Journal of Islamic Studies Advance Access originally published online on April 5, 2006
Journal of Islamic Studies 2006 17(3):326-351; doi:10.1093/jis/etl002
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All
ma Sayyid Mu
ammad 
usayn 
ab
ab
: Philosopher, Exegete, and Gnostic
University of California, Berkeley
E-mail: algar{at}calmail.berkeley.edu
Born near Tabriz in 1904 into a family with a long record of scholarly prominence, 
ab
ab
began a decade of study in Najaf in 1925. This was a conventional move for an aspiring Shi
i lim, but at that traditional centre of learning abab began evolving the interests that took him far beyond fiqh, the mainstay of its curriculum, and endowed him with a distinctive spiritual and intellectual personality. Those interests may be summarized as philosophy (primarily that of the school of Mull Sadr), practical gnosis (irfn-i amal), and Qurnic exegesis. After a ten-year hiatus in his scholarly activity, occasioned primarily by financial difficulties, abab moved to Qum in 1946, with the express intention of aiding the students who, confronted by the challenges of materialist thought, each came to Qum ‘with a suitcase full of doubts and problems.’ This he sought to do primarily by reviving the teaching of the rational sciences and Qurnic exegesis. The former was regarded as subversive by some elements in Qum who sought to have 
yatullh Bur
jird, the leading authority in Qum, curtail abab's teaching of philosophy; he nonetheless persisted. Tafsr, on the other hand, was considered intellectually unchallenging, but here, too, abab continued on his chosen path, completing in 1972 his monumental Tafsr al-Mzn, arguably the most important commentary on the Qurn to be written in many centuries. Averse by temperament to extensive social involvement, and for many years weakened by poor health, he took little part in the developments that led to the emergence of the Islamic Republic in 1979, but there is evidence that he approved of its basic constitutional principle, vilyat-i faqh, and a number of his pupils, including yatullh Muahhar, did play leading roles in its foundation. He died in 1981, and was laid to rest in Qum.