Qom Seminary
The modern Qom hawza was revitalized by Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi and Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi and is barely a century old.
After relocating to Qom in 1337, Bafqi motivated local scholars, including Abu al-Qasim al-Kabir Qomi, (Sheikh) Mahdi the Philosopher, and Mirza Mohammad Arbab, to create a structured academic institution.
During his fifteen-year tenure in Qom, which coincided with a period of significant scholarly activity, Haeri established a formidable academic institution characterized by his effective leadership.
The founding of the seminary in Qom, coupled with Haeri's esteemed reputation and administrative skills, attracted many scholars to the city.
The arrival of distinguished scholars such as Seyyed Abul-Hasan Isfahani and Mirza Muhammad-Hossein Na'ini from Najaf, along with Haeri's warm reception and allocation of teaching positions to them, further bolstered the institution.
As the highest religious scholarly authority in Iran during his time, as well as the absolute authority to follow and the head of the Qom seminary, Borujerdi had appointed people as his liaisons with the government to advance religious and seminary affairs, and he conveyed his messages, objections, and reminders to the Shah or other officials through them.
Among Borujerdi's other political and social actions, we can mention the following: proposing to include religious education in school lessons and the government's agreement with it; proposing to stop trains at stations for passengers to pray; confronting the influence of Baha'iism in government centers; supporting the Palestinian people and issuing a declaration on this subject in 1327 AH (the year the Israeli regime was founded), and... Borujerdi also organized activities in the Qom Seminary in the international dimension, including sending Seyyed Mohammad Taqi Taleghani Al-Ahmad in 1331 AH to supervise the Shiites of Medina, and after his death, Seyyed Ahmad Lavasani and then Abdul Hussein Faqihi Rashti; sending Seyyed Zain al-Abedin Kashani to Kuwait, Seyyed Mohammad Hassan Nasher al-Islam Shushtari to Zanzibar, Shariatzadeh Isfahani to Pakistan, Mehdi Haeri Yazdi to America, and Sadr Balaghi as his traveling representative to Europe.
Among Borujerdi's other international efforts was to gain the support and approval of Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Qomi for the establishment of Dar al-Taqrib in Egypt.
Borujerdi, in order to preserve and promote the Qom Seminary... scientifically, presented his new method of researching and teaching jurisprudence, which was unprecedented in Qom, and trained a generation of talented students in this field who became future professors and authorities of the seminary; he made great efforts to revive and publish major Shiite books on hadith, jurisprudence, and rijal; he paid attention to the continuation of students' education and encouraged talented individuals in various ways; he made students understand the basics of jurisprudence and rijal issues and discussions, explaining the sources of each, and when and why each issue entered the Islamic seminary.
Boroujerdi took significant steps in developing the educational environment of the seminary, such as building and reviving schools, and in particular establishing the Grand Mosque and its library.
According to a report in the Kayhan newspaper on April 12, 1961, a few days after Boroujerdi's death, Khomeini's lecture abroad was the most magnificent, with more than four hundred people attending.
The second group were moderate clerics who, while opposing the Pahlavi regime, avoided violently fighting it, and scholars such as Golpayegani, Shariatmadari, and Mar'ashi Najafi followed this line.
The third group consisted of Khomeini and his supporters, Boroujerdi's students, as well as Seyyed Mohammad Mohaqiq Damad, who entered the political scene in earnest.
The starting point of the conflict between the Qom Seminary and the government after Boroujerdi's death was when Pahlavi II, instead of sending a message of condolences to the scholars of Qom, sent a message of condolences to Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsen Hakim in Najaf, and this was perceived among scholars inside Iran as his goal to remove the Shiite authority from Iran.
As mentioned, after the exile of Khomeini, the leadership of the Qom Seminary fell to the three religious authorities - Golpaygani, Shariatmadari, and Najafi Marashi.
Among the events that provoked a strong reaction from the religious authorities and scholars of Qom was the publication of an insulting article against Khomeini on Dey 17, 1356, in the Etelaat newspaper, which led to the seminary's protest and speeches by some prominent scholars and teachers against the regime, leading to the raid by officers on Dey 19, and the arrest and martyrdom of some students.
In addition, in these years, the position of the Qom seminary has become so strong and important that people come to Qom not only from within Iran but also from many other countries to study religious sciences; so that now the number of graduates of the World Center for Islamic Sciences (Jame'e al-Mustafa al-Alamiyah) is twenty thousand people from 103 countries.
This institution was established in 1965 and its curriculum included the principles of belief, the study of religions and sects, the interpretation and memorization of the Quran, jurisprudence and principles, the science of hadith, the memorization of religious texts, the history of Islam, the identification of Islamic countries, Persian and Arabic literature, the art of oratory and speech, and so on.
