Ayatollah Ataollah Ashrafi-Esfahani was born in 1902 in Sadeh, Esfahan (now Khomeinishahr). After studying elementary school in his hometown, he went to Esfahan to continue his education where he studied jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence and ethics at the Nouriyeh Seminary located in the Atiq Bazaar.
In 1931, Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani went to the Islamic Seminary of Qom to continue his education and for 23 years pursued his studies under the great scholars of the Islamic Seminary of Qom such as Grand Ayatollah Abdolkarim Haeri-Yazdi, the founder of the Islamic Seminary of Qom, Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khansari and Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Hoseyn Boroujerdi. In the meantime, he met Imam Khomeini (ra) who was teaching philosophy at that time. At the age of 40, Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani received permission for ijtihad from Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khansari. In 1951, Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Hoseyn Boroujerdi, assigned him, along with several teachers of the seminary, to conduct the examinations in the seminary for four years. In 1956, he went to Kermanshah to serve as the principal of the city’s seminary and the congregational prayer leader. Therefore, Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani as a representative of Ayatollah Boroujerdi began to help people with respect to their social and religious affairs. Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani became Imam Khomeini’s representative in shari’ah affairs in 1963 after the uprising of June 5th, 1963, and even after Imam Khomeini’s exile to Turkey, the relationship between the two continued.
Despite the surveillance of the security apparatus, he always sent religious taxes to Imam Khomeini (ra). SAVAK also arrested him for several weeks in 1964, yet was forced to release him due to the protests of religious authorities and clergies. During the years of struggle, Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani was either the organizer of or participant in every demonstration that took place in Kermanshah. After the martyrdom of Haj Sayyed Mostafa Khomeini, on October 23, 1977, Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani publicly held a mourning ceremony which resulted in the attack of SAVAK agents.
On Eid al-Fitr in the year 1978, a large demonstration was also held under his leadership. A month later, he organized another demonstration in Kermanshah, and this time, he was also injured when the regime forces attacked people. On October 5, 1978, when Imam Khomeini (ra) left Iraq, Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani was arrested and transferred to the Anti-Sabotage Joint Committee of Tehran, but he was released after a few days due to the pressures exerted by public opinion and the maraje’. According to the SAVAK’s report: “Ashrafi-Esfahani is a special representative of [Imam] Khomeini and the cause of agitation, convulsions and strikes in the country.” On 28 January 1979, Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani, together with those affiliated with combatant clerics held a sit-in at the University of Tehran to protest against Shapur Bakhtiar’s government because it had closed Mehrabad Airport to prevent Imam Khomeini’s return to the country. And after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he was among those who went to the airport to welcome Imam Khomeini (ra).
Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani was a member of the Assembly of the Experts of the Constitution, and in 1980 he was appointed by Imam Khomeini (ra) as his representative and the imam of Friday Prayer in Kermanshah.
After Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980, Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani despite being 80 years old and having a physical disability maintained his connection with the War fronts and used to go there twice a month. The People’s Mojehedin Organization carried out the first assassination attempt against him in 1980 by exploding a sound bomb near his house. The following year, the organization failed to assassinate him with the explosion of a grenade that led to the martyrdom of two people. But finally, on October 15th, 1982, he was martyred by a grenade explosion in Kermanshah Grand Mosque, where Friday Prayers were held.
Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani is the fourth martyr of the mihrab. Before his martyrdom, he had said: “Bury me next to the grave of the martyrs, maybe they will help me and become my intercessor before God.” He was buried in the martyrs’ cemetery in Kermanshah.
In a message on the occasion of the martyrdom of Ayatollah Ashrafi-Esfahani, Imam Khomeini (ra) stated that I have had devotion towards this great personality.
Reference: The Encyclopedia of the Islamic Revolution
Archive of The History of the Islamic Revolution
leave your comments