Al-Sharif al-Radi

This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by . (July 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Sayyid Muhammad bin al-Husayn al-Musawi
الشريف الرضي محمد بن الحسين الموسوي
Tomb of Syed al-Radhi in Baghdad
Title	al-Sharif al-Radhi
Personal
Born	970 Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
Died	1015 (aged 44–45) Kadhimiya, Baghdad
Religion	Islam
Era	Islamic golden age
Denomination	Shia
Jurisprudence	Ja'fari
Creed	Twelver
Main interest(s)	Tafsir, Arabic literature
Notable work(s)	Peak of Eloquence (collection of Imam Ali quotations)
Muslim leader
show Influenced by Shaykh al-Mufid

Sayyid Abu al-Hasan Muhammad bin al-Husayn bin Musa (Arabic: ابو الحسن محمد بن الحسين بن موسى الأبرش الموسوي‎; 970 – 1015), famously known as al-Sharif al-Radhi (Arabic: الشريف الرضي‎; Persian: شريف رضی‎) was a renowned Shia scholar and poet.

He wrote several books on Islamic issues and interpretation of the Quran. His best-known book is Nahj al-Balaghah, whose manuscript copy dating from 1158 is preserved in the Raza Library established by Nawab Faizullah Khan of Rampur, India in 1774.^[1][2]

His elder brother al-Sharif al-Murtadha, was also a theologian and poet. His work is still published in the universities of Cairo and Beirut and form part of the course of Arabic literature.^[3]

Family tree[]

al-Radhi was a descendant of Ibrahim al-Asghar, the son of the seventh Shia Imam, Musa al-Kadhim. There are also claims that he is in fact, the descendant of Ibrahim al-Mujab, the grandson of al-Kadhim. His mother, was the granddaughter of Hasan al-Utrush, a descendant of the fourth Shia Imam, Ali Zayn al-Abideen. For this reason, he was also known as thil hasabayn (the possessor of two lineages), since he related back to the Ahl al-Bayt paternally and maternally. His lineage from Ibrahim al-Asghar is as follows:

Muḥammad bin Ḥusayn bin Musa al-Abrash bin Muḥammad al-Aʿraj bin Musa Abu Sibḥa bin Ibrahīm al-Murtadha (al-Asghar) bin Musa al-Kāthim bin Jaʿfar as-Sādiq bin Muḥammad al-Bāqir bin ʿAli al-Sajjad bin Ḥusayn al-Shahid bin ʿAli Ibna Abi Talib.

Biography[]

al-Radi was born in 970 in the Abbasid capital, Baghdad and died in 1015 in his hometown. His grave is located in Kadhimiya, Baghdad. al-Radhi was the third of four children, having two sisters and a brother. Khadija and Zaynab were his two sisters. His younger sister died in his lifetime, and he lamented her death in a mournful elegy expressing deep sorrow. His father, Husayn, for a long time occupied the post of naqib of the Talibids of Iraq. After his fathers death, he became the naqib after him.

al-Radhi's family was affluent, for his mother Fatima inherited a good fortune from her father. She sponsored the family when the property of her husband was confiscated by the Buyid prince Adud al-Dawla. She used to help people who suffered hardships and patronized her relatives.

Education and teaching[]

Upon completion of his primary education, his mother took her two sons to Shaykh al-Mufid for their education. He started teaching at the young age of 17 when he was himself studying. He completed his education at the age of twenty with different teachers. Most of his teachers were scholars and writers of Arabic. Due to the climate of tolerance prevailing in that era, Shia and Sunni students used to attend classes of teachers belonging to different sects, that is why many of the teachers of al-Radhi were Sunni and Mu'tazili e.g. (i) Abu 'Ali al-Hasan ibn Ahmad al-Farsi (307-77/919-87) belonged Mutazili school (ii) Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Ahmad al-Tabari (d. 393/1002-3), follower of Maliki school). In addition to his Master al-Mufid, he also studied Arabic language and grammar under Abu Sa'id al-Hasan ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Marzban al-Sirafi (284-368/897-979), an expert in Arabic language and literature. His teacher in fiqh, was Muhammad ibn al-Abbas al-Khwarizmi (d. 383/993).^[4]

He also founded a school named Dar ul'Ilm (Arabic: دار العلم‎, literally House of knowledge) in which he trained many students, some of them later became scholars themselves.

Character and literary status[]

Syed Razi was a significant figure in his time. He occupied responsible positions both secular as well as religious. Since his childhood he was a student of learning, acquiring Islamic Sciences of his time and applied his life span as a man of principle and collector of wisdom from literature. In his lifetime Abbasid rulers of Baghdad were at war with Fatimid Caliphs of Egypt and attempted to have all Sunni and Shia important figures to sign a Mahzur (public attestation decree) in favour of the legitimacy of war with the Egyptian rulers. al-Radhi, his father and brother were also asked forcefully to sign it. But al-Radhi refused to sign this Mahzur at the cost of losing political privilege and official status of his family, even many a times he refused to accept financial support from the ruling kings in order to save himself from undue government influence.^[5] He devoted twenty years of his life in compiling Nahj al-Balaghah, and travelled to many libraries to collect texts that had recorded the lectures, letters, and sayings that Ali had written or delivered on different occasions. However, Nahj al-Balaghah does not contain all of Ali’s speeches, it is the most complete of any book to date. His life reflects the quote he has compiled in his compilation (Nahj al-Balagha) that Muslims are our brothers in faith; those who are non-Muslims are our brethren in creation.^[6][7]

