Mullah Ali Qazwini Qaarpuz Abadi Zanjani (ملاعلی قزوینی قارپوز آبادی زنجانی) was born in Qazwin in the year 1209 Hijri (around 1794) and passed away in 1290 Hijri (1873). He used to live in Zanjan and was from the same time era as Sheikh Ansari. He spent 15 years in Isfahan as a student of Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Isfahani the author or Hidaya al-Mustarshideen. He returned back to Qazwin and spent 12 years as a student of Mullah Abd al-Karim Irwani who eventually gave him the ijaza for ijtihad.
He is buried in Zanjan in the shrine of the Imamzadeh Syed Ibrahim. There are a number of books that he has left behind, such as Nidhaam al-Faraid fee Sharh al-Qawaid (7 volumes), Jawame’ al-Usul (3 volumes), Nawamees al-Usul (2 volumes) etc. He also has a tafseer work covering Surah Yaseen till the end fo the Qur’an.
The extract below is translated from the book A Drop From The Sea, page 344 (words of Ayatullah Shubeyri Zanjani).
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Two of the foremost scholars of Zanjan were Mulla Qurban Ali (d. 29th Rabi al-Awal, 1328/April 10th, 1910) and the other was Haaj Mirza Abu al-Makarem Zanjani (d. 28th Rabi al-Awal 1330/March 19th, 1912). Mulla Qurban Ali had extraordinary influence and Haaj Mirza Abu al-Makarem was also well known in terms of his family background and was an authoritative figure in Zanjan. He was a very dignified man.
My father narrates from his teacher Haaj Sheikh Zayn ul-Abideen Abadi Zanjani and he from Haaj Mirza Abu al-Makarem Zanjani that: We were returning back from Makkah and at one point the news of the death of Mulla Qaarpuz Abadi was announced while we were on the ship. When the news of his death was announced, we noted down the date. When we arrived on land, we looked into the matter and the people said that he had indeed died at that very moment (the moment the news was announced on the ship).[1]
In regards to the announcement of the news, my father (and others like him) assume that the Jinns delivered the news.[2] This is because in the middle of the water, there was no mode of communication present with land. This incident is said to have occurred around 140 years ago, beginning of Muharram in the year 1290 Hijri (March, 1873).
(5th Jamai al-Ula/Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007)
66 years after his death, they had to transfer the body of Mulla Ali Qaarpuz Abadi to another place. When they took the body out of the grave, it was fresh. He was one of the students of the author of al-Jawahir.
[1] الکلام یجر الکلام, v 1, pg 260
[2] The deceased Ayatullah Ahmed Zanjani in his جنگل مولی (a travel log of Qom) also affirms that this announcement was made by the Jinns. (Meerath Islami Iran, v 9, pg 626).
Sayyid Ali studied in the seminary of Qom from 2012 to 2021, while also concurrently obtaining a M.A in Islamic Studies from the Islamic College of London in 2018. In the seminary he engaged in the study of legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophy, eventually attending the advanced kharij of Usul and Fiqh in 2018. He is currently completing his Masters of Education at the University of Toronto and is the head of a private faith-based school in Toronto, as well as an instructor at the Mizan Institute and Mufid Seminary.
