Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi

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Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi (Persian: محمد تقی مصباح یزدی) (born 1934) is an Iranian Shia cleric and politician. He is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's spiritual advisor, and is currently running for membership in Iran's Assembly of Experts^[1], the body responsible for choosing the Supreme Leader. Mesbah Yazdi espouses complete isolation from the West and opposes non-fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran^[2]. He advocates a return to the values of the 1979 Iranian revolution and is a prominent opponent of the Reformist movement in Iran. He believes that the use of nuclear weapons has religious legitimacy under Islamic Law^[3]

1 Education
2 Career
3 Views
4 Nickname
5 Controversy
6 Quotes by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Education

Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi completed his primary and secondary education in Yazd, and then moved to Qom, where he continued his education in fiqh and graduated in 1960. His teachers included prominent figures such as Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Bahjat Foumani. He was also among the students of Ayatollah Allameh Tabatabayi, the author of Tafsir al-Mizan, the influential shi'ite exegesis of Quran. Before Islamic revolution, he was the chief editor of a journal called "Revenge". ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Career

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi was member of board of directors of Haghani School ^[4], a very influential religious school in Iran. He is the author of many books on fiqh, Quran exegesis, divinity and general issues of Islam. He is the director of the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute ^[5] in Qom and a member of the Iranian Assembly of Experts. In addition, Mesbah Yazdi sometimes speaks before Khutbah in Tehran's Friday prayers.

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 more well known. He issued a fatwa in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidential bid, and meets with the president frequently ^[6]. He is currently standing for election in the Assembly of Experts, the group of Ayatollahs responsible for nominating a replacement for Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader should be need to step down^[7].

[edit] Views

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi calls for the conversion of Islamic Republic to Islamic government^{[citation needed]}. He supports a return to the values of the 1979 Iranian revolution^[8], and is a principal theoretician of Islamic fundamentalism in Iran. President Khatami once called him the theoretician of violence[1]). He is an opponent of the Reformist movement in Iran. Speaking of the reform movement, he has said, "An Islamic government must combat this, because injecting misleading ideas is like injecting the Aids virus!". He also claims that Young Iranians who questioned the regime after studying abroad did so only because they had been trained in 'psychological warfare' by foreign universities ^[9].

He stands against pluralism.^{[citation needed]} He has called for the execution of Dr Hashem Aghajari for insulting Islam based on the blasphemy laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mesbah Yazdi believes that "If anyone insults the Islamic sanctities, Islam has permitted for his blood to be spilled, no court needed either".

Mesbah Yazdi believes that slavery and aggression are justifiable under Islam [2]. He supports suicide bombing against Israel. In a lecture that was released in February 15 2006, Mohsen Ghorourian who is a well-known student of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi said that using atomic bomb has religious legitimacy.[3][4] In 2005, Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons.

[edit] Nickname

The Ayatollah's nickname comes from a cartoon portraying "Professor Crocodile", a "reptilian academic who was shown strangling a journalist with his tail". The cartoon was drawn by Nikahang Kowsar and satarized the stifiling of freedom of expression by Iranian clerics. The Ayatollah's name rhymes with the Farsi word for crocodile. The cartoonist was imprisoned for the depiction ^[10]

[edit] Controversy

A rumor widely spread on the Internet claims that Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi is the highest ranking figure in Hojjatieh group. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi has denounced this rumor, and has said that if anyone finds a connection between him and Hojjatieh, he will denounce everything he stands for.^[11]. Ayatollah Khomeini actually frowned on the Hojjatieh and the group was nominally dissolved in 1983, yet they secretly continued to maintain and strengthen their network.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Quotes by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi

"The real and precious knowledge is the one that culminates in God fearing."
"If it is impossible to uncover the hypocrites faces other than through sacrificing our souls, therefore we are supposed to do so."(In Persian)
The concept ”exam” in the divine order (In Persian)
"We should know that 1,400 years ago the Koran said that the enemies of Islam will always fight while chanting peace-seeking slogans.^[12]"
"If someone tells you he has a new interpretation of Islam, sock him in the mouth.^[13]"