CHAPTER FOUR
ETHICAL AND GNOSTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS
HOLINESS GRAND AYATOLLAH BAHJAT
1. His Being Pious and God-Fearing
We have already stated that the mentor made an effort to cultivate himself since his very young age. He was and still is affording the attainment of knowledge and the purification of the soul a great deal of attention. He always insisted on continuous effort and inclusive conduct to strengthen man's moral building which enables him to continue the struggle and to achieve victory over immoralities and help him in his "supreme jihad" against his desires and inclinations.
He always believed in the ever-present need to uphold knowledge and good manners, warning against the perils of abandoning them, believing that the loss that can result from the uncultivated scholar and the science that is not purified is much, much greater than any other loss. The mentor is a sincere man, an eager one who always is keen to straightforwardness in all moments of his life along the path of Allah. He endeavored to always be in contact with Allah, the most Praised One, the most Exalted. He looks upon everything and everyone through divine and godly eyes. A senior mujtahid says the following in this regard: "It is not right to say that the sheikh was only a pious man; rather, he was piety itself " Ayatollah Sheikh Jawad al-Kerbala'i says, "One of the Sayyids who love the mentor and who are familiar with his condition
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told me that the mentor used to spend most of his time every night contemplating on the currents of the Gnostic branches of knowledge. He never wasted his time, nor did he ever attend a gathering for fun. He always took precaution against idle talk. Whenever he went to the class or to visit the shrine of the Commander of the Faithful (a.s), he used to place his mantle over his head and not turn to anybody as he was walking. He is a man who keeps secrets especially about explaining his Gnostic conditions. He was secretive in showing the particular divine niceties which Allah Almighty bestowed upon him."
2. His Asceticism and Simplicity of Lifestyle
The friends of Allah do not look at the worldly appearances as ordinary people look at them. Rather, they look at the reality of life itself. They do not busy themselves except with securing their true future, always distancing themselves from the shackles of greed, living in the pure environment of content and humbleness. For this reason, they earn a soul from which the fragrance of spirituality and purity emanates. Ordinary people live in the darkness of ignorance, heedlessness and affluence. They indulge in ambitions and desires.
Mentor Ayatollah Bahjat is regarded as one of the righteous friends of Allah. He is an ascetic and Gnostic who always lived with humbleness, asceticism and renunciation of the world. He is one of the most outstanding ascetics of our time. for he realized the truth about the world and its implications and was attracted in all his existence towards the spiritual world. Materialism did not taint him: rather, he was liberated from all its shackles.
He not only distanced himself from the world and its appearances physically but made along this path wide practical
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strides in various fields of his daily life. His simple life, his residence at a small old house in the holy city of Qum. his kick of response to the demands of the scholars and ordinary people who continuously demanded him to change his residence. are all good evidences about his asceticism, humbleness and the greatness of his soul.
Sheikh Musbah Yazdi, pointing out to his asceticism and humbleness, says, "Ayatollah Bahjat rented a house in the vicinity of the Hujjatiyya School, then he rented a small house in the beginning of Chahar Mardan Street, and that house did not have more than two rooms. He used to place a curtain in the middle of the room where we assembled while his family lived behind it as we were attending the class on the other side of the curtain. It is a very simple life distant from affectation and luxury and full of light and spirituality. Till our day, the mentor does not own a house big enough for a large number of visitors. There are no more than two or three small rooms in his house furnished with their floor covered with the same covering which he placed more than forty years ago. I le did not change his house after he had become a marji' although it cannot accommodate the visitors and those who used to see him frequently and whose number was daily on the rise: therefore. the mentor used to sit during the least or commemorative occasions at the Fatimiyya Mosque to receive people."
Ayatollah Mas'udi says. "Many people offered the mentor to buy him a house but he always rejected such offers. I said to him many times. 'Master! This house is old and not fit for living and it may not be permissible to live in it from the Shari' a standpoint." but he never listened to such talk nor gave it any significance."
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3, His Adoration
Adoration and upholding rituals are regarded as a major element in one's success and perfection. The mentor had made long strides in this field that would place him to be a role model for others. The relationship and strong connection of Ayatollah Bahjat with his Lord. his continuous remembrance of Him, his diligence in performing optional rites and his amazing tahajjud were all amazing and noteworthy.
