Fazil Hindi : A Child ProdigyAnd An Intelligent Youth
There is an intellectual among our scholars who led a life of anonymity. His name was Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn MuhammadIsfahani , and he was known by the appellation ofFazil -e-Hindi. If he is called as a great personality it is not beyond reality because he was indeed a great personality but what is actually needed is to bring out his personality from the shadows of anonymity. This is so because he was not an ordinary scholar; he has to his credit great services in the field of knowledge.
This great personality was born in 1062 A.H. in Isfahan and since he had traveled to India (Hindustan) during his childhood he began to be addressed asFazil -e-Hindi.
His father Tajuddin Hasan ibn MuhammadIsfahani was among the great scholars of his time. He is the writer of the commentary ofBaher -e-Mawaj .
Fazil -e-Hindi is not known to the general readers, not even among the scholars. But the religious jurisprudents and the great Shia intellectuals know him well. Al-Hajj Mirza Husain Noori narrates from his teacher ShaykhIraqain that the writer ofJawahir has expressed great trust in the book ofKashful Atham . Till the time he did not have this book in front of him he never wrote any portion ofJawahir and he used to say, “But forFazil -e-Hindi the science of religious jurisprudence would have become extinct in Iran.”
The great jurisprudent Shaykh AsadullahShustari in his first bookMaqabis presentsFazil -e-Hindi in such a way as if he is arguing about Imamate and the rights of Ali (a.s ) with theAhle Sunnat .Thus in one of his commentaries he writes, “Among his writings is the book,Al-Manahij -ul-Sawiya which is the commentary ofRawdatul Hayya . I have seen some of its volumes.”
His book Salat is authoritative, lucid and brimming with benefits and research. It was completed in 1088 A.H., which shows that the author was only twenty-five at that time. This young man also experienced those days when the Afghans created great mischief and Isfahan was broken away from Iran. Those days he spent a very difficult life of grief and calamities.Fazil -e-Hindi has written around eighty books and he expired in 1137 A.H. The mostwell known of his book isKashful Atham , which is the commentary onAllamah Hilli’s Qawaid . In the introduction of this book he has repeated the words ofFakhrul Muhaqqiqin that why people are surprised if some are endowed with knowledge at a young age. Allah gives to whom He pleases.
He says, “I myself was not even thirteen when I had studied all the prevalent sciences. I was not even eleven when I had started writing and compiling books. When I wasfifteen I wroteMunyatul Harees DarSharh Talkhis . I was only eighteen when I used to lecture onTaftazani …[ 143]
Therefore the readers must know that the level of their competence was so high that it would not be out of place to call them geniuses.