Allamah Husain Noori in the latter part of his book ‘Mustadrakul Wasail’ quotes an incident of the celebrated Scholar Khwaja Nasiruddin Toosi. One day Khwaja Naseer received a letter that contained abuses for him and filthy language. One of the sentences was “The dog (referring to Khwaja Naseer) and the son of a dog.” When he read it he became serious, and sat down to answer it. He used neither a bad word nor filthy language and wrote: “You have addressed me as a dog, but it is not at all true. For a dog walks on his four legs and its paw has large nails, whereas I walk uprightly on my two legs and have no paws and my nails are cut. I am a human who talks and laughs, and my qualities are averse to that of a dog.” After finishing he declared openly that the writer of the letter was his friend from that day onwards and that he bore no animosity towards him. The presence of such a good character in the personality of Khwaja Naseeruddin Toosi is not strange. Allamah Hilli says regarding him that, “Khwaja Naseeruddin Toosi was the greatest Scholar (Aalim) of his age.
He has authored many books on Reason and Authority (Uloome Aqaliyah wa Naqaliyah), wisdom and knowledge, principles of Islam the true Religion. He was also the best in character among Ulama.” Khwaja Naseer had learnt the lesson of good character from the illustrious lives of our Holy Aimmah (a.s.).
As has been narrated, that once Imam Ali (a.s.) heard a person abusing Qambar.Qambar tried to retaliate in the same manner when Ali (a.s.) stopped him and said,
“O Qambar! Remain silent, for verily the person will suffer because of our silence. Gain Allah’s happiness by your silence and let the person fall prey to the mischief of Shaitaan. I swear by the Lord Who split open the seed to grow plant from it, and Who created human beings, that no other quality of a believer is more dear and pleasing to Allah than controlling one’s temper, and no other quality of a believer is disagreeable to Shaitaan than it. For verily silence is the best weapon which can be used to defeat a foolish man.”
In short all friends and foes alike praised Khwaja Naseer. Jurji Zaidan in the translation of ‘Adabul Lughatul Arabiyah’ writes that, “Khwaja Naseeruddin Toosi’s library contained four lac books, and he was a master in the field of Astrology and Philosophy. He had under his care many endowment (Waqf) properties of the Mongols, in short he was a tower of light in the darkness of this world.” I have discussed about the life of this great personality in my book ‘Fawaede Razawiyah’ that his family was related to the ‘Washarah’ family of the kings of Jahrood, situated at a distance of 10 Farsakh from Qum. Khwaja
Naseeruddin Toosi was born in Toos on 11 Jamadi’ul Ula 597 A.H. / 1201 A.D.and died on Sunday 18 Zilhaj 672 A.H./1274 A.D. in Kazmayn. It is engraved on his grave:
“While their dog (lay) outstretching its paws at the entrance.” (Surah-al-Kahf: 18).