As regarding the congregational prayer which the mentor used to uphold. it was one of the most wonderful, the best and the most sincere of prayers held in Islamic Iran. In this service, virtuous scholars, pious students, brave rnujahids and all other types of people attended. This service is adorned with complete spirituality, so much so that sometimes, especially during the eves preceding Friday, there is a combination in it of the moaning of the mentor, the weeping of those praying, thus the souls ascend, the eyes weep and the hearts are polished.
Undoubtedly, there is neither a spiritual nor an angelic place such as this in any other congregational prayer service in our time. It is no wonder that the mosque used to be over-crowded witn the faithful and the place too small most of the time, forcing many attendants, including those who used to go there from distant places to earn the blessing of this service, to leave the mosque even before the service had started. This prayer service has been the hope of Allah's servants. It used to be attended by Ayatollah Tabatabai, and Ayatollah Baha al-Dayni used to pay it his own special attention.
In this regard, Ayatollah Muhammad Hassan al-Ahmadi, the faqih of Yazd, transmits to us an interesting incident as follows :
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"Ayatollah Baha al-Dayni used to hold the congregational prayer service before Ayatollah Bahjat during the nights of the month of Ramadan. One day, he wanted to send one of his relatives somewhere for an errand, but the man refused to go there saying. 'If I go, I will be deprived of the prayer service and of following your lead.' Ayatollah Baha al-Dayni said to him, 'Go and take care of this errand for me then perform the prayer following the lead of Ayatollah Bahjat after eating your Iftar.'"
Sheikh Musbah. commenting about the congregational prayer service held by the mentor and its precedents, says, "Ayatollah Bahjat used to follow a special program forty years ago. He used to take a walk before sunset to the Safa'i Quarter which was then an agricultural area and there was no construction in it. He would cross some farms then sit and perform the sunset and evening prayers in that place. Some brethren used to attend that prayer service, too."
One of those brethren says, "One night, Ayatollah Bahjat made a statement following the prayer service saying, 'Had the rulers of the world known the pleasure felt by one during his act of adoration, they would have abandoned their authority."
After the mentor had bought his house where he now lives, most brethren used to go to this house to perform the prayers because it is closer to them than the previous place. Then the mentor was called to the Fatimiyya Mosque, and that mosque became the place of meeting of all those who wished to perform the prayer service with him leading as the imam. More than forty years had passed since this prayer service was being performed three times a day in this mosque. The mentor, during the last days, moved the place where he held his class
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from home to this mosque where special feast and commemoration services were also held.
Ayatollah mentor Jawad al-Kerbala'i, describing the tahajjud of the mentor and his weeping during the night says, "Ayatollah Bahjat was punctual in his prayers and nightly weeping especially during the nights preceding Fridays. One of the senior scholars said to me. 'I heard the mentor during one of the nights preceding Friday weeping profusely, addressing his Lord repeatedly as he was prostrating, 'Lord! Who else besides You can I turn to in order to remove my harm and look into my affair ..., etc.?'"
4. His Ziyara and Pleas
The mentor starts his daily program, despite his advanced age, by paying a visit to the shrine of Lady Fatima the Infallible, peace be with her. He daily is honored by performing the rites of the ziyara to Lady Massouma and stands before the sacred shrine with humility and full respect then recites the Ashura ziyara. The author of the book titled Anwar al-Malakut cites mentor Abbas Qawjani, trustee of the late Mirza Ali Agha the judge, the following interesting narrative :
"Quite often, Ayatollah Bahjat would go to the Sahla Mosque [in Kufa] and spends the night alone till the morning in. that mosque. One night, when the mosque's lamp was not lit and it was quite dark, the mentor needed to renew his ablution in the middle of the night, so he needed to get out of the mosque and go to its eastern side where the toilets were. As he was walking in the dark, he felt a little bit scared. Suddenly, a light appeared before him and kept lighting the way for him like a lamp till the mentor completed his ablution and returned to the mosque.
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Once the mentor was inside the mosque, that light disappeared."
