Martyr Morteza Motahari, one of prominent pupil of Imam Khomeini, has left an enriched academic legacy by writing dozens of theological works on a range of subjects and topics.
Imam Khomeini, the contemporary leader of the Muslim world, recommended university and seminary scholars and young generation to pay special attention to precious works left by Late Ayatollah Motahhari.
Motahhari’s works cover a range of subjects including Islamic history, beliefs, spirituality, interpretation of Quran, events of Ashura, philosophy, logic, mysticism and some other fields.
Motahhari had been regarded as a right-hand of Imam Khomeini and a distinguished Islamic philosopher, whose philosophical views address problems facing the society.
Iran each year marks national Teacher's Day on 12th of Ordibehesht month on the Iranian calendar which falls in early May. The day commemorates the martyrdom of Motahhari, the renowned theology professor and writer.
Ayatollah Motahhari was one of the most literate scholars trusted by Imam Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic.
Motahhari, who always considered himself a pupil of the great Imam and undertook serious efforts to spread genuine objectives of the Islamic Revolution, stood by the Islamic movement through all thick and thin times.
Motahhari stood against any type of superstitious and wrong beliefs and also introduced the pure teachings of Islam.
Ayatollah Motahhari wrote continuously from his student days right up to 1979, the year of his assassination.
The well-known scholar wrote dozens of books and treatises before his life was cut short by a terrorist assassin’s bullet at the age of 60 years.
Motahhari, who was the president of the Constitutional Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a member of the Revolutionary Council at the time of his assassination, had earlier served in the Tehran University as the Head of the Department of Theology and Islamic Learning.
Motahhari who played a pivotal role in spreading the Islamic teachings and raising awareness among public during those repressive days of the foreign-installed Pahlavi regime, had indeed possessed a dynamic mind
He instilled in the youth, women, and all sections of the society a profound awareness of Islam and their duties in life.
Freedom theory by Martyr Motahari
Martyr Motahhari considered freedom to be vital and necessary for all live creatures in order to facilitate proper growth and perfection.
For instance, a sprout needs fertile soil to grow and turn into a tree, and similarly it is freedom that facilitates the progress towards perfection, since man has been endowed by God with intellect, willpower, and speech.
He divided human freedom into two social freedom and spiritual freedom. Regarding social freedom, he has said: Social freedom means that human being should not be exploited by others. Others should not create obstacles in his path of growth or exploit his intellectual and physical capacities to their own benefit. One of the goals of the Prophets of God was to make people aware of social freedom, in order to rid minds of slavish attitudes.
According to Martyr Motahhari, Prophets were sent by God to teach man to achieve spiritual freedom by preserving human dignity, intellect and conscience, through abstention from carnal desires and selfish attitudes. And to achieve this, a person should control his/her anger and strengthen the willpower to reject the temptations of unlawful earnings. Then only a person could be considered free in the real sense of this word.
Ayatollah Motahhari made it clear that for achieving spiritual freedom, self-purification is necessary, as taught by all Prophets, especially the Last and Greatest of God’s Messengers, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). He wrote:
The main program of Prophets is spiritual freedom, while the main loss of our era is that we always speak of social freedom but we do not speak of spiritual freedom of human being. In our era, the manmade schools of thought speak no word regarding spiritual honesty, whereas social freedom is impossible to achieve without spiritual freedom.
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Imam Khomeini Recommended to Read Motahari Books