contributed to gain this value. Besides these excellences that have been realized by the good location of the city, its people have tolerated unwillingly its only disadvantage. It is the one that the river coming from the mountains of Bakhtiyariyya in the middle of Iran has brought to them. The river is called “Roodkhana-e-shoor” which means the salty river. The fate has decided that the people of Qom have to coexist with this river and to swallow its salt willingly and submissively since the existence of the two; Qom and the river. This river is the main source of the city’s drinking and irrigating water because the rain water in general is little and have no value in this concern besides that the winter is not long here anyhow.

If these faces have been unknown to those, who have known Qom through the books and the media, the visitors of the city will meet them all when their feet lead them to the main streets like “Imam Khomeini Street”, “Musa al-Sadr Street” and “Talaqani Street” besides the bazaar. In fact these streets show you more and more about the city and give you an impression that the city lives in its golden age since the Revolution has broken out and that the age of the ulama has circulated to everything in Qom from the hawza until the bazaar.

This is the functional Qom. But as for Qom the city, since it has become as a center of attracting people after the Revolution its population has been tripled to be more than one million.

A visitor can easily distinguish between three faces of the city; the old Qom surrounding the shrine of al-Ma'ssooma (s) with its narrow, circuitous, roofed and earthy streets and with its houses decorated from inside with beautiful architectural figures that distinguish the city from among the other cities, the modern Qom with its wide paved streets, high buildings, restaurants and hotels, which swim in seas of fluorescent lights and the most modern Qom, which has appeared after the Revolution and the beginning of the age of prosperity and flourishing, which has brought with it the agencies of the most modern Mercedes cars and the big supermarkets. Salarya quarter (the quarter of the notables) is a part of the most modern Qom although it is in the southern part of the city on the contrary to Tehran, whose quarter of the notables is in the north.

What I wanted to concentrate on through showing all these faces of the city was the hawza, which would have not existed unless the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) had been there. The holy shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) was the cornerstone of the city and by which the birth certificate of the holy city had been written and then to have had a passport to enter into history.

Al-Ma’ssooma and the Hawza

Before I knocked at the doors, I had been busy with the meanings of the words that had succeeded in the record of time as the following: Qom, al-Ma'ssooma and the hawza and I found what I have looked for in the bookcase, which was above my head and against which I opened my eyes every morning along my residence in Qom.

The sayings were different about the name of the city although the likeliest of them was the story saying that there was a small village in the same location of the city called “Kam”, which means “small” or “little” in Persian, and when the Arabs conquered it in 23 A.H. and came to live in it, they changed its name from Kam into Qom. Some Arabs of the tribe of al-Asha’ira had come to live in the city and then some families of the Hashemites and the Alawites resorted to it in the first centuries of hijra when they had fled from the pursuits of the Umayyads and the Abbasids.

The Islamic encyclopedia of the Shia mentions that building has begun in Qom at the end of the first century of hijra whereas it does not refer to any history about the city before Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s), the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kadhim (s), has been buried in it in 201 A.H. It is said that she has come from Medina to Marw in order to see her brother Imam Ali bin Musa ar-Redha (s) but she has fallen ill and asked to be carried to Qom, where she has died some days later. Since then she has been called as Ma’ssooma Qom. Since she was from the progeny of Ahlul Bayt (s) her tomb has become a holy shrine and then it has been referred to as “the haram”.

The notables, the emirs and the kings have competed to spend on the shrine and to enrich it costly; therefore it has become as a splendid architectural masterpiece surrounded by gates and windows made of gold and silver. It has always been expanded and developed until it has become as big as 13500 square meters in area.

Another kind of competition has occurred in burying the notables, the emirs and the kings near the tomb of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s). Her shrine has been still as a center of attraction to the masses of the Shia everywhere. They come to be blessed by visiting the holy shrine and to attend the different religious occasions. This has given the city of Qom a high and distinguished position.[41]

As for “al-hawza al-ilmiyya” it is an accurate Arabic name. Hawza in Arabic means a place or an area, which if is assigned for studying and learning can be called as hawza ilmiyya.[42] According to the linguistic origin, a hawza can be assigned for any human activity. But this word, according to the Shia intellect, has been correlated with “learning” until it has been understood spontaneously that a hawza must be a center of knowledge. In fact the word “hawza” itself has been dealt with as having this meaning and nothing else until it has been used alone without assigning to give the meaning of the two; “hawza” and “ilmiyya” at the same time.

Al-hawza al-ilmiyya is not one scientific institute as many people think, but it refers to the whole city of Qom as a place of learning through many religious schools with different ranks. The government has nothing to do with spending on al-hawza al-ilmiyya, which is run by the heads of the sect (the Shia), who are called “maraji’ at-taqleed[43] ”.[44]

QOM IN PHOTOS

A spatial photo from about 705 kilometers high

Ansariyan Publications

In 1975 A/D a candle was lit. It began to shine and its light spread little by little.

Yes! Such was the beginning; mercy of Allah and interests undertaken by believers who have believed in Islam as a religion and as a mission.

Such was the beginning; the letters of the Iranians, who have roved throughout the world for studying and trading.

Faithful youths and “men who are true to the covenant which they made with Allah” have seen the world, which has drowned in confusion, stray and suspicion…they inquired: Where is the preaching of Islam? Where is its humane mission?