5. His Humbleness
Among the other prominent dimensions in the spiritual personality of the mentor are humility, flight from fame and opposing inclinations. The mentor did not allow the publication of his edicts till after the demise of all past authorities who were older than him and even his fellows who used to study with him although he is considered as one of the most famous men of fiqh and ijtihad and one of the most prominent professors of holy Qum's theological seminary. Despite all of this, the mentor did not permit the publication of his edicts except after the scholars had insisted on it. lie also did not permit the use of the ways allowed by the Shari'a for the publication of his scholarly dissertation (risala), always emphasizing to the orators at the majalis which he held that they should not mention his name. This indicates his God-fearing nature, piety and the opposing of his desires.
Hajj Quds the mentor says the following about his humbleness: "One day, I and my guest, the late Hujjatul-Islam Nasr-Allah Lahuti, visited mentor Bahjat. My guest said to the mentor, 'I have heard someone criticizing you in the city of Mashhad during my visit to that city, and I felt very angry about it.' Mentor Bahjat said, 'It has been cited in our narratives the following: 'They charged a scholar who desired the world,' so I was quite surprised at this answer, for if the life of this man was desirous of the world. what about us?!"
6. His Life, Conduct and Spiritual Status
Past incidents relevant to mentor Bahjat's life story and moral conduct go hack to scores of years. He is one of the students of
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the perfect Gnostic, His Holiness Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Agha, the judge. He used to win the attention of that great theological scholar. The mentor won respected Gnostic stations even when he was in the prime of his youth. and many of those who were close to the late Ayatollah, the judge, testified to it. They said. "We are familiar with his Gnostic stations and are acquainted with the phases of lifestyle and conduct which he undertook. but we maintain a pledge to him not to say a word in this regard." The mentor used to also earn the attention of Imam Khomeini who visited and met him in the city of Qum at the beginning of the revolution.
The author of the book titled Anwar al-Malakut writes the following in this regard: "Grand Ayatollah Hajj Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Bahjat Fomani is regarded as one of the students of the sign of the truth and the pillar of Gnosticism. the unique scholar, the late Hajj Mirza Ali Agha, the judge from Tabriz, may Allah Almighty be pleased with him. in the city of al-Najaf al-Ashraf. He used to have many revelations and divine ghaibi conditions during the time of the late Mirza Agha. and he earned a lofty status of behavior and distinction. This distinction was the reason which prompted the late judge to pay him his special attention."
Also. Sheikh Diya ad-Deen al-Amuli, son of Grand Ayatollah Hajj Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Amuli, conveyed to the attending students of the class of Ayatollah Bahjat and in the presence of the mentor that he saw with his own eyes the late Mirza Ali, the judge, following the mentor as he was leading the prayer service.
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7. Acquaintance with the Unknown and
Manifestation of Temporal Miracles
His Holiness Ayatollah Bahjat is regarded as one of the righteous servants of Allah who earned, by permission of Allah. lofty stations that enabled them to witness worlds of the unknown (ghaib). Perhaps the repetition by the mentor of the plea "0 One Who Veils!" whenever he was alone and in the presence of people, as he stood and sat, is the reason behind this fact.
Sheikh Musbah of Yazd says the following in this regard: "It seems the mentor earned a Gnostic station and moral perfections which enabled him to witness some unknown worlds. He would witness some realities such as those of individuals with his own subconscious sight. but he did not like people seeing him as such; therefore, he used to quite often repeat the plea "0 One Who Veils!" and pleads to Allah, the most Exalted, the most Great, to veil him and to veil whatever he saw,"
In fact, the likes of these matters arc regarded to be among the temporal miracles (karamat) which are not undertaken except by Allah's friends. The manifestation of these karamat is the fruit of continuous struggle against the self and of opposing inclinations. The mentor, Ayatollah Bahjat, is regarded as one of the prominent personalities that have taken care of cultivating the self and to belong exclusively to Allah. the most Exalted One, the most Great; therefore, it is not at all unlikely if he has such karamat and supernatural things. Rather, those who kept the mentor saw with their own eyes examples in support of this matter.
