Grand Ayatollah Hujjat Kuh-Kamarei

The Ayatollah was a scholar who acted upon his knowledge, a perfect jurist, a virtuous traditionist, a skilled wise man, a precise man of Usul, a verifier of narrators of hadith, a man who acquired knowledge of what is rational and what is transmitted. He was born in March 1893, coinciding with the month of Sha'ban, 1310 A.H. in the city of Tabriz in a religious family known for its piety.

His revered lineage goes back to the most respected Sayyid Muhammad Mesri who is nicknamed Hijazi, one of the offspring of Ali Asghar son of Imam Ali ibn al-Hussain Zain al-Abidin, peace be upon him. The Ayatollah enjoyed an exceptional intelligence and a swift roving intellect whereby he was able to complete his primary studies at an astounding pace so he could study after it Fiqh, Usul, mathematics, rationale, ancient and modern medicine as well as a generous amount of modern sciences such as physics and chemistry.

 
He completed the Sutooh stage in Fiqh and Usul at the hands of his father, the late Sayyid Ali Kuh-Kamarei. He migrated to Najaf in 1912 when he was twenty years old. He attended classes of great scholars such as Allamah Yazdi the author of Al-Urwatul Wuthqa (the reliable niche), Sheikh Shari'at Isfahani, Mirza Naeeni and Agha Dhiya ad-Deen Iraqi.
 

He returned to the holy city of Qom in 1930 and was one of the greatest scholars of its Islamic seminary. He won the attention of Grand Ayatollah Haeri, founder of the Islamic seminary of Qom, who asked him to lead the congregational prayer service in his place during the late years of his holy life. He also taught in his place after his demise and continued to teach and answer requests for edicts. He looked after people's affairs till the last moment of his life despite his weakness and deteriorating health.
  

The Sayyid, may Allah have mercy on him, was a distinctive testimonial for the tradition transmitted from the Infallible Imams, peace be upon them, which says [in describing a true believer], "He disobeys his desires, obedient to the command of his Lord, protecting himself, safeguarding his creed." He kept the secrets to himself, so much so that even the closest people to him did not know him as he should have been known. He, may Allah have mercy on him, was among those who won the honor of meeting the Imam of our time, may Allah hasten his reappearance. And he was precise in utilizing his time, an avid reader of scholarly and juristic books, not abandoning research or study even on his wedding night.

He kept the secrets to himself, so much so that even the closest people to him did not know him as he should have been known.

He left several books in various fields. We would like here to point to some of them:

1. Kitabul Biya' [a book about real estate]
2. A collection of traditions and Usul
3. Commentary about the book titled Al-Kifaya
4. Lawami' al-Anwar al-Gharawiyya fi Mursalat al-Athar al-Nabawiyya
5. Mustadrak al-Mustadrak

The Sayyid predicted the hour of his death; so, he gathered some scholars of the seminary two hours before his death and requested some pure soil from the shrine of Imam Hussain which he put on his tongue and said, "The last of my ration from the world is the soil of Hussain." He opened the Qur'an, so the 14th verse of Chapter al-Ra'd [thunder] came up: "To Him belongs the call of the truth".

He, therefore, said in an audible voice: "We belong to Allah, and to Him do we return," then his sacred soul left his body.

"We belong to Allah, and to Him do we return,"

Having come to know about his demise, Ayatollah Borujerdi said, "Now my spine has been broken. The chamber may become a school of a mosque (after the example of the mosque and school of the Hujjatis)," and he instructed the chamber located beside the mosque to be a cemetery for himself and the members of his family. This will was inspired to him in a vision.