They lived there and saw closely the confusion of the human beings; Muslims and non-Muslims. Everyone was looking for the right path.

Moreover, the fruitful meetings with Allama (jurisprudent) Tabataba’iy, with Professor Mahmood ash-Shahabi after his return from a travel then, and with others of ulama and learned people of the world of Shiism of Ahlul Bayt (s); all that has led to the establishment of Ansariyan Publications in the holy city of Qom. Ansariyan Publications has been granted with blessings of Allah, His messenger and Ahlul Bayt (s). The beginning was as any beginning. It opened its way slowly and step by step and when the Islamic Revolution triumphed the establishment of Ansariyan flourished to grow up, be firm and fruitful.

Worth mentioning that Ansariyan Publications is proud, in spite of all problems and defects, of suffering what it has suffered while opening its way to stand up nowadays with honor of what it has achieved and what it has presented to the Arabic, Islamic and international libraries, of witnessed services in this concern in spite that it has not got any official or personal subsidy.

And this book before you is one of the fruits of its efforts, which have continued for thirty years of perseverance. Nevertheless, it considers itself as in the beginning of the way beseeching Allah for help and invoking our master and imam al-Mahdi, the authority of Allah on His earth, to keep on this blessed work determinedly and sincerely.

Respectable visitor:

O you, whose heart burns for pure Islam!

O you, whose heart flourishes with loving the Prophet and his progeny!

O you, whose soul has absorbed allegiance to Ameerul Mo’mineen Ali (s)!

You undertake, today, a serious responsibility before Allah, the Almighty, with your tongue, pen, social position and moral and material capabilities and know well that Allah will ask us all about our deeds!

O our brothers in belief and humanity, come on to work and to cooperate and to invoke Allah to grant success to our Islamic Umma.

In Tehran International Book Fair

The meeting of the head of the establishment Professor Muhammad Taqi Ansariyan with the president of the Islamic Republic

QOM; GEOGRAPHICALLY AND HISTORICALLY

There is no an accurate dating about the establishment of this city nor a certain reason behind its name. There are some historians confirming that its history belongs to the pre-Islamic conquest period relying on some historical manuscripts, which show clearly that the city has been available during the age of Anushirvan, the Persian king.[1] It (Qom) has been mentioned during the Islamic conquests when talking about the battle of Jalawla’ against Khosrow, the last king of the Sasanian dynasty, where Hijr bin Adiy was one of the leaders of the Islamic armies at that day.

Hence the history of the city belongs to the period before the year twenty-third A.H. (the year of (al-Fat~h-the Conquest) for a long time.

Many stories have been said about the name of the city each trying to give an explanation about it. Some have said that its name was “Kumondan”[2] and then some of its letters have been dropped and others have said that the original name was “Kam” meaning “little” that it was a small village and then it was Arabized into “Qom” after the Islamic conquests.[3]

But the name of the city began to shine on the Islamic map after it had been occupied by the Ash’arites[4] in ninety-four A.H. They had tried their best to build the city. It grew and became one of the important cities in Persia after its people had believed in Ahlul Bayt[5] (s) and after it had become independent of Isfahan[6] in 189 A.H.

The fate had willed that the city was to be one of the sacred cities after its ground had embraced the pure body of Fatima, the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kadhim[7] (s) in 201 A.H. Hence it could be said that since that date the city of Qom had begun to ascend the stairs of glory to be at the head of the Islamic capitals.

The city has paid the price of its allegiance and love to Ahlul Bayt (s) so expensively along all the ages. The Abbasid policy has followed a degrading means by imposing very heavy taxes.

In spite of that there was a kind of political ease towards Ahlul Bayt (s) during the reign of al-Ma’moon.[8] History has recorded that a revolution has broken out in Qom in 210 A.H. because of the heaviness of taxes but the revolution has been suppressed severely, the walls of the city have been destroyed and the taxes have been increased three and a half times.[9]

Some books of history mentions stories, which are like fables, about the name of the city. One of them says that the Prophet (s), during his ascension to the Heaven, has seen a place on the earth, which was more beautiful than the color of saffron and with a fragrance better than the fragrance of musk, and has seen an old man putting a long cap on his head. The Prophet (s) asked Gabriel and Gabriel said: “This is the place of your Shia and your guardian’s Shia and this old man is Iblis. He invites people to disbelieve.” The Prophet (s) asked Gabriel to swoop down and Gabriel swooped down faster than lightening. The Prophet (s) shouted at Iblis: “Get up (qom)[10] O you cursed!” Then the city was called as “Qom”!

In spite of the vicissitudes of time, the city has withstood throughout the ages of history and has remained as a capital of knowledge and intellect and as a refuge for the wronged and subdued people of the Prophet’s progeny. This is why there are many shrines of the Hashemites[11] in this great city.

Qom in traditions

Much praise has been mentioned in traditions related to Imam as-Sadiq[12] (s). He said:

“Above Qom there is an angel flapping his two wings. No arrogant intends to offend it (Qom), unless Allah will make him melt away like salt being melted in water.”[13]

He also said:

“If you are afflicted with distress and suffering, you are to resort to Qom because it is the refuge of the Fatimites[14] and the resort of the believers.”[15]

Imam Musa al-Kadhim (s) said:

“Qom is the shelter of Muhammad’s progeny and the resort of their Shia.”[16]

He also said in another tradition, which was as an astonishing prediction:

“There will be a man from Qom, who will invite people to the truth and great masses of people will join him. They will not be shaken by the most violent storms.”[17]

This tradition has become real after the Islamic revolution under the leadership of Imam Khomeini (may Allah be pleased with him).