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Pointing out to some evidences in this regard, Sheikh Musbah says the following: "The individuals who kept Ayatollah Bahjat company for several years saw during these years matters which could not he termed except as karamat or supernatural things. Here below we would like to review some examples of these karamat: When imam Khomeini was in exHe(apparently in Turkey), many men of virtue and supporters used to be subjected to unfair measures by the security authorities at the time. El they articulated a word or behaved in a particular way, they would be banned from ascending the pulpit and be thrown in jail in unknown places and for long periods of time. Among the persons who were arrested by the security authority then is Sheikh Jannati. We were worried about him because all evidences pointed out to the security authority going to torture him. I remember that I went to mentor Bahjat, may Allah Almighty protect him, and told him about the matter. He contemplated for a short while then said, 'You will, by the will of Allah, bring me the good news of his release.' True, such a statement could have been made by anybody, but the statement of the mentor during those circumstances was like glad tidings to us because we were sure the mentor had ghaibi knowledge in this regard and that the problem would come to an end peacefully. This is so because there were other similar matters which we presented to the mentor (such as we would ask him to pray for a particular person), but he would never give us such an answer. Indeed, we would say that a particular person is in jail and will not be easily released."
Here is another sample about his karamat, may Allah protect him. One day, a family wanted to marry her daughter off. Both families of the bride and groom as well as the guests assembled on the wedding night. But the enemies of this family kidnapped the bride from her house before the ceremonies started. This worried the members of the bride's family, and they kept
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looking for her wherever they thought it possible to find her, but all was in vain. Anyway, this matter caused a great deal of confusion to the bride's parents because they were unable to do anything. One friend who was a neighbor of this family said, 'I thought a lot about the matter but I found no solution for this problem. Then it crossed my mind to go to the mentor Bahjat, perhaps he could find a solution for it. I went to him hastily and narrated the incident to him. The mentor lowered his head as he contemplated. Then he simply said, 'Go to the holy precincts of Lady Fatima the Infallible, perhaps she went there.' I, therefore, returned, having been convinced to do just that. I told the bride's family what the mentor had said, so they went to the shrine of Lady Fatima the Infallible and actually found their daughter there. I do not remember precisely how the matter was, but I know that the bride's family never thought of finding the bride in a place such as that."
Here is another sample of the mentor's karamat: A friend has said, "My wife was pregnant, and I was going to travel before the blessed month of Ramadan, so I went to the meeting place of mentor Bahjat to bid him farewell and to ask him to pray for me. He said to me, 'Allah will bless you with a son; so, name him Muhammad Hassan,' although he did not even know that my wife was pregnant, let alone knowing the gender of the fetus and the date of birth. Sure enough, Allah blessed us with a son on the fifteenth of the blessed month of Ramadan, so we named him Muhammad Hassan."
Quite often, such matters would take place to the mentor, but he did not want to manifest them, so much so that he did not accept the transmission of this brief summary, but we transmitted it so the believers may get to know that Allah, the most Exalted and the most Great, pays attention to some of His friends with His divine care even during our time. If the
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servants tread the straight path of adoration, Allah Almighty will lead them to the right guidance: "... And those who struggle on Our account, We shall guide them to Our path."
The path to perfection and humanity is not closed. Even in our time. anyone who wants to tread the path of nearness to Allah can reach lofty stations of perfection and nearness to Allah in the shade of care of the Imam of the Time, may Allah hasten his reappearance, and at the hands of servants who live among the people such as mentor Bahjat. All these matters can instill hope in the souls and increase our conviction.
These are fixed realities and not a mockery. They are visible realities in existence, and we can see them and realize their impacts, then we can liberate ourselves from the shackles of this world, its ornament and adornment and realize that pleasure is not confined to the animal or Satanic ones; rather, man is qualified to reach moral perfections and pleasures which cannot be compared with these material pleasures. But unfortunately, due to the weakness of knowledge and of conviction on one hand, and the assault of the internal and external Satanic factors (from the jinns and mankind) on the other, has caused us to be unaware of such precious jewels.
