SHAFAQNA- The Imami scholar Sheikh Yousuf al-Bahrani of Bahrain
On 4th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal in 1186 AH, the Imami scholar Sheikh Yousuf al-Bahrani of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf passed away in the holy city of Karbala, in Iraq. The Omani invasion of Bahrain forced him and his family to flee, first to Qatif on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, thence to Mecca and then Iran, before he eventually settled in Karbala. He is the author of the famous biographical work of leading scholars titled “Lu’lu’ al-Bahrain” or Pearl of Bahrain, the last chapter of which is his autobiography.
In Iran, impressed by the scholarly atmosphere, he decided to reside in the town of Fasa, near Shiraz in Fars Province. It was here that he wrote his other famous work, “al-Hada’eq an-Nazerah” in several volumes on hadith and the unrivalled merits of the Prophet and the Infallible Imams. A follower of the Usuli school in his youth, he later adopted the Akbhari ideas, but accepted the validity of the Friday Prayer during the occultation of the Imam of the Age, and did not go so far as to say that no verse in the holy Qur’an could be understood without the interpretation of the Infallible Imams. He sought to bridge the gap between the two. He authored a total of 32 works including “Anees al-Musafer wa Jalees al-Khawater”.