There is another tradition of Imam as-Sadiq (s) deserving to be pondered on. Imam as-Sadiq (s) said:

“The ground of Qom is sacred. Its people are from us and we are from them. No arrogant tries to offend them, unless his punishment will be hastened to him as long as they do not betray their brothers. If they do that, then Allah will subject them to the offenses of the arrogants.”[18]

There is another tradition related to Imam as-Sadiq (s) talking about Fatima al-Ma’ssooma (s).

He said:

“We have a sanctum. It is the village of Qom, in which a woman from my progeny will be buried. Her name will be Fatima.”[19]

Biography of Fatima al-Ma’ssooma

Fatima al-Ma’ssooma (s) was born in Thil Qa’da,[20] 173 A.H. She was six years old when her father Imam al-Kadhim (s) was put in prison in 179 A.H.[21]

She had several surnames but she was known as “al-Ma’ssooma”. It not known exactly why she has been surnamed as al-Ma’ssooma but there might be some reasons behind that.

The girl was pure and infallible besides that she was a daughter of the seventh imam of the infallible house of the Prophet (s), a sister of an infallible imam (Imam ar-Redha[22] (s)) and an aunt of an infallible imam (Imam al-Jawad[23] (s)).

We could add another reason that she had died oppressedly far from her nation while she was still a famous than her name.

In 201 A.H. Fatima al-Ma’ssooma[24] (s) decided, with some of her brothers, to travel to Marw,[25] which was then the capital of the Islamic state after the end of the war between the two Abbasid brothers, al-Ameen and al-Ma’moon, who won the war and killed his brother.

Al-Ma’moon, after becoming the caliph, took a decision, whose motives have been still disputable until now, to make, apparently, reconciliation between the Alawite[26] house and the Abbasid house and to put an end to the distresses of Ahlul Bayt (s). Many people doubted the intents of al-Ma’moon when he appointed Imam ar-Redha (s) as his crown prince. They had convincing justifications about doubting the real intents and aims of al-Ma’moon towards the progeny of Ali (s).

It was very probable that the travel of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) with her brothers, which was in tow separate caravans; one followed the way of Basra to Shiraz and then to Marw and the other followed the way of Hamadan-Sawa[27] and then to Marw, was to confirm the situation of Imam ar-Redha (s), whom al-Ma’moon had begun to confine. What confirmed these doubts that the two caravans did not reached Marw. The first one stopped at Shiraz and its people separated here and there after a clash with government forces and the other stopped at Sawa. Some historical sources mentioned that the second caravan had been attacked too and that Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) felt that she was about to die after she had felt too weak and this made her ask about the city of Qom. It was said to her that Qom was about eighty kilometers and so she asked to be taken there.

Whether her sickness was because of poison, which had been inserted into her food, or because of the great tiredness and sufferings that she had faced, she died after seventeen days only after arriving at Qom. She was as a guest of Musa bin[28] Khazraj until she died after some days to be buried in a land called Babulan belonging to this man.

After a period of time, this land became a great graveyard containing bodies of thousands of narrators, speechers, leaders and rulers. This peace of land became the central part of the city, which began to grow rapidly.

The Holy Shrine

The shrine (of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma) was at first as a shed of straw mat erected according to the order of Musa bin Khazraj al-Ash’ari to be now as a high gold dome, around which high minarets rising towards the Heaven.

Through twelve centuries the shrine has been rebuilt many times.

The first dome, after that straw mat shed, has been built after half a century by the order of Zaynab, the daughter of Imam al-Jawad (s) in the middle of the third century of hijra. It has been built with adobe, stone and plaster.

Then two other domes have been built after some Alawite ladies have been buried (in the same shrine). The three domes remained until the middle of the fifth century of hijra when the first high dome has been built to replace those three domes. It has been built by the vizier of Tugril the Great[29] after encouragement by Sheikh at-Toossi. This dome has been decorated with colored figures, bricks and tiles (kashi).

In 925 A.H. the roof of the dome has been decorated with mosaic according to the order of Lady Beigam, the daughter of Shah Issma’eel as-Safawi (the Safavid). Also a hall and two minarets have been built in the old yard.

Finally, Fathali (Fat~h Ali) Shah al-Qajari[30] has ordered to decorate the roof of the dome with gold plates to remain shining for two centuries.

After some damage had happen to some of the gold plates, the office of the custodian of the shrine decided to rebuild the dome. The old gold plates have been collected to be replaced with others in a great project,

whose cost might be twenty-five milliard Iranian rials (one dollar equals eight thousand rials).

In general the shrine is a structure with wonderful signs of Islamic architecture. It has been adorned with marvelous figures.

The total area of the shrine is about fourteen thousand square meters including the haram, the porches, the halls, the three yards,[31] the tombs of the kings and the two mosques; at-Tabataba’iy and Balasar (over the head). Lately the Great Mosque has been added to the shrine. The area of the Great Mosque alone is about twenty-five thousand square meters.

