Sayyid Abu al-Fadl Burqa'i
Personal
Born1908
Qom, Iran
Died1993 (died at 85)
Tehran, Iran
ReligionIslam (formerly Twelver Shi'ism)
Main interest(s)aqidah, tafsir, Wahhabism
Senior posting
Disciple ofAbu l-Hasan al-Isfahani, Abol-Ghasem Kashani, Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi
PostAyatollah
Websitehttp://www.borqei.com

Sayyid Abu al-Fadl Burqa'i, known in Persian: سید ابوالفضل ابن الرّضا برقعی, (1908-1993) also known commonly as Ayatollah Borqei or Ibn al-Ridah[1] was an Ayatollah and a former Shi'ite scholar. He was infamous for his alleged adoption of some of the ideas of Wahhabism.[2]

Biography

Ayatollah Borqei was born in 1908, and was the son of a Shi'ite cleric, Sayyid Ahmad. His family was descended from Ali ibn Musa al-Ridha, the eighth Imam of Ahlulbayt.[1] His education started at the age of twelve. At adulthood, he gained scholarly knowledge and was a teacher at one of Qom's seminaries.[1] In his late forties, he left Shi'ism and converted to a non-denominational sect of Islam.[2] In 1944, he issued a Fatwa stating that anyone who attended the funeral of Reza Shah Pahlavi was a heretic disbeliever who contradicted the laws of religion.[1] His opinion caused the government to redirect the funeral to Tehran instead, and the late Shah was buried in Rey.[1]

The students of Ayatollah Borqei included Mehdi Hashemi.[2] Borqei's family later left Shi'ism during his lifetime as well. Borqei died in 1993, and was buried in Tehran.[2] His grave is not known, but it is speculated that he was buried in the Imamzadeh Shu'ayb mausoleum.[2]

Views

After his alleged reversion to a non-denominational Islam, Borqei held several views contrary to Twelver Shi'ism. He criticized the veneration of Ali ibn Abi Talib[3] and denied the existence of Muhammad al-Mahdi, the son of Hasan al-Askari.[3] Borqei also wrote a Fatwa forbidding Mu'tah or any other form of temporary marriage.[3] Such views were also inspired by Wahhabist doctrines and allegedly influenced his student, Mehdi Hashemi, to conduct an assassination on Ayatollah Shamsabadi, another cleric of high rank.[2] Borqei himself did not see eye-to-eye with fellow Ayatollah, Hossein Borujerdi.

Books

Borqei wrote several books in his lifetime, and over forty of them are dedicated to defending Sunnism.[4]

Selected bibliography

  • Aql wa Deen - An explanation of reason and religion.[3]
  • Tabishi az Qur'an - A three-volume tafsir of the Qur'an.
  • Khurafat hawl Ziyarat al-Qubur - A book refuting the religious rituals done by Shi'ites.[4]
  • Al'aemal al-Halal wal-Haram fi Ziyarat qubur al-Nabi - A book explaining the guidelines on doing pilgrimage to the grave of Prophet Muhammad.[4]
  • Kasr al-Sanam - A treatise and refutation of the book "Kitab al-Kafi" by medieval Shi'a scholar Al-Kulayni.[4]

In addition to all of these, Borqei translated Ibn Taymiyyah's Minhaj as-Sunnah into Persian, and was the first one to do so.[4]

See also

List of ayatollahs

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "BIOGRAPHY OF THE LEARNED ABĪ AL-FADL AL-BARQAĪ´, (MAY ALLAH HAS MERCY ON HIM)". آیت الله العظمی علامه سيد ابو الفضل ابن الرضا برقعى قمی. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "ابوالفضل برقعی کیست؟ آیا شیعه بوده و سنی شده است؟ | پرسمان دانشجويي - وهابيت". web.archive.org. 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "السيد أبو الفضل بن الرضا البرقعي". web.archive.org. 2018-03-10. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 ADMIN (2020-08-22). "Interview with the grandson of the Ex-Shia Ayatollah Borqei". EBNHUSSEIN.COM. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
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