The Book ‘Haj Sheikh Mohammad Hadi Hadavi’; A Documentary Narrative of a Scholar Beyond His Time

Fatemeh Hadavi, on the sidelines of the unveiling ceremony for this work, told the reporter of Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) in Birjand: The main goal of publishing this book has been to collect and preserve historical documents related to the late Haj Sheikh Mohammad Hadi Hadavi, who was also my grandfather.

She added, referring to the fact that these documents were collected from various centers such as Astan Quds Razavi, the Islamic Consultative Assembly Library, and local sources: A significant portion of them dates back to the period when he was the religious ruler and trustee of the endowments in the region.

Hadavi continued: These documents include contracts, correspondence, and letters that were prepared or approved with the handwriting and seal of the late Sheikh Hadavi. Also, a part of the collection is dedicated to the letters of the provincial association and public complaints that he handled as the head of the association.

This author explained about the method of compiling the book: One of the important features of this work, the complete re-reading of historical documents. Many of these manuscripts had not been read before due to Haj Sheikh Mohammad Hadi Hadavi’s handwriting. Now, in this book, each document is published on one page, and on the opposite page, it is re-written in a typed, readable format for researchers.

She continued: In addition to the documents, several articles are also included in the book; among them, an article penned by the late Haj Sheikh Mohammad Hadi Hadavi himself and notes from figures such as Mr. Rashed who wrote about him. Of course, the main focus of the book is historical documents and their re-reading.

Hadavi, referring to the time taken for the compilation and publication of the book, stated: The process of collecting and preparing the book took about one year. The biggest challenge was arranging the documents together and accurately re-reading them. However, the printing and publishing stages were done in cooperation with the publisher, and we had no problem in this section.

Regarding her motivation for compiling this work, she said: This work was not done for family commemoration or social gain. Rather, my goal was to introduce the cultural and religious figure of Haj Sheikh Mohammad Hadi Hadavi, whose thoughts were ahead of his time and can be inspiring for understanding the cultural identity of the people of this region.

Hadavi, referring to the personality traits of the late Haj Sheikh Mohammad Hadi Hadavi, added: Although I was born after his passing, I have always heard from family conversations that he was a very honest, sincere, prudent, and people-oriented person. In his time, he had a social and reformist outlook and even played a role in establishing one of the first modern schools in Birjand.

She noted: When some scholars opposed new schools, he, to support modern education, withdrew his children from traditional religious schools and enrolled them in the new school, thereby practically endorsing this movement.

Hadavi said: If in the future I can find the unpublished articles of the late Sheikh Hadavi that were mentioned in Habl al-Matin publication, I will certainly publish them as well.

She added: So far, I have not found any trace of those articles in various libraries, but I will continue my search.