In this regard, Sayyid Mas'udi says, "Anyone who visits the mentor realizes he talks about the particular things which he feels. I used to go in the company of Sheikh Musbah to his class, and we (1 and Sheikh Musbah) used to talk sometimes about the political and economic issues or about our livelihood matters because the students' living condition was bad then. But the mentor used to surprise us when he would start talking about the same topic as if he was sitting with us, and we were sure the mentor knew all the subjects which we discussed. For example, when we talked with each other wondering what to
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do. how bad our living condition was, how we had debts to repay while not having food for a single day..., the mentor used to start, as soon as he arrived, with these words, 'Yes, the condition of the students was bad during our time, too. They did not have anything, and they were hungry and poor, but they persevered.' Then he would start narrating some incidents about the life of the scholars of the past. I was one day, I recall. talking with Sheikh Musbah. I said to him, 'We do not have anything, and we cannot live only on bread.' When mentor Bahjat came and sat on the pulpit, he said, 'One day, the late Sheikh Murtada al-Ansari went to his father in the morning and said, 'We have nothing but bread.' The Sheikh said, 'But we have freshly baked bread!' It seemed as if Sheikh al-Ansari believed that the freshness of the bread compensated for eating anything else with it. These words lessened our pain because we used to eat bread with cheese."
Ayatollah Sheikh al-Kerbala'i says, "The late Hajj Abbas Qojani, one of the students of the late Ayatollah Mirza Ali the judge, conveyed to me in a special meeting after having praised the status of Ayatollah Bahjat the following: 'I was going to perform the pilgrimage to Imam al-Rida in one of my travels to Iran, then I went to the meeting place of Sheikh Bahjat. In a special meeting, I very much insisted on him to talk to me about his personal conditions and the divine niceties which Allah bestowed upon him and about his Gnostic revelations. He conveyed to me more than twenty important matters and special divine niceties, then he took upon me a pledge not to inform anyone about them,' but I transmitted one of those matters to some friends and I (al-Kerbala'i went on) insisted on him to tell me that matter. He said. 'The mentor told me he could see what is behind him if he so wished'."
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Sheikh Jawad al-Kerbala'i adds saying, "After several years, I traveled to Iran and went to the meeting place of Sheikh Bahjat and said to him in a private meeting, 'Have the matters which you told me several years ago remained as they are till now'?' The sheikh said, 'Yes'."
One of those close to the mentor says, "I went one day to Foman town. One day before my return, I visited Sayyid Areeb, one of the town's scholars, who gave me some bullions and asked me to give one of them to Sheikh Bahjat. After my return, I gave the sheikh one of those bullions. Some time after that, I wanted to return to Foman town, so Sheikh Bahjat gave me one thousand tomans and said, 'Give this money to Sayyid Areeb and do not tell him who sent it to him.' I sat in the shop of that merchant till he returned. I found him puzzled, so I asked him about what had happened. He said, 'When I gave the money to Sayyid Areeb, he said, 'Few days ago, a portion of our house collapsed, and the builder demanded one thousand tomans to rebuild it. I did not have much money, so I told the builder to be patient and not to start the work yet. As I was thus engaged, you brought me this sum which exactly equals the wage demanded by the builder.'
A theologian friend said to me, "One day, one of our relative women was afflicted with cancer. The doctors were unanimous about having a surgery for her as soon as possible, saying if that surgery was not done, the cancer would spread to other parts of her body. We were hesitated about it: Should we do the surgery or not? We decided to go to Sheikh Ayatollah Bahjat and ask him to do the istikhara for us. I went to the mentor and told him about the matter, asking him to do the istikhara on our behalf. The mentor did the islikhara and said, 'The surgery is not necessary,' giving me some money to spend it by way of charity on behalf of the patient, then he ordered me to dissolve
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a small piece of the soil of the Master of Martyrs (a.s) in Zamzam water so the patient could drink it every day seeking to recover. He also ordered me to feed a large number of the poor or offer them charity with some money and to ask them to supplicate for the patient to heal. We carried out the mentor's instructions to the letter, and our patient went to the shrine of Imam al-Rida (a.s), pleading to him. She remained in the sacred shrine for three days pleading and supplicating to Allah to heal her. During those three days, strange spiritual conditions happened to her, so much so that she did not feel any pain after she had returned home. I, therefore, went to the sheikh to tell him about it. He asked, 'How is the condition of your patient?' I said, 'Praise to Allah!,' and I narrated to him all what had happened in Mashhad city. The sheikh said, 'Follow the same past instructions and let the doctor examine her.' When the patient visited the doctor, he asked her with amazement, 'Have you done something, or did you go somewhere?!' The patient asked him, 'What do you mean?' The doctor said, 'The marks of sickness have shrunk from you in an incredible way; so, there is no need to have any surgery, and we will treat the remainder of the tumor with medication.' Now. after the passage of a long time since that incident, our patient enjoys very good health, and she has fully recovered from that ailment, Praise to Allah. What is noticeable in this issue is the istikhara which the sheikh did and his saying. 'The surgery is not necessary'."