When a visitor arrives at the outskirts of the city, he will see two minarets shining distantly.

The dome leans over a silver tomb crowned with gold. The tomb is four meters high, five meters and twenty-five centimeters long and four meters and seventy-three centimeters wide.

The northern hall is fourteen meters and eighty centimeters high, eight meters and seventy centimeters wide and nine meters long. It is adorned with gold from inside and its figures are demarcated with gold too. Upon this hall the two minarets go high in the space until thirty-two meters and twenty centimeters from the ground. The diameter of each minaret is one hundred and fifty centimeters. This hall is called “the hall of gold” and its gate is called “the gate of gold”.

In the eastern side there is a hall decorated with hundreds of mirrors where lights reflect to make it more beautiful and wonderful. This hall adjoins with the haram by a porch, which is seven meters and eighty centimeters high, seven meters and eighty-seven centimeters wide and nine meters long. The porch stands on four stone pillars. Each of them is eleven meters high.

There are two minarets on this hall. Each of them is twenty-eight meters high from the roof of the hall. It is written on the top of them in one meter width “la hawla wela quwatta illa billah: there is no power save in Allah” and on the other one “subhanallah, wel hamdu lillah, wela ilaha illallah, wellahu akbar: glory be to Allah, praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah and Allah is Great”.

The visitors feel a state of spirituality and happiness under the shadows of the shrine and in the new yard where several minarets extend high towards the Heaven and lights reflect in the hall, which is decorated with hundreds of mirrors besides the flying flocks of doves, which have taken this holy shrine as warm nests while the fountains dance in a glittering pool.

In the past the visitors and tourists could come into a museum from the yard of the shrine directly but now this way is closed and the museum has a gate outside the shrine in the Moozeh (museum) street.

The museum, which consists of two floors, contains a good group of gifts and valuable things that have been gifted to the holy shrine throughout its long history.

Surely whoever visits the museum feels eager to see al-Faydiyya school beside it, which is one of the most famous religious schools and hawzas.[32] This school, according to certified facts, has replaced al-Aastana school. It is connected with the haram by a hall in the old yard.

A tourist’s attention may be drawn by the masses of the passer-bys between the small park adjacent to the street and between the school, the museum and the markets. He may think to take his way to the bazaar!

A tourist will feel that he enters a museum showing him different kinds of arts of architecture and different handworked goods in this ancient bazaar.

A tourist may ask, in the other side of the bazaar, about “Baytun noor: the house of light”, which is one of the important marks in the city that has become a school called as-Satiyya, where Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s) had lived as a guest for seventeen days before she left to the better world.

Qom; Country and People

Qom is the smallest governorate in Iran. Previously it was as a district belonging to the governorate of Arak and then it was attached to Tehran until it was certificated to be as independent governorate.

Its population was not more than one hundred and fifty thousand in 1957 A.D. In 1979, when the Islamic revolution triumphed, the population of the city was about three hundred thousand.

The city has progressed so much and has gotten much attention from the government after the years of deliberate neglect during the reign of Shah. After the triumph of the Islamic revolution, the city began to grow rapidly until its population became more than one million besides the many foreign students coming from the different continents of the world. They have come to study in Qom and then they got married and make families or they have brought their families with them. There are also many Afghan emigrants, who are more than half a million besides some thousands of Iraqi emigrants.

The city has flourished and prospered in every side especially that there is cheap employment because of the great numbers of the emigrant Afghans.

The cultural life has become too prosperous because of the availability of learned Arabs, among whom the Iraqis form a great proportion.

As for the texture of the local population of the governorate, we can say that only nine percent live in the countryside whereas ninety percent live in the city.

Nearly half a century ago the farms and gardens covered most parts of Qom and then they began to abate little by little before the expansion of building.

Some people, who have lived in the city about fifty years ago or those who have been born in the city, refer to some main streets of the city and say that they were as gardens full of pomegranate and fig trees.

Some famous quarters in the city are still having names that refer to their rural origins.[33]

Nevertheless Qom was and is still as a district having a desert and semi-desert climate.

There are some certain areas having cold mountainous climate and others having moderate climate but the general climate of this governorate is the semi-desert climate.

At the shores of the “Lake of Salt” there is a long line of desert having many dunes. After that and towards the north and the west-north there are wide wild lands, in the western side of which Qom is. As for the moderate areas, they form the western line and have an area four times more than the area of the desert line. There is a small area having a cold mountainous climate around Mountain Ghaleek, which is 3171 meters high.

The western line has an important role in the life of the governorate because it has fertile agricultural lands and many water sources.

From among fourteen rivers flowing in the land of the governorate there are only two permanent rivers; one is “Qara Chai”, which flows from the mountains of “Shazand” in Arak to the west of Qom and the other is “Qamrood”, which flows from the mountains of “Khawansar” in the south.

The rate of raining in the governorate is about 138 millimeter. It is very little rate in comparison with the general rate of rain in Iran, which is about 255 millimeter.

Once Sayyid Muhsin al-Ameen al-Aamily has passed by this city and written down his notes about it in his Iraqi-Iranian travel in 1353 A. H., 1933 A/D.