He was a scholar, a poet and a man of cultivated taste. Al-Tha’alibi, his contemporary regarded Syed Razi as the most remarkable man among scholars of his time and the noblest amongst the Sayyids of Iraq. He was the most remarkable poet among the descendants of Ali Ibn Abi Talib, though there were many distinguished poets during Golden age of Abbasid and Fatimid caliphs.^[8]

Works[]

al-Radhi was an Arabic poet and writer. Besides Peak of Eloquence and his poetry, nearly 40 books are credited to him, including Talkhis al-Bayan an Majazat al-Quran, Al-Majazatul nabaweyyah, Haqa'iq al-Ta'wil fi Mutashabih al-Tanzil, Ma'ani al-Quran and Khasa'is al-A'immah

The Nahj al-Balagha (Peak of Eloquence) is considered a masterpiece of literature in Shia Islam. The Book is a collection of sermons, precepts, prayers, epistles and aphorisms of Imam Ali compiled by Sayyid Radi in the tenth century. The Nahj al-Balagh literary means peak or way of eloquence, it comprises a wide variety of topics ranging from the creation of the Universe, the creation of first man and end of universe.^[9][10] Syed Razi had inserted every sentence in the same form as he found it, so that the writing should not suffer any meddling. He refrained from applying his own approach of writing or expression. In his compilation work he only did classification of collected materials into sermons, letters and sayings of Imam Ali. As the reference material came to his attention at different times, the extracted materials had no chronological sequence according to content or topic. He died just after five years of his compiled book Nahjul Balagha, his compilation promptly gained the popularity even in his lifetime.^[11] A number of his contemporaries started writing commentaries on the compilation of al-Radhi, this work of commenting on the text and interpretation of meaning of the words used by Ali Ibn Abi Talib and the historical events mentioned therein is continued till today. A Lebanese Christian scholar, George Jordac, reveals that he has repeatedly studied the Peak of Eloquence up to 200 times.

Extent and scope of compilation[]

The sermons of Imam Ali were compiled, read and taught long before al-Radhi was born.^[12] The compilation of Nahj al-Balagha was a holy job for al-Radhi and he accomplished the duty with dedication and carefulness. During his collection he had been so cautious and left no lacuna refraining himself from adding or subtracting a singular word beyond the text he obtained from the scattered Islamic literature. Even the sermons he received in divided portions were placed in compilation without joining the pieces into a continuous part. This incoherent scripture was criticized by a number of critics. The services of al-Radhi are now regarded as significant in the philosophy of^[13] monotheism. More than 30 writers with name of their books/compilations are generally discussed while compilation work of Nahj al-Balagha is scrutinized^[14] e.g.

(i) Ibn Nadeem and his book Kitabul Jumal

(ii) Ibn Qutayba Daynawari and his book Uyunul Akhbbar

(iii) Imam Hakim and his book al-Mustadarak

(iv) Shaikh Mufid and his book al-Irshad; etc

Collected sermons in the Nahj al-balagha mainly reflects the coverage of topics (i) Islam and the Quran (ii) Human and humanity (iii) Theology and metaphysics (iv) Path and worship, including prayers (v) Social justice and administration (vi) Wisdom and admonition (vii) Prophecies (viii) Philosophy and critique over contemporary society (ix) Ahl-ul-Bait (x) piety and afterworld.^[15][16] Many research scholars in the modern age have presented their theses and published in the journals of different countries.^[17][18] The book compiled by al-Radhi has also been quoted by the UN Secretary General as a role model of governance in the year 2002 during a meeting of the Arab Development Fund.^[19]

However, critics of Nahj al-Balagha generally raise two objections over compilation of al-Radhi^[20]

• Firstly they claim that Sayyid Murtaza (the elder brother of al-Radhi) is its author; and
• secondly they allege that most of the contents of this book are forged and falsely attributed to Imam Ali

Ibn Khallikan seems to have been the first to raise doubts on its authenticity. The majority of later writers, beginning with Dhahabi in Mizan al-Itidal, Ibn Hajar in Lisan al-Mizan, Haji Khalifa in Kashf al-Zunun, etc. have in their turn revived these suspicions.

Various commentators and researchers have examined the authenticity of objections and concluded that had al-Sharif al-Radi not collected that which he selected from among the sermons and words of the Imam Ali in Nahj al-Balaghah, we would have been definitely deprived thereof as well.^[21][22] The Urdu translator of Nahjul Balagha Syed Zeeshan Haider Jawadi^[23] has compiled a list of 61 books and name of their writers from 204 to 488 AH, in negation of the above-mentioned two objections and pointed the sources in which compilation work of al-Radhi can be traced out.

Offspring and death[]

A number of writers traced the death of Razi at 47 years on 6th of Mohurram 406 A.H (1015 AD), whereas some historians recorded his age as 45 years and death in 404 Hijri (1013 AD). His funeral prayer was performed by the Abu Ghalib Fukhrul Mulk then Vizier in the kingdom of Sultan al-Dawla.

Abu Ahmed Adnan was the only son of al-Radhi. His son was also a prominent scholar of his time and after death of his uncle the official post of Naqib al-Nuqqab was entrawarded to his grandfather. Adnan died issueless in 449 Hijri Calendar, and consequently the physical line of al-Radhi came to an end.^[24][25][26]

See also[]

• Fakhrul Mulk
• Islamic scholars
• List of deceased Maraji

References[]

External links[]

• hadith.net
• For study: al-Radhi glimpses of his life and his contributions to cognitive