One of the students of the hawza (theological seminary) wrote me once saying, "I was studying in Tehran and periodically visiting Qum. I was also acting upon the will of my father who had told me to visit Sheikh Bahjat whenever I visited Qum. So, I used to visit the sheikh whenever I visited the city. One day, my father disclosed the secret behind his will to me saying, 'My eyes were cooled one day when I saw the beauty of the Imam
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of the Time (al-Mahdi), may Allah hasten his reappearance, at the Palasar Mosque located in the shrine of Lady Fatima the Infallible, peace be with her, but my shyness and the greatness of the Imam prevented me from embracing the Imam like a lover who reached his beloved one after a long time of separation, but I saw after a moment Ayatollah Bahjat sitting in the same place where I had seen the Imam.' My late Either used to think that this meeting indicated the greatness of the sheikh and his connection with the Imam of the Time, may Allah hasten his reappearance."
This man added saying, "After my father's death, I saw that he had written in his will the following statement: 'Give the books which I bought to the Imam of the Time, may Allah hasten his reappearance, even though it may be through someone who can see him. And Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Bahjat, may Allah resurrect me and gather me in his company and from him I plead to supplicate for me, may be the sought person.' The word "may" was placed between two parentheses in the will. I took my late father's will and gave it to Sheikh Bahjat to read. The Sheikh said. 'He has written the word MAY in the will. Go and give the books to someone who you are sure is in contact with the Imam of the Time, may my soul he his sacrifice.'"
'Allama al-Tehrani says the following in this regard: "One of the greatest scholars, His Holiness Ayatollah Hajj Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Fomani Rashti, may his high shade endure. visited me in the holy city of Mashhad. He pointed out in his speech to something which cannot be interpreted except his own acquaintance with hidden things and with the Utopian ghaibi matters. I had a heart stroke in the month of Shawwal of 1413 A.H. (April 1993 A.D.) and was kept four nights in the intensive care unit and nine nights in the general disease unit in the Al-Qaim Hospital in the holy city of Mashhad. Then I was
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released by the hospital after my health, praise to Allah, had improved, so I returned home and started my studies and scholarly pursuits. One day. I was visited by the Sheikh with one of the students, and there was nobody in our house except myself and my oldest son. Hajj Sayyid Muhammad Sadiq. Allah had enabled me to perform the tahajjud and the qiyam of the night before being afflicted with this ailment, but I had ceased doing so during my sickness. After my return home, I stopped performing this act due to laziness or indifference or lack of determination although I used to stay awake for long hours in the night for emergency reasons. When the Sheikh came to visit me, and after the greeting and usual formalities, he said to me without any introduction, 'The qiyam during the night or the night prayer (and I do not remember the exact wording) is the conveyance of the night.' I remained silent and said nothing, as if I was not admonished by such guidance and did not decide to resume the night prayer. The talk dealt with other matters, but the Sheikh returned to the previous talk and said, 'I saw in Bihar al-Anwar this tradition: Allah Almighty has written this in His perfect Book: 'Truly the rising by night is most potent for governing (the soul) and most suitable for (framing) the speech (in prayer and praise)' (Qur'an, 73:6). Since I knew that my oldest son, Muhammad Sadiq, was one of those who observed the tahajjud, I realized that the pursuits submitted by the Sheikh without any introduction were meant to attract my attention and to wake me up from my indifference so I may not abandon this important matter even in the case of my sickness."
Sayyid Quds says the following: "One of' the theologians of Mazandaran, who occupied the post of head of the justice directorate in one of the governorates in Iran, conveyed to me that when Ayatollah Kohastani Mazandarani went to join his Lord, his son went to Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Bahjat. The
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Sheikh said to him, 'When your father departed, a great commotion took place in the hereafter world.'"
