Sheikh Ahmad Ehsaee was born in Motairafi village located at Al-Ehsa province. Al-Ehsa is located at the western coast of the Persian Gulf as one of the Shiism centers. Now, most Shiite people from the Saudi Arabia are residing here.
Sheikh Ahmad’s descendants were Sunnis and were living in another place; but one of them called Sheikh Bagher left his hometown having differences with his father and resided in Motairafi village, Al-Ehsa. He turned against Sunnism and turned to Shiism.[1]
آنچه در ادامه می خوانید
Sheikh Ahmad Ehsaee’s education:
Ehsaee doesn’t consider his knowledge as acquired; but introduces himself as inspired by the holy Imams and their knowledge; but investigating his biography indicates that he has educated formally.
It is written in Makaremul Athar: He started his education learning the holy Quran in the presence of his father Sheikh Zeinuddin Ehsaee. He learned his common rudimentary lessens there in the presence of the local scholars and in 1186 A.H, he headed off towards Najaf and Karbala because he didn’t find anybody else to ask him for learning.
His masters were Agha Muhammad Baqer Wahid Behbahani, Seyyed Ali Tabatabaee the author of Riyadh, Mirza Mehdi Shahrestani and Seyyed Mehdi Bahrul Oloum and Sheikh Jafar Kasheful Qita.[2] After presenting an explanation over the book “Tabsaratul Moteallemin written by great scholar Helli[3], he was granted the degree in divine law on matters of theology and law by late Agha Seyyed Mehdi Bahrul Oloum and late Seyyed Ali, the author of Riyadh and late Sheikh Ja’far ibn Sheikh Khezr and… . In addition to religious jurisprudence, principles and tradition, Ehsaee had studied in the fields of medicine, astronomy, old mathematics, letter sciences, numbers, talisman and philosophy in various levels.
Sheikh Ahmad Ehsaee’s journey to Iran
Yazd people welcomed him warmly and it caused him to reside in Yazd city after coming back from Mashhad city. This extensive fame started from this city. After prevalence of cholera disease in Iraq, Sheikh Ahmad Ehsaee came back to hometown. He resided in Bahrein for 4 years after getting married with Maryam Bent Khamis Al Asri.[4] Then, in 1227 A.H. he traveled to Karbala and Najaf to visit as pilgrim. Then, he traveled to Mashhad city to visit Imam Reza (P.H.)’s holy Shrine as pilgrim. He stopped in Yazd when he was traveling to Khorasan. The people of Yazd city welcomed him warmly; so he decide to reside in Yazd after coming back from Mashhad. The extensive fame of Sheikh started from this city.
After a while, Fath Ali Shah invited him to Tehran city and he resided there for some months. Sheikh left Tehran and came back to Yazd city in spite of the king and the court’s honoring.
Separation form the scholars and differences with them:
In Qazvin city, Mullah Muhammad Taqi Baraqani excommunicated him because Sheikh believed in physical resurrection. So, some scholars turned against him, too. The prince Ruknuddoleh Ali Naqi Mirza tried to reconcile Sheikh Ahmad and late Baraqani; but he wasn’t successful. Sheikh Ahmad went to Mashhad , then to Yazd, Isfahan and Kermanshah; but this time he was welcomed coldly.[5]
Abul Qasem Khan Ebrahimi writes: “The case of excommunication happened one or two years before his death. It happened in Qazvin city and I don’t want to explain it in details. The author of the book “The scholars’ stories” have written what he had heard in this regard. What is certain and can’t be denied is the issue of excommunication which has been happened certainly and its first perpetrator has been late Mullah Muhammad Taqi Baraqani known as the third martyr.[6]
Selling paradise by Sheikh Ahmad
Muhammad Ali Mirza told Sheikh to sell him paradise worth 1000 Tumans. Then, Sheikh sold him Paradise.
In 1229 A.H. when he came back from the holy Shrines to Kermanshah city, he was welcomed by people and prince Muhammad Ali Mirza Dolatshah, the ruler of Kermanshah. He resided in Kermanshah city urged by the ruler.
Mirza Muhammad Tonekaboni narrates: “At time, Sheikh was in debt. So, the free prince said to him to sell him paradise for 1000 Tumans to pay his debts. Then, Sheikh sold the paradise and pledged and sealed and gave it to the prince and received one thousand Tumans[7].”
Sheikh Ahmad Ehsaee’s consequence:
He claimed for being the deputy and special gate for Imam of the Time (P.H.). he appointed his student, Sheikh Kazem Rashti, as his successor when he decided to travel to Mecca.
Although he was Shiite, he believed in the following four principles based on his intellectual background of Sufism:
- God 2) prophet 3) Imam 4) the gate of Imam (that is, the mediator between Imam and people) and claimed for being the deputy and the special gate for imam of the Time (P.H.).
He died in 1242 when he was 81. He was buried in Medina behind the holy prophet’s holy Shrine’s wall.[8]
[۱] Muhammad Baqer Najafi –the Baha’is- Mash’ar publishing house, 1380, p. 171
[۲] Makaremul Athar, Muhammad Ali Habib Abadi (1269-1355), Isfahan, Kamal publishing house, 1362, Vol. 4, 1135.
[۳] The great Islamic encyclopedia, Vol. 6, p. 663.
[۴] It is a book written in Imamate religious jurisprudence.
[۵] Sheikh school, henry Carbon, Tehran, 1346, translated by Dr. Fereydoun Bahmanyar, p. 28.
[۶] The stories of scholars, Mirza Muhammad Tonekaboni, Tehran, Islamic sciences publishing house, p. 42.
[۷] Fehrest, p. 190
[۸] The stories of scholars, Muhammad Tonekaboni, Islamic sciences publishing house, p. 42.