Here are some lines of his notes:

“A flood has come and covered all the streets (of Qom) so we were obliged to walk away from the places being covered by the flood. We couldn’t reach Qom at that day. We spent the night some kilometers before Qom in a café near a village there. In the café there was an official having a high position in the army. He began to smoke opium with the keepers of the café. In the morning we set out towards Qom. We found that the flood had covered the way. We could not pass the bridge near Qom by the car so we passed it on foot.”

The Village of Qom

Qom is a flourishing village with an ancient history. Particular histories have been written about it. Most of its people are poor. They are famous of their Shiism since the ages of the infallible imams (s) like the people of Kufa.[34]

Most narrators (of traditions) of the Shia were from these two cities (Qom and Kufa). The Arab Ash’arites had come to live in Qom after the advent of Islam. They were followers of Ahlul Bayt (s) and from among the narrators of their (Ahlul Bayt’s) traditions. The people of Qom nowadays are well-known for their piety.

In Qom there was a big river, on which there was an arch, flowing from the west to the east in the north part of the city.

Most buildings of the city were made of adobe and some were made of brick.

The water of the city was and is somehow salty but it is said that it is useful. There are many old wells, to which it is come down by ladders. They are too deep. They were the source of drinking water.

Mosquitoes spread in the city in big numbers. The prices were satisfactory. Eggplants were sold singly. One hundred eggplants equaled one kiran (five Syrian piasters) in comparison with the Ottoman lira, which equals five hundred and fifty Syrian liras. Pistachio is much cultivated in the governorate.

One of the wonders of this governorate is that there is a sandy land near it, which no one can walk in. Whoever enters this land will sink as if he sinks in water and mud and he cannot save himself from that.

The river of the city flows until it reaches this sandy land to sink in it.

In Qom there is a high minaret. It is said that it has been erected during the reign of Umar bin Abdul Aziz, the Umayyad caliph.

Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Yazdi

He was the jurisprudent and teacher of Qom. He taught Sayyid Muhammad al-Isfahani. He was so prudent and strong-minded with great knowledge, high morals and deep thinking. We could not say that his knowledge was more than his mind or his mind was more than his knowledge because he was so skilled in both.

He lived in Sultanabad and then he moved to live in Qom, in which he established a religious school, until he died.

Everyday the postman came to the sheikh with a parcel of books and letters. The sheikh had a clerk, who used to receive the parcel. If there was something not so important, the clerk himself would answer it and bring it to the sheikh in order to sign it but if there was something important, the sheikh himself would reply to it.

In his meeting many scientific deliberations were held. I often attended them. They all were in Persian.

He had a disease in his stomach so he was confined to certain kinds of food and in certain times according to the doctors’ recommendations.

Because he was so prudent, he used not to take the monies that came to him (as religious rights) but he let them with a merchant and asked him to spend them in paying the students’ salaries and he himself took a salary from the merchant. By such he lived in ease and let none criticize him. The poor are always at his door. He either gave them from his own money or asked his companions to give them what they needed.

Al-Mutawally Bashi

From among the notables of Qom was al-Mutawally Bashi (the responsible) of the holy shrine of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s), whose name was Sayyid Muhammad Baqir bin Sayyid Hasan al-Husayni al-Aamily al-

Qommi. He was a lofty Hashemite man from Mountain Aamil in Lebanon. Once he went to perform hajj and we met him in Damascus.

When we came to Qom, we were told that he had been cripple. We visited him in his house. One day his son Sayyid Misbah visited us in our house. Now he undertakes the affairs of the shrine instead of his father.

The School of Qom

Sheikh Abdul Kareem (mentioned above) had established the (religious) school of Qom. It was said to us that the school had about nine hundred students. Sheikh Abdul Kareem paid the most of the students’ expenses. He had appointed to them a special doctor. Every six months and at the end of every year, Sheikh Abdul Kareem made a test for his students.

A delegate from the government attended this test to exempt the students from joining the military service. Sheikh Abdul Kareem often complained and said:

“We educate a student until he ripens and then he puts off the turban and the dress of the ulama to put on the dress of the people of rule to work in of the offices.”

Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani

In Qom there was a man from Tehran called Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani. He was one of the best students in the school of Sheikh Abdul Kareem. He was virtuous, prudent, with high morals, altruistic, sincere and kind. He often visited us, stayed with us and achieved our needs and affairs.

The flood in Qom

The flood-as we mentioned before-had occurred in Qom three days before we arrived. It had destroyed about three hundred houses in the new quarter because all the houses were built of adobe but no one was killed and no wealth was lost because usually the flood came to the city from a distant place and so the people had enough time to prepare their affairs.

A telegram had reached warning them of the flood. They got their furniture and animals out of the houses and they also got out of the houses, which were liable to fall down. When the flood came, the houses were empty; therefore no loss was among people, their cattle and furniture.

The Safavids had built a dam some distance away to prevent floods but it had been destroyed by time.

At the same time the news came saying that a flood had occurred in Tabriz and destroyed many houses there.

Ma’ssooma Qom

In Qom there is the holy shrine of Fatima, the sister of Imam ar-Redha (s). The Iranians call her Ma’ssooma (of) Qom. The shrine is so great and is visited by people from everywhere in the world. The shrine has its own officials and caretakers.

Inside the shrine, Mirza Ali Asghar Khan has been buried. He has been killed by the people of the (mashroota: constitutional movement). He was the vizier of Nasiruddeen Shah and the vizier of his son after him.