Sayyid Khosro-Shahi says the following in this regard: "I heard one of the students saying, 'After my marriage, I rented a house in the city of Qum. Having settled in the house, I suffered from an unbelievable financial crisis, so much so that I could no longer buy a dinner meal. Our conditions did not permit borrowing a sum of money from someone, so I got out of the house and was honored by visiting the Infallible Lady, peace he with her. After the ziyara and during my performance of the ceremonial farewell of the shrine, I felt that someone was putting some money in my hand after having approached me from the back. He said, 'This money is for you.' I turned my head to the back, and it was Ayatollah Bahjat. He did so although I did not inform him about my need for the cash."
A student narrated to me an incident similar to this. I remember a statement by Ayatollah Bahjat. He used to say, "Is it possible the Lord ignores us or leaves us to look after our own selves?! Therefore, the students must not worry about anything as long as they perform their duties because the Lord is their Protector and He never ignores them."
Hujjatul-Islam wal Muslimeen, the flag of guidance, says. "One of the students conveyed this to me: 'I wanted to go to Gailan for religious propagation one day, so I brought my family's expenses, but I did not have the trip's fare; therefore, I went to perform the ziyara of the daughter of Ail al-Bayt. peace be with them, to whom I complained and remonstrated saying, 'My Lady! We have dedicated ourselves to your service. you Ahl al-Bayt, and we want to convey the religion of your grandfather, but we do not have even the expense of the trip. and the matter is entrusted to you.' Then I went out and
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intended to perform the congregational prayer under the leadership of Ayatollah Bahjat. I performed the noon and afternoon prayer rites. After the prayers, the Sheikh looked behind him and beckoned to me, and I was in the second row, so I thought he meant someone else. But he again beckoned to me and said, 'I mean you!' I stood up from my place and got close to him. He told me to accompany him. I went with the Sheikh, and there were other people with us. When we reached the Sheikh's house, he said to me, 'Wait here till I return.' He entered the house, and few moments later he returned and in his hand there were two hundred tomans, and this sum was at the time a small fortune. He gave me the cash, so I said, 'What should I do with this money?' He said, 'Did you not ask for the money'?' I then remembered the issue and said to the Sheikh, 'But this is a lot of money!' He said. 'No, it is not. because there are others who need this money, and you will be able to take care of their needs. too.' Anyway, I bade the Sheikh farewell and went to Tehran. There, I saw some friends in Charagh-Gaz Street, and they wanted to go to Gailan also for religious propagation and they did not have money to pay the trip's fare. I said to them, 'Do not think about it, the money has arrived.' We went together and had our lunch then rode the bus and went to Gailan. When we arrived there, all the money had gone."
This same person conveys this incident, too: "I heard someone saying, 'I wanted to go for the pilgrimage, so I went to Ayatollah Bahjat and said to him. 'Allah prevented a big catastrophe from happening to us when our car turned upside down as it was speeding, but none of us was hurt, praise to Allah.' The Sheikh said, 'A similar incident had taken place to you twenty or twenty-five years ago, and you also were not harmed.' I remembered the incident, and the Sheikh was quite right in his statement.'"
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His Holiness Hujjatul-Islam wal Muslimeen Sheikh Shushtari says. "A man went to Ayatollah Sheikh Bahjat and said, 'Your Holiness, Sheikh! I do not wake up for the night prayer; so. what should I do? Please supplicate for me so I may wake up at the right time.' The Sheikh asked him, 'What time you want to wake up'?' The man said, 'At three o'clock after midnight.' The Sheikh said, 'Go, for you will wake up at this hour by the will of Allah.'"
Sheikh Shushtari goes on to say, "Many years have passed since this incident. The man said to me, 'Since then. I have been waking up at the determined hour; therefore. I never abandoned the night prayer for a single day, and this is one of the karamat of Ayatollah Bahjat.'"
