Ayatullah Asefi was indeed uncontestably an erudite scholar – very thorough, methodical, meticulous, with an analytical mind and full of contemplation and calculation. He was very simple, unassuming, humble, easy-going, ascetic and elegant.
Share It :
The sad, destabilising, shocking and devastating news of the demise of Ayatullah Sheikh Muhammad Mahdi Asefi has reached, striking a heavy blow on our hearts and leaving us speechless and dumbfounded.
Ayatullah Asefi was indeed uncontestably an erudite scholar – very thorough, methodical, meticulous, with an analytical mind and full of contemplation and calculation. He was very simple, unassuming, humble, easy-going, ascetic and elegant.
I remember vividly hearing Ayatullah Sayyid Murtadha Askari describing him as the Shaheed-us-Sadr of our time at a conference to mark the anniversary of the eminent Sayyid. I also remember very vividly that during the short period when he was the head of the Ahlul Bayt (as) World Assembly, when we went to Tehran for a conference, he held a special and exclusive meeting with the representatives from Africa in his room on the eleventh floor of the five-star hotel in which we were lodged. Then, afterwards, when he led us to Mashhad, I very vividly remember also that I saw him sleeping on the floor, covering himself with his cloak (abayah), after he had apologised to the numerous people who each wanted to be attended to by him, that he was tired and needed some rest.
Ayatullah Asefi was indeed gifted in the art of delivering lectures and explaining his subject-matter. He would start simply and unassumingly, and then keep building his case and making his argument, step by step, and progressing upwards and strongly, until he reached his climax emphatically and convincingly. I can clearly recall that he delivered a lecture to us when I was a student at the Seminary in Qom titled ‘Alaa Tareeqi Dhaatish Shawkah ‘ ( ‘On The Thorny Path’ ), where he started with the verse, “BEHOLD ! WHEN ALLAH PROMISED YOU ONE OF THE TWO PARTIES, THAT IT SHOULD BE YOURS, AND YOU WISHED THAT THE ONE THAT WAS NOT ARMED SHOULD BE YOURS, WHILE ALLAH WILLED ACTUALISE THE TRUTH WITH HIS WORDS AND CUT OFF THE ROOTS OF THE UNBELIEVERS”, (8:7), and the verse, “IF IT HAD BEEN AN IMMEDIATE GAIN AND AN EASY JOURNEY, THEY WOULD HAVE FOLLOWED YOU. BUT THE DISTANCE WAS LONG ON THEM. AND THEY WILL INDEED SWEAR BY ALLAH, ‘IF WE HAD BEEN ABLE WE WOULD HAVE GONE OUT WITH YOU’, (THEREBY) DESTROYING THEIR OWN SOULS – AND ALLAH KNOWS THAT THEY ARE CERTAINLY LIARS.” (9:42).
It was a marvellous lecture, and I have a copy which I periodically refer to till date. I am also happy and honoured to have been given a plate with his commentary on the Holy Qur’an.
All his works – from his commentary on the Holy Qur’an, to his “FEE RIHAABI ASHURA”, to his “AD-DU’AH INDA AHLIL BAYT ( AS )”, to his “WAQFATUN MA’AD DOKTOR ASH-SHAYKH BARRAAK”, to his foreword to “AL-LUM’ATUD DIMISHQIYYAH”, to his thesis that earned him the exalted position of a jurist, - and so on and so forth – are fountains and reservoirs of serious scholarship and intellectualism.
Ayatullah Asefi was an embodiment of justice, fair play and moral uprightness. He was a soft-spoken revolutionary – calm, collected, cultured, well-mannered, but at the same time, current, up-to-date, civilised, conscious, alert and aware. He was for the unity of the Ummah, and always on the side of the oppressed and downtrodden, like the Palestinians.
His departure has indeed been a great loss to the Ummah. May Allah give us the fortitude to bear it. May He forgive and grant him peace.
By sheikh Hamzah Muhammad Lawal,
Nigeria/ ABNA