Tombs of the Ulama and Narrators in Qom

In Qom there is a graveyard called the graveyard of “Sheikhoon”, which means the sheikhs. Sheikhoon is the plural form of Sheikh in Persian. In fact it is sheikhan because the mark of plurality in Persian is by adding “AN” at the end of a word but when speaking the Iranians often change the “AN” into “O(O)N”.

In this graveyard there are many tombs of great narrators (of traditions) like Zakariyya bin Adam and some of bani[35] Babwayh and tombs of famous ulama like al-Mirza al-Qommi. These tombs are about to be obliterated because the government[36] has made streets in the graveyard without paying any attention to the tombs. In fact the government has intended to remove the graveyard totally.

Our Relatives in Qom

Sayyid Hasan bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Ameen, who was the brother of our grandfather Sayyid Ali bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Ameen, has traveled to Iraq to study (religious knowledges) with his brother Sayyid Husayn. His brother has stayed in Najaf and got a high position in knowledge but he himself has traveled to Qom and stayed there.

He had a progeny in Qom but they became extinct. One of his daughters had got married to a sayyid[37] from the sayyids of Qom and had offspring from him. Two virtuous sayyids, who are two brothers, of her progeny have still been living in Qom till now. Each of them is an imam of a mosque.

One of them has told us about the coming of our grandfather’s brother to Iran and his living in Qom in a wonderful story.

Our Works in Qom

We found in Qom “Thayl as-Sulafa”, from which we quoted necessary things in our book “A’yan ash-Shia”.

We kept on looking in the libraries for the books that we might make use of in writing our book mentioned above. We found a volume of “al-Majmoo’ ar-Ra’iq” and quoted some things from it. Also we found some other books that we do not remember their titles now.

We were told that in Isfahan there was a copy of “Riyadhul Ulama’” for sale. We asked Mirza Abdullah at-Tehrani about this and he confirmed the news and said:

“The keepers of the book want sixty tomans but we can buy it with less than this price.”

Sixty tomans equaled thirty Syrian liras or nearly five and a half Ottoman gold liras at that time.

We asked him to send a telegram to the keepers of the book. He said:

“The telegram will make them insist on the price. We send them a letter.”

Then he was told that the book had been bought by Hajji Agha Husayn at-Tehrani, the king of the merchants, with one hundred and twenty tomans, which was as twice as the previous price they wanted for the book.

We kept on looking for another copy. We found two volumes; the second and the third. We bought them with expensive price. The first and the fourth volumes of the book were lost. We could not find the fifth volume but we found a copy of it with somebody. We hired someone to copy it by hand and we gave him his wage. He said that it would be completed after our return from Khurasan. He corrected it and sent it to us in Tehran.

After buying the second and the third volumes and hiring somebody to copy the fourth volume, another volume, which was a manuscript written by the author himself, was offered to us. The keeper of this volume was a woman. She wanted thirty Ottoman liras for it. We would have bought it if she had deducted the price a little but she hadn’t. We could not buy it with this expensive price.

We stayed at Qom for about fifteen days and in the last of Safar,[38] 1353 A.H. we set out towards Tehran.

The Salty Lake

On the right side of the way between Qom and Tehran there was a salty lake, which was called in Iran as “Daryatcha Namak”.

It would be useful to mention here what the Egyptian writer and journalist Professor Fahmi Huwaydi had written about Qom through his visit to the city in 1983 A/D. nearly half a century after the visit of Sayyid Muhsin al-Ameen al-Aamily.

Professor Fahmi Huwaydi says:

“Qom remains as the key and the lock in Iran after the Islamic revolution.”

We often read longingly the reportages written by Professor Fahmi Huwaydi, which took the Arab readers to far horizons, especially when they (the reportages) were accompanied with the camera of the photographer Oscar Mitry. His writings had a great historical and scientific value.

Let us read what the professor and journalist has said about Qom:

Shahr-e-Muqaddas: The Other Face

[39]

With the sunshine of the next day we were at the gates of Qom. We moved on the wide and well-paved way, whose building started at the reign of the Shah to be completed at the age of the Revolution as the fate willed! We passed by wide wild land. We passed by the Lake of Salt, in which the men of SAVAK[40] used to throw whomever they wanted to get rid of to be swallowed by the lake and then to be dissolved by the salty water. We stopped at one of twelve checkpoints established recently to control coming and going. A bearded young man from the guards of the revolution with a machine gun on his shoulder gazed at us. His eyes stopped at me. The driver said to him: “He is a foreign Muslim”. He smiled and murmured: “Ya Allah!” he turned to check the bag of the car to be sure that there was no weapon or any kind of bombs or any forbidden thing else. Then he permitted us to move.

After two hundred meters we stopped at another checkpoint. The same procedures were done and then we entered Qom. The first thing we faced was a big signboard, on which it was written:

“Until the appearance of al-Mahdi our revolution will still be continuous.”

After some minutes, my host, whom I met for the first time, was leading me welcomingly to a rectangular hall, whose walls were hidden behind the shelves of the books and whose floor was covered with a modest rag whereas cushions and pads were here and there. No seat there was in the hall. We sat squatting on the ground and we were acquainted with each other so quickly. He said to me in good Arabic:

“Take your ease as if you are at your home or try here the life of the weak.”

