Siahat-e Gharb (', ''The Journey to the West'') or The Fate of Souls after Death is a book by

Aqa Najafi Quchani Seyyed Mohammad Hassan Hosseini Quchani (), known as Aqa Najafi Quchani () was one of the Islamic scholars and jurists of the fourteenth century AH. He was one of the disciples of Muhammad Kadhim Khorasani and reached the degree of ijtihad at ...

(1878-1944). The book narrates the story of the afterlife and the purgatory world in the form of a story based on

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

perspective of the death. Aqa Najafi Quchani has formed the story based on the

hadiths Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

received from the

Shiite Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

Imams Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, and provide relig ...

about the purgatory. The book has been published many times by various publishers. In 2003, a film was made based on this book.

Author

The author of the book,

(1878-1944), is one of the

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

scholars of the late of

Qajar dynasty The Qajar family (; 1789–1925) was an Iranian royal family founded by Mohammad Khan (), a member of the Qoyunlu clan of the Turkoman-descended Qajar tribe. The dynasty's effective rule in Iran ended in 1925 when Iran's '' Majlis'', conven ...

and the early of

Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty () is an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian royal dynasty that was the Pahlavi Iran, last to rule Iran before the country's monarchy was abolished by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. It was founded in 1925 by Reza Shah, Reza S ...

era. He is buried in

Quchan Quchan (; ) is a city in the Central District of Quchan County, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is approximately 97 km south of the border city of Ashgabat, capital city of ...

. In addition to the book ''Siahat-e Gharb'', he has several books, such as '' Siahat-e Shargh'', which is his autobiography.

Content and subject

The book discusses the purgatory world after death and the events that happen to man from

perspective. ''Siahat-e Gharb'' is written originally in

Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...

and some people such as

Morteza Motahhari Morteza Motahhari (; 31 January 1919 – 1 May 1979) was an Iranian Twelver Shia scholar, philosopher, lecturer. Motahhari is considered to have an important influence on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, among others. He was a co-found ...

and Seyyed Abdollah Fateminia also consider it as the spiritual journey of ''Aqa Najafi Quchani''. ''Aqa Najafi Quchani'' has introduced the book as his purgatory reports and narrated it in first person. The prose of ''Siahat-e Gharb'' belongs to the early fourteenth century SH and it uses many

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and Islamic religious expressions. Verses and

have not been translated in the text of the book and are in Arabic. The narration of the book ''Siahat-e Gharb'' begins with the sentence "''And I am dead''" and simply puts the audience in a different place. This sentence is one of the most memorable, general and popular examples of the beginning of the scheme (opening). The whole story is based on this sentence in the

afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...

and the

Barzakh Barzakh (Arabic: برزخ) is an Arabic word meaning "obstacle", "hindrance", "separation", or "barrier". In Islam, it denotes a place separating the living from the hereafter or a phase/"stage" between an individual's death and their resurrect ...

world.

Publishing

The book ''Siahat-e Gharb'' was rewritten about more than 50 years ago by ''Ramazan Ali Shakeri Quchani'', the then director of the Astan Quds Razavi Library, based on the old manuscripts of ''Aqa Najafi Quchani''. ''Siahat-e Gharb'' originally was written in 1933 and it was first widely published in 1970 in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. The book was immediately welcomed by the people and as a result, it reprinted again in 1972. This book has been very popular since its publication and various publishers have made efforts to publish this book. This book has been translated into Arabic, French and English.

Film

A film was made in 2003 based on the book of ''Siahat-e Gharb'' in Iran. This film, like the original book, was well received by the people. The filmmakers described the film's brochure as the "resurrection therapy". One of the features of this film is that along with the dialogues of the film actors, verses from the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

are subtitled in accordance with those dialogues. The film has been extended to three episodes so far, also dubbed in

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

, Arabic and English.

References

External links