Taqi Yazdi

Yazdi's actual last name was Giwachi, an occupational surname indicating his ancestors produced a type of traditional footwear called Giwah.[2] After he completed his primary education in the town of Yazd at the age of 13, he entered Khān School, a seminary in his hometown. He also attended the Shāfīʿiya School, another seminary in the city before moving to Najaf's Hindi School in Iraq in 1950. Yazdi's study in Iraq lasted 7 months.[2] He then moved to Qom to study in Qom Seminary, where he continued his education in fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence). He studied works of Avicenna and Mulla Sadra. His teachers included prominent figures such as Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Bahjat Foumani. He was also among the students of Ayatollah Allameh Tabatabaei, the author of Tafsir al-Mizan, the influential Shi'a exegesis of Quran. He graduated in 1960. Before the 1979 Islamic revolution, he assisted the other clerics, i.e., Mohammad Beheshti and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in publishing two journals called "Mission of Prophet Muhammad" and "Revenge"; and was responsible for all publishing activities in "Revenge".[16]

Mesbah-Yazdi meets with presidential candidate, Saeed Jalili, June 2013

Mesbah Yazdi in Assembly of Experts, 2014

Mesbah Yazdi believed that the educational system of hawza should be changed and his proposal was approved by Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi,[27] so he and Mohammad Beheshti establish the Haghani School (also Haqqani) in Qom to train the future cadres of Iran. Mesbah-Yazdi had been described as close to Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, Khomeini's first designated heir who was assassinated in Hafte Tir bombing in 1981 (despite being considered a moderate),[28] and is (or was) a member of the school's board of directors.[29] The Haghani School is very influential and had been described as "a kind of Ecole Nationale d'Administration for the Islamic Republic" whose alumni "form the backbone of the clerical management class that runs Iran's key political and security institutions."[30]

Mesbah-Yazdi is the author of many books on fiqh, Quran exegesis, divinity and general issues of Islam. His "Amuzesh-e Falsafeh" is used widely in the philosophy classes of Qom's hawza. It broadly covers the same ground as Allameh Tabatabaei's Arabic-language works in philosophy "Bidayat al-Hikmah" and "Nihayat al-Hikma". Mesbah-Yazdi's "Amuzesh-e Falsafeh" has been published in English translation by Gary Legenhausen and Azim Sarvdalir as "Philosophical Instructions".[31][32]

He published the weekly Parto Sokhan,[33] was the director of the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom, (founded in 1995),[32][34] and was a member of the Iranian Assembly of Experts from 1991 to 2016.[9]

After the presidential election of June 1997, in the relatively more open political atmosphere in that time, Mesbah Yazdi's students played an important role as the critics of the former president Mohammad Khatami. As a result, Mesbah Yazdi's name appeared more often in the media and became more well known. He supported Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's successful presidential bid,[35] though he later criticized him.

Mesbah-Yazdi in Principlists Grand Coalition Convention

Mesbah Yazdi had been described as "a theoretician of the radicals" in Iran,[36] and "is opposed to western culture",[37] lamenting that "nowadays ... if someone says something critical" of freedom and democracy, "he or she will face serious peril."[38] He considered "the Zionists" to be the fundamental source of evil on earth. [36]

In an article by the Associated Press, quoting from a 2005 book written by Yazdi, the AP asserted that Yazdi made a "rare public call for the producing the 'special weapons' that are monopoly of a few nations -- a veiled reference to nuclear arms."[39]

In a lecture posted on his website, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi warns of Muslim "thugs of falsehood and the followers of the damned Satan" who have formed a

coalition of the forces of infidelity and hypocrisy, the servants of dollars and euros/gold and silver, and influential oppressors and traitors to uproot Islam, to fight Muslims, to dominate their countries, wealth, and resources, to deny their glories and excellence, to destroy their relics and teachings, to wipe out their culture, to alter their identity, to put them in miserable conditions, and to force them into wretchedness in this world and God’s punishment in the hereafter.[40]

Mesbah-Yazdi supported a return to what he saw as the values of the 1979 Iranian revolution.[35] He believed that an "Islamic republic" is a contradiction in terms, on the grounds that a truly Islamic government would only hold "elections" as a way for the people to express their allegiance to the supreme faqih. Elections as an opportunity for voters to make choices between representatives and policies were unIslamic.[14] The "republican component" of the Islamic Republic of Iran was established as a concession to secular forces[15] and should be "stripped" away to leave the true essence of the "Islamic system."[14] He had been quoted as saying, "It doesn't matter what the people think. The people are ignorant sheep."[15]

Mesbah-Yazdi was also a firm opponent of the Reformist movement in Iran which he believed an Islamic government must "combat ... because injecting misleading ideas [of reform in Islam] is like injecting the Aids virus!". He also claimed that young Iranians who questioned the regime after studying abroad did so only because they had been trained in 'psychological warfare' by foreign universities.[35] President Khatami once called him the theoretician of violence.[36]

In 2005, he issued a fatwa urging Iranians to vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former student and "protege", whom he is "considered a ideological and spiritual mentor" of, and with whom he reportedly met with weekly.[36]

On the issue of slavery Mesbah Yazdi said:

Today, too, if there’s a war between us and the infidels, we’ll take slaves. The ruling on slavery hasn’t expired and is eternal. We’ll take slaves and we’ll bring them to the world of Islam and have them stay with Muslims. We’ll guide them, make them Muslims and then return them to their countries.[41][42]

Like many prominent Shia clerics, he supported literal interpretations of various verses of the Qur'an and narrations (hadith) attributed to the Prophet and his followers.[43] Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi opposed bida'a or innovations in religion which he believed includes new interpretations of the Sunna and Qur'an. He had been quoted as saying: "If someone tells you he has a new interpretation of Islam, sock him in the mouth."[35]

In August 2009, he warned Iranian opposition groups against undermining supreme leader Ali Khamenei, stating,

"When the president is endorsed by the leader, obeying him is similar to obedience to God."[44]

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi had been described as "affiliated" with the Hojjatieh group.[45] Mesbah denied this and denounced the rumor, saying that if anyone finds a connection between him and Hojjatieh, he will renounce everything he stands for.[46] Ayatollah Khomeini actually frowned on the Hojjatieh and the group was nominally dissolved in 1983.

According to a poll conducted in March 2016 by Information and Public Opinion Solutions LLC (iPOS) among Iranian citizens, Mesbah had 18% approval and 20% disapproval ratings and thus a –2% net popularity; while 52% of responders didn't recognize the name.[47]

He married his wife, who is from Ayatollah Hossein Noori Hamedani's family, in the 1950s. The couple had three children, two sons and a daughter.[2] Both their sons are said to be clerics and one of them has studied in McGill University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The daughter is married to Hujjat al-Islam Mohammadi Araghi, who headed the "Islamic Culture and Communication Organization", a subdivision of Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.[2]

• Quotations related to Taqi Yazdi at Wikiquote
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
• Abbasali Amid Zanjani
• History of fundamentalist Islam in Iran
• List of Ayatollahs

Media related to Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi at Wikimedia Commons