Then he recommended his younger brother, who was one of the intelligent young students of the hawza, to take care of me and then he left to do his affairs. I did not see him during that week that I spent in his house-residing in that room-except two times only.

This was not my first visit to Qom although it was my first residence in it. I had come to Qom for the first time with Professor Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, the famous writer and journalist, who had visited Iran in 1980 when he was trying to write his book about the Islamic revolution in Iran, which was published later on under the title of “The guns of Aayatullah”. At that time Imam Khomeini was still in Qom. Professor Haykal went to meet Imam Khomeini in Qom where I accompanied him and then we went back to Tehran in the evening of the same day.

We saw the Leader of the Revolution where his house was surrounded by a sea of people, who had come from every spot in Iran to announce their allegiance to him. We did not see anything in Qom save the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma with its gold dome shining in the sky of the city and with its wonderful building, which seized the sights of the visitors and which no eye would miss even if the visitor was-like us-just a passerby in his car towards the abode of the Imam.

At first sight, Qom takes you some centuries backward in the past when the Islamic world was full of centers of knowledge and science from Bukhara and Samarqand in central Asia to al-Qayrawan in the north of Africa and to Timbuktu in the west of the continent. Your eye is caught by the great numbers of libraries, jurisprudents, who walk in the streets with their distinguished turbans and wide cloths, the minarets and domes, the activity of trade in the roofed markets with the narrow streets and the sellers of rosaries, perfumes and charms. The new thing may be the voices of the reciters and mourners, which follow you wherever you go and the loudspeakers impose them on your hearing. Then you see the ads of the only cinema “al-Fajr”, which has been established after the Revolution. The film, which was on at that time and whose title was “sincere repentance”, conformed to the general condition of people in the city.

But this scene changes little by little whenever you approach to the other parts of the city and knock at its many gates. After the first round in Qom, you will discover that it is not just a “Shahr Muqaddas” holy city but it is a big centre followed by many quarters and districts. Among these quarters there is one called “Neauphle-le-château”. It is the name of the place in which Imam Khomeini has resided when he resorted to France after he has been exiled from Iraq in 1978.

You will discover too that it is not the city of the hawza only because the old of the hawza is just a little more than half a century, since it has been established by Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Ha’iry after his departure from his birthplace Arak. Sheikh Abdul Kareem died in 1355 A.H. whereas the old of the city (Qom) is more than thirteen centuries.

As knowledge is what the city has become known of but it is just one face among its other faces, which have been prevailed by the hawza, whose fame has spread throughout the world during the last quarter of the century.

Just a few people know that Qom is an agricultural city having a good production of wheat, cotton, pomegranate, melon, fig and pistachio. Also a few people know that Qom is an industrial city. The merchants of carpets are more aware of Qom’s expensive silk carpets, which is enough to refer to and to say that they are made in Qom. As for its production of pottery, plastic products and materials of building no one outside Iran may have known about it.

At the same time the commercial Qom is unknown too. The city has gained its commercial value because it is a market that millions of peoples come to from everywhere to visit the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) and to be blessed by visiting the tombs of the progeny of the infallible imams and the other saints. The excellent location of Qom, which is at the crossroads that connect the north of Iran with the south, has contributed to gain this value. Besides these excellences that have been realized by the good location of the city, its people have tolerated unwillingly its only disadvantage. It is the one that the river coming from the mountains of Bakhtiyariyya in the middle of Iran has brought to them. The river is called “Roodkhana-e-shoor” which means the salty river. The fate has decided that the people of Qom have to coexist with this river and to swallow its salt willingly and submissively since the existence of the two; Qom and the river. This river is the main source of the city’s drinking and irrigating water because the rain water in general is little and have no value in this concern besides that the winter is not long here anyhow.

If these faces have been unknown to those, who have known Qom through the books and the media, the visitors of the city will meet them all when their feet lead them to the main streets like “Imam Khomeini Street”, “Musa al-Sadr Street” and “Talaqani Street” besides the bazaar. In fact these streets show you more and more about the city and give you an impression that the city lives in its golden age since the Revolution has broken out and that the age of the ulama has circulated to everything in Qom from the hawza until the bazaar.

This is the functional Qom. But as for Qom the city, since it has become as a center of attracting people after the Revolution its population has been tripled to be more than one million.

A visitor can easily distinguish between three faces of the city; the old Qom surrounding the shrine of al-Ma'ssooma (s) with its narrow, circuitous, roofed and earthy streets and with its houses decorated from inside with beautiful architectural figures that distinguish the city from among the other cities, the modern Qom with its wide paved streets, high buildings, restaurants and hotels, which swim in seas of fluorescent lights and the most modern Qom, which has appeared after the Revolution and the beginning of the age of prosperity and flourishing, which has brought with it the agencies of the most modern Mercedes cars and the big supermarkets. Salarya quarter (the quarter of the notables) is a part of the most modern Qom although it is in the southern part of the city on the contrary to Tehran, whose quarter of the notables is in the north.

What I wanted to concentrate on through showing all these faces of the city was the hawza, which would have not existed unless the shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) had been there. The holy shrine of al-Ma’ssooma (s) was the cornerstone of the city and by which the birth certificate of the holy city had been written and then to have had a passport to enter into history.

