Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi

   Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi belongs to a respectable family known for its knowledge and piety. He is of the descendants of the Infallible Imams, peace be upon them. His family traced its lineage 30 generations to Hassan ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and his progeny.
Ayatollah Borujerdi was born in March 1875 in the city of Borujerd, Lorestan Province, Iran.

His family traced its lineage 30 generations to Hassan ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and his progeny.

    He was taught by scholars of this city and finished a good deal of his primary studies at the hands of his father. He migrated to Isfahan in 1893 in order to continue his studies and acquire religious studies when he was eighteen years old. He was tutored by senior scholars of Isfahan such as the grand Ayatollahs and those bearing the title "Hujjatul-Islam" such as Mirza Abul Ma'ali Kalbasi, Sayyid Mir Muhammad Taqi Mudarrisi, Akhund Mulla Muhammad Kashi and Mirza Jehangir Qashqai.

    He also taught jurisprudence and Usul during his studies in Isfahan. He migrated to Najaf in 1901 after eight years of study and earning the degree of ijtihad there; he was then twenty-six years old. He benefited from attending classes by great Ayatollahs such as Akhund Khorasani, author of Kifaya, and Allamah Yazdi, author of al-Urwatul Wuthqa. He distinguished himself among the students of the late Akhund for he wrote commentaries about his book titled Kifayatul Usul.

     He returned to the city of Burujard in 1910 after a residence that lasted for ten years in the city of Najaf during which he earned the degree of Ijtihad which was awarded to him by the most distinguished of its scholars. During his stay in Burujard, which lasted more than 36 years, he founded an Islamic seminary to teach the researches of Kharij al-Fiqh and Usul in the city. During this period, he was emulated as an authority for taqleed by most residents of the western and southern parts of Iran and some districts in Khorasan province and other areas.

      He resided in the city of Qom for a few months after returning from a pilgrimage to the shrine of Imam Reza, peace be upon him, as insisted by Grand Ayatollah Haeri and a group of other men of virtue in the theological seminary. During that period, he studied the Kharij al-Fiqh and Usul researches then returned to his birthplace, the city of Burujard. He returned to Qom in the holy month of Muharram in 1945 after becoming the greatest authority for Shiites in the world.
More than 1200 men of virtue and prominent mujtahids used to attend his classes in the seminary.

His Scholarly Status and Particular Teaching Method. He has many works some of which are:
1- His commentary on Al-Kifaya
2- Commentary on Al-Nihaya by Sheikh al-Tusi
3. A dissertation in Mustamsak al-Saheefa al-Sajjadiyya
4. Mustamsak al-Tahdheeb
5. Mustamsak Rijal al-Kashi
6. Tajrid Rijal al-Nejashi

He left behind him many perpetual relics, including the grand mosque and its library in the holy city of Qom and the great mosque in the city of Hamburg in Germany.
He passed away on Thursday, 31st of March 1961 coinciding with the 13th of the holy month of Shawwal in the year 1380 at an age exceeding eighty-eight years. A great burial ceremony was held with a great crowd of people; he was buried in the Holy Shrine of Lady Fatima Masumah, peace be upon her.