Jawad Tabrizi

He began his academic education in school, and completed his matriculation in Tabriz. However, he did ended up changing his mind, and going to the Islamic seminary. His family were not encouraging, since at that time, the government of Pahlavi dynasty was continuously pressuring the clerical class of the country. However, his family eventually accepted his fact, and Tabrizi began his Islamic education.[4]

He travelled to Qom in 1948, and studied under the thriving seminary under the spiritual guidance of grand Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi. He studied under Sayyid Muhammad Hujjat Kuh-Kamari for four years, and under Borujerdi for seven years. He was also eventually reaching in Qom, however he decided to move to Najaf, to pursue further education.[6]

He entered Najaf in 1953, and attended the lectures of prominent scholars like Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim, Sayyid Abd al-Hadi al-Shirazi and Sayyid Abu Al-Qasim al-Khoei. He became a close student of al-Khoei, and was appointed as a member in his fatwa office. He attended al-Khoei's lectures and taught intermediate and advanced courses for just under twenty years. He obtained attained the level of ijtihad and began to specialise in philosophy, Quranic exegesis and rijal.[7] He was a contemporary of fellow classmates, Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr, Sheikh Hossein Wahid Khorasani and Sayyid Ali al-Sistani.[2]

Tabrizi was an avid champion for the mourning symbols of the Ahl al-Bayt. He would be seen attending public gatherings, and weeping excessively, as to filling his napkin with tears. To highlight the importance of these mourning rituals, Tabrizi put in his will that his two napkins be buried with him in his grave, so that they may intercede for him on the day of judgement.[8] In part of the will he wrote directed at his students, he said in regards to mourning:[9]

"Do not provide anyone the space to cast doubt and suspicion in the minds of people with the symbols of Imam Husayn. For the preservation of the creed [Jafari madhhab] depends on the preservation of the symbols of Imam Husayn."

Tabrizi believes the attack of Fatimah's house holds a very high religious significance in the Shi'i creed.[10] He would specifically attend mourning gatherings dedicated to Fatimah, and be seen weeping. He led a large mourning procession in Qom, on the anniversary of her death–in accordance to the third narration– annually, that saw hundreds of thousands of people participating in it, and the attendance of other grand Ayatollahs like Hossein Wahid Khorasani. When the controversial marja' Sayyid Muhammad-Husayn Fadhlallah declared his opinion that the attack of the door was a myth, and deemed most stories as fiction,[11] Tabrizi along with Khorasani and Sayyid Muhammad-Sadiq Rohani deemed him a "deviant".[12]

Tabrizi is dubbed nasir al-zahra (Victor of Zahra [Fatimah]) because of his no-compromise policy towards the case of the events that lead to the death of Fatimah.

Tabrizi issued a strong statement condemning the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, deeming it an infidelity, and that freedom of speech should not mean the freedom to instigate offense to other races and religions. He also condemned the Islamic scarf controversy in France, especially the suspensions and expulsions of Muslim female students from middle and high schools for wearing the scarf in class, stating that it was rich of these countries to claim to implement democracy, yet restrict personal fundamental religious practices.[13]