Al-Ma’ssooma and the Hawza

Before I knocked at the doors, I had been busy with the meanings of the words that had succeeded in the record of time as the following: Qom, al-Ma'ssooma and the hawza and I found what I have looked for in the bookcase, which was above my head and against which I opened my eyes every morning along my residence in Qom.

The sayings were different about the name of the city although the likeliest of them was the story saying that there was a small village in the same location of the city called “Kam”, which means “small” or “little” in Persian, and when the Arabs conquered it in 23 A.H. and came to live in it, they changed its name from Kam into Qom. Some Arabs of the tribe of al-Asha’ira had come to live in the city and then some families of the Hashemites and the Alawites resorted to it in the first centuries of hijra when they had fled from the pursuits of the Umayyads and the Abbasids.

The Islamic encyclopedia of the Shia mentions that building has begun in Qom at the end of the first century of hijra whereas it does not refer to any history about the city before Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s), the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kadhim (s), has been buried in it in 201 A.H. It is said that she has come from Medina to Marw in order to see her brother Imam Ali bin Musa ar-Redha (s) but she has fallen ill and asked to be carried to Qom, where she has died some days later. Since then she has been called as Ma’ssooma Qom. Since she was from the progeny of Ahlul Bayt (s) her tomb has become a holy shrine and then it has been referred to as “the haram”.

The notables, the emirs and the kings have competed to spend on the shrine and to enrich it costly; therefore it has become as a splendid architectural masterpiece surrounded by gates and windows made of gold and silver. It has always been expanded and developed until it has become as big as 13500 square meters in area.

Another kind of competition has occurred in burying the notables, the emirs and the kings near the tomb of Fatima al-Ma'ssooma (s). Her shrine has been still as a center of attraction to the masses of the Shia everywhere. They come to be blessed by visiting the holy shrine and to attend the different religious occasions. This has given the city of Qom a high and distinguished position.[41]

As for “al-hawza al-ilmiyya” it is an accurate Arabic name. Hawza in Arabic means a place or an area, which if is assigned for studying and learning can be called as hawza ilmiyya.[42] According to the linguistic origin, a hawza can be assigned for any human activity. But this word, according to the Shia intellect, has been correlated with “learning” until it has been understood spontaneously that a hawza must be a center of knowledge. In fact the word “hawza” itself has been dealt with as having this meaning and nothing else until it has been used alone without assigning to give the meaning of the two; “hawza” and “ilmiyya” at the same time.

Al-hawza al-ilmiyya is not one scientific institute as many people think, but it refers to the whole city of Qom as a place of learning through many religious schools with different ranks. The government has nothing to do with spending on al-hawza al-ilmiyya, which is run by the heads of the sect (the Shia), who are called “maraji’ at-taqleed[43] ”.[44]

QOM IN PHOTOS

A spatial photo from about 705 kilometers high

Ansariyan Publications

In 1975 A/D a candle was lit. It began to shine and its light spread little by little.

Yes! Such was the beginning; mercy of Allah and interests undertaken by believers who have believed in Islam as a religion and as a mission.

Such was the beginning; the letters of the Iranians, who have roved throughout the world for studying and trading.

Faithful youths and “men who are true to the covenant which they made with Allah” have seen the world, which has drowned in confusion, stray and suspicion…they inquired: Where is the preaching of Islam? Where is its humane mission?

They lived there and saw closely the confusion of the human beings; Muslims and non-Muslims. Everyone was looking for the right path.

Moreover, the fruitful meetings with Allama (jurisprudent) Tabataba’iy, with Professor Mahmood ash-Shahabi after his return from a travel then, and with others of ulama and learned people of the world of Shiism of Ahlul Bayt (s); all that has led to the establishment of Ansariyan Publications in the holy city of Qom. Ansariyan Publications has been granted with blessings of Allah, His messenger and Ahlul Bayt (s). The beginning was as any beginning. It opened its way slowly and step by step and when the Islamic Revolution triumphed the establishment of Ansariyan flourished to grow up, be firm and fruitful.

Worth mentioning that Ansariyan Publications is proud, in spite of all problems and defects, of suffering what it has suffered while opening its way to stand up nowadays with honor of what it has achieved and what it has presented to the Arabic, Islamic and international libraries, of witnessed services in this concern in spite that it has not got any official or personal subsidy.

And this book before you is one of the fruits of its efforts, which have continued for thirty years of perseverance. Nevertheless, it considers itself as in the beginning of the way beseeching Allah for help and invoking our master and imam al-Mahdi, the authority of Allah on His earth, to keep on this blessed work determinedly and sincerely.

Respectable visitor:

O you, whose heart burns for pure Islam!

O you, whose heart flourishes with loving the Prophet and his progeny!

O you, whose soul has absorbed allegiance to Ameerul Mo’mineen Ali (s)!

You undertake, today, a serious responsibility before Allah, the Almighty, with your tongue, pen, social position and moral and material capabilities and know well that Allah will ask us all about our deeds!

O our brothers in belief and humanity, come on to work and to cooperate and to invoke Allah to grant success to our Islamic Umma.

In Tehran International Book Fair

The meeting of the head of the establishment Professor Muhammad Taqi Ansariyan with the president of the Islamic Republic