The martyrdom anniversary of His Holiness Haj Mullah Sultan