Mohammad Ali Shah Abadi

Mohammad Ali Bid Abadi Esfahani known as Shah Abadi (1872 in Isfahan – 24 November 1949 in Tehran) was an Iranian mystic and a Shiite mujtahid. He was also famous as Fitra philosopher. He was the son of Mohammad Javad Hossein Abadi Esfahani, (known as Bid Abadi), and Javad, Mohammad, Mahdi, Hossein, Hassan, Abdullah, Abbas, Ruhollah, Nasrollah and Nourullah are his children.

Educations Mohammad Ali Bid Abadi Esfahani (Shah Abadi) was born in 1872 in Hossein Abad neighborhood of Isfahan. He went to Najaf after his preliminary and level education and learning theoretical mysticism and philosophy under revision of Mirza Hashem Ashkoori. Shah Abadi was disciple of Muhammad Kazim Khurasani and Mirza Taqi al-Shirazi for seven years, and he received permission for ijtihad from these two and three other authorities.

He lived in Tehran from 1912 to 1928 and during this time he was engaged in teaching and leading the congregational prayer. Also, during this period, he had a close relationship with Hassan Modarres. In the last months of his stay in Tehran, he besieged the shrine of Abd al-Azim al-Hasani in protest against Reza Shah's actions, and after that, at the request of Abdolkarim Haeri Yazdi, he left for Qom, where he taught Islamic jurisprudence, principles, and mysticism. Among his most prominent students at this time were Ruhollah Khomeini and Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari, who studied the texts of theoretical mysticism with him for seven years. In 1935, he went to Tehran again, where he taught and offered congregational prayers.

His efforts in Tehran laid the groundwork for other activities and movements that were continued by religious intellectuals after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in September 1941. In addition to Islamic jurisprudence and principles, he was also proficient in mathematics and occult sciences and, as the saying goes, the French language.