8. His Special Care For Shari'a Matters
One of the important characteristics whereby Sheikh Bahjat is distinguished and which can be witnessed at the first look is his special care for observing the norms of conduct according to the Shari'a (Islamic legislative system) and the tradition of Ahl al-Bayt, peace be with them. Sheikh Musbah says the following in this regard, "Shiite scholars of etiquette, all of them save those who are deviated in their way of thinking and conduct, agree that the right path to perfection is the path of adoration, that man cannot reach any moral station without obeying Allah, the most Exalted and Great, and without acting upon His commandments. But the attention paid by the scholars to observing the Shari'a etiquettes and the tradition of Ahl al-Bayt, peace be with them, is not equal. Sheikh Bahjat, may Allah protect him, is regarded as one of the most distinguished [theologians] for observing these norms. He observes in his conduct particularly interesting behavioral habits which cannot be easily described. I am going to mention
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this incident which I remember, perhaps it will remain in history so those who wish to act upon the commandments of the Shari'a may get to know to what extent one must observe the commandments of the Shari'a:
"The Sheikh inherited from his father a small plot of land suitable for planting rice. It was financing some of his domestic expenses. The Sheikh was used to give a measure of rice, though it could be a -few kilo grams of it, to his friends and neighbors when they brought the crop to his house. Once, I left Qum city for some time during the days of struggle. Nobody knew anything about my place of residence, not even our close relatives. During that period, the Sheikh had sent our house a sack of rice once and a good sum of money some other time. What was noticeable is that he sent us the money through his wife and son Ali. His wife brought the money and gave it to my wife as his son, Ali, was standing at the entrance to the alley.
"When I returned home, I kept thinking about the secret that prompted the Sheikh to send his wife to our house. but I soon realized that this was one of the etiquettes of the Islamic Shari' a. According to Islamic ethics, if the husband is traveling, nobody should go to his house. If it is necessary to go to his house, a woman has to go. There are minutely interesting statements articulated by the friends of Allah, their conducts, the way they stood up or sat down, which cannot be comprehended except through the study of a complete branch of knowledge. let alone undertaking them and acting upon them. These matters are the ones that raise the servant in his adoration and endear him to his Lord, granting him a lofty status. The Sheikh used to advise anyone seeking his advice to observe what is taken for granted by the Shari'a. Healways emphasized observing what the Shari-a regards as taken for
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granted, believing that the matters where doubt is entertained or confusing matters fall in the second degree of importance."
The Sheikh derives useful evidence in this field which I learned from him and which I sometimes used in my sermons and in other places. He says that Allah Almighty wants to guide His servants to perfection; therefore, He quite often mentions the things which have the greatest impact on man's happiness and on determining his fate. So, if we want to know the matters that cause man's happiness, we have to know the matters which Allah, Praise and Exaltation belong to Him, emphasizes more than others. This is so because any pursuit more stressed in the Qur'an, traditions and statements of Ahl al-Bayt, peace be with them, will have a role in perfecting man and determining his fate in a greater way. Observing the prayers is one of the most important of these matters because we may not find in any chapter off* the like of all these Qur'anic verses which call for upholding the prayers and all these narratives which are cited about observing its timing, etiquette and the necessity of performing them with full attention of the heart.
Sometimes the Sheikh used to say the following by way of jesting: "We look for something for our own perfection which neither Allah nor His Messenger nor any Imam has sanctioned."
Ayatollah Sheikh Jawad al-Kerbala'i says the following in this regard: "Ayatollah Bahjat used to say this to me in a special tone: 'Whenever you get to know what the Shari'a a holds as taken for granted, such as abandoning sins, observing what is obligatory and what is highly commendable, the recitation of the Qur'an during solitude, earning the qualifications of health, the acceptance of your adoration and its inclusion of secrets such as prayers and other rituals, so you may get to know their
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results..., do not come to me to ask me for instructions to lead you to the right conduct and to the path to Allah Almighty, as though a mentor from the unknown comes to you and guides you to the path! Are these matters that are taken for granted and are issued by the most pure Sharma not sufficient for you to act upon as they should be acted upon so you may reach the anticipated goal?' I came to know from the statement of the mentor that one who is seeking the path must safeguard the manifestations of the holy Shari: a, must keep things to himself with regard to spiritual conditions and not manifest them except to those who are worthy of them, and the latter are indeed few. The mentor also said this to me when I was studying ethics in Qum city: 'Tell the scholars issues which they understand and do not tell them things above their level of comprehension'."
