From Medina to Karbala – In The Words of Imam al-Husayn

Born at Qom, Iran, Muhammad-Reza Fakhr-Rohani studied English literature and linguistics at the University of Tehran. In addition to linguistics, linguistic pragmatics, and religio-linguistics, he has been active in teaching, editing, and translating Shi’i Islamic literature from Persian and Arabic into English. He has published many papers and several books, including From Medina to Karbala in the Words of Imam al-Husayn (translation), Devoted to the Truth: Allama Amini, the Author of al-Ghadir, and “Ashura Encyclopedic Dictionary”. He has also translated into English all the pilgrimage-prayers in favor of Imam al-Husayn and his Ashura martyred companions, and the late Ayatollah Khoei’s theological dialectic poem (urjuzah) in favor of Imam Ali. Affiliated with the University of Qom, he also cooperates with several lading Shi’i academic circles and pilgrimage institutions in both Iran and Iraq.

The late Ayatollah MuÎammad-Sadiq Najmi was born in the village of Haris, Azerbaijan, Iran, in 1936. He received his education at Talebiyeh Madrasa. In the end of the summer of  1953, he left Tabriz for Qom to pursue his higher education. His education was not limited to his study in Qom; whenever he found
any opportunity, mainly in the summer holidays, he visited Mashhad to perform pilgrimage and to benefit from the lessons offered at the madrasas there. In
Mashhad, he made close relations with the late Ayatollah Hajj Sayyid Hadi Milani.

The late Ayatollah Najmi was both a prolific scholar and a social activist. He authored several books, mainly concerning Islamic history as well as the Qur’an and hadith. He established the Islamic Azad University in Khoy in the 1985 and was its rector for 16 years.

The late Ayatollah Najmi had a heart attack in the late summer of 2011. He breathed his last on 2 16 September 2011 and was buried at Qom. May his soul rest in peace. Ameen.