Description

Thee Master’s Testament

by: Allamah Ali Asghar Karbaschiyan

Allamah Ali Asghar Karbaschiyan, the founder of the Alawi educational institute in Iran which has gained international fame as the ‘Eton College of Iran’ because it has produced successive generations of political and cultural elites in the country.

Karbaschiyan was a renaissance man. He was a selfless senior cleric, a pedagogist, a self-taught educationalist, a maverick among his clerical peers and yet an orthodox religious man, an amazing orator, and finally a great friend to his students and the teachers whom he supervised.

He decided to leave the seminary environment to provide modern education for the pre-revolution youth. His new model of education aimed to inculcate religious values among teenagers who would later have to face the serious challenges of secular higher education.

Foreword

The eminent Master, the late ‘Allāmah ‘Alī Aṣghar Karbāschiyān (May his soul rest in peace) was born in 1914 in Tehran. He developed an interest in educating young adults in his days of youth, an interest encouraged by erudite scholars, particularly the late Sayyid Riḍā Darbandī and the Grand Ayatollah Burūjirdī.

Having completed his seminary education in Tehran and Qum and having attained the status of ijtihād,1 he left Qum for Tehran in 1955, aspiring to establish a school to serve as a model for other staff members of educational institutions. Thus, he discussed the issue with his old friend, the late Ḥājj Muqaddas, a pious sermonist of Tehran, and benefited from his support. Then, he appointed the late Riḍā Rūzbih, a prominent scholar and a paragon of moral virtues, as the principal of the newly founded ‘Alawī School.

In the beginning, the master would do most of the chores at the school, like shopping and cleaning classrooms and washrooms. He and the late Mr. Rūzbih taught most of the classes. However, as the number of students grew, other teachers were employed in time and the master taught fewer classes and he later taught ethics. It was so delightful to listen to ethical discussions from a paragon of virtues. The graduates of the school still cherish the reminiscences of those lessons and admit that the lectures had positive impacts on their lives and careers.

Having established the high school, he founded the ‘Alawī Elementary School in 1962, maintaining that education must be received in childhood. He would recite these lines: While a stick is green, thou canst bend it as thou listest.

When it is dry, fire alone can make it straight. The school focused on imparting knowledge and moral virtues, quality education, selecting students from religious and pious families,  educational infrastructure, and abstention from putting up false fronts and window-dressing. He maintained that anything which is done in the name of religion must be a model of excellence. Therefore, despite leading a simple, austere life himself, he purchased the best facilities for the school and the vestiges of such precision and foresight are still noticeable after more than half a century at the ‘Alawī School.

Selection of devoted staff, even janitors, was of particular significance. The major steps taken by him included selecting religious teachers with precision and assisting them with spiritual growth through meticulously supervising their activities and providing them with instructions. Teachers’ meetings were weekly held by him to help them remember the goals of education. Teacher-parent meetings were also held on a weekly basis to establish harmony between parents and the goals of the school.

The erudite master benefited immensely from the expertise of professional as well as modern methodologies, and sent a number of teachers on trips abroad to visit educational institutions. He would inquire his acquaintances, returning from abroad, about any experience they could share. Camping arrangements would be made by him for students during summer vacations to help them brush up what they had learned in the previous educational year.

His struggles in running the school came to fruition in time when its graduates stepped into society and noticed their principal’s foresight and profound understanding of life. Further, thanks to his erudition and piety, religious authorities and sources of emulation granted him permission to spend half the khums, allotted to the Last Shī‘ī Imam, on the school.

Philanthropists, witnessing the fruits of his endeavors, contributed in different ways to the betterment of the school. Thus, the path of the devoted man was divinely paved. Foundation of
tens of schools, for boys and girls, in Tehran and other cities in Iran and abroad by the graduates of the ‘Alawī School, who followed the example and guidelines of the late Master, have been the
fruits of his perseverance, loftiness of purpose, and turning away from worldly posts and positions.

Tens of cultural institutes and organizations have been established by his disciples, in addition to those founded by him, aiming at finding solutions to the issues faced by people and serving
the underprivileged.

Having lived a life imbued with divine blessings, the eminent Master passed away in August 2003, departing on a divine and delightful journey towards his Friend.

About the Book

It is through the everlastingness and richness of their thoughts and ideas that great men are remembered as shining stars in the history of mankind. The lifespans of such great men are far shorter in capacity to display, in their entirety, the existential effulgence of their worldly lives. Therefore, the corporeal death of the elite is but the start of their pure thoughts and ideas.
The late erudite Master, Ḥājj Shaykh ‘Alī Aṣghar Karbāschiyān, was truly one of the rarities whose contributions have blessed our times. His lifetime, nearing a centenary, did not last long enough to display, in full bloom, all his erudition, pure thoughts, and original contributions to humanity. It was in his character to slide, in the course of his life, into obscurity and inconspicuousness. He led a life of selflessness; he neither aspired to achieve recognition, nor did he publish any of his own writings.

The corporeal death of this great man was but the effulgence of the flames, concealed in his loving and restless spirit, which serves as a beacon shedding light on the path to guidance. Although we are deprived of meeting him in person and benefiting from his temporal being, we are content with availing ourselves of his pure thoughts and ideas in days to come.

The book in your hands is, in the wording of the Master, his cultural and educative testament, highlighting the late great Master’s insightful suggestions about education and school management. He replied to an array of questions raised on the principles and methodology of education and his words, at his suggestion, were transcribed and the text was submitted to him. The text of this cultural and educative testament was edited by him in June 2003, and its veracity was confirmed in the following lines: In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate A number of friends and those interested in the domain of education had requested me to touch upon the fundamentals of education.

To address their demand, a summary of educational discussions – based on the Holy Qur’ān and the traditions narrated from the Infallibles (as) as well as the experience gained in those long years of founding and managing the ‘Alawī School – is hereby presented, aspiring to be divinely accepted and hoping that it may contribute to following the path of the prophets whereon man may acquire virtues and attain salvation.

The Master’s experiences in the long years of his running the ‘Alawī High School, founded by him, as well as his lofty and dynamic ideas about education served as two main factors in establishing a school which well deserves the title of ‘modern school of religious education’. His main inspiration, when he was first consumed by this powerful love, was to provide the society with many an accomplished scholar, those whom he termed as ‘men of knowledge and religion’.

His educative testament may shed light on the path of those who intend to make use of it as ‘an ever-fixed mark’ in tempestuous times when education and ethics are fraught with peril, ‘a shining star’ whereby one may steer a straight course and draw a distinction between a pond and a mirage.

We are hopeful that educators and students alike may put into practice the inspiring ideas of that erudite thinker of noble character in the renaissance of ‘modern school of religious education’ and succeed in educating ‘men of knowledge and virtue’.

Center for Publication of ‘Allāmah Karbāschiyān’s Works
Tehran, June 2024