۝ ʂʇɴɐɥɗəɭə ɟo ʞɐəɗ

Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmed Shirazi is, as you say, truly amazing. He reminds me so much of his uncle, Imam Muhammad Husayn Shirazi (qs). Part of the similarity is that he speaks a great deal on “Sunni”-Shia differences. There are some videos I’ve posted addressing this a little bit with English subtitles. Most of his material to date, however, is in Arabic only, which is really very sad as I’m sure it’s phenomenal. The closest living Shirazi to him in style and substance is probably Ayatollah Sayyed Mujtaba, may Allah prolong his life.

Sayyed Ahmed is yet one more example of what makes the Shirazi family the truly exceptional family of modern Islamic scholars, who have contributed more than any other to the preservation and propagation of true Rafidhi Shia Islam.

My understanding is that the Qur’an was always with the Holy Prophet in its entirety, and that individual surahs or verses were then (re)revealed on their relevant occasions. However, I will double-check this and post the results in the next day or two, insha’Allah.

The book may actually be in Farsi. I don’t have direct access to it, although I used at least one reference from it in my own book. Insha’Allah I will ask the shaykhs about this tomorrow; I’ve spoken with them about some related issues about Mukhtar before, and I’m sure they’ll have heard this and have some understanding of it. Then I’ll repost what I get from them.

My understanding is that it is a history of the infallibles.

There are narrations in Shi`i sources which cast aspersions upon Mukhtar (rh). However, there are a couple of possible reasons for this:

1) Sometimes to save the lives of their companions, the Imams would do public tabarra from them, including defaming them (so that they would not appear to be one of their followers). This, in particular, complicates the science of rijal.

2) The traditions are simply inaccurate or false.

But I would need to see the actual tradition itself. Mukhtar is complicated from a historical standpoint, in particular because some people say that he believed not in the Imamate of `Ali ibn al-Husayn but of Muhammad ibn Hanafiyyah. In that regard, all I can tell you is what my own shuyukh have told me, which is that this is patently false and that Mukhtar is a hero and without apparent defect.

Yes, and there are two different stories about this.

The most common is that he invited her to a banquet and had a false floor under her chair. At some point during this, the trap door was opened and she fell into a pit of knives.

In an alternate version, he was having her escorted out of town and a pit had been dug in the earth and then covered up. Her donkey was escorted over it, at which point she fell into it and the donkey fell on top of her.

Please make du`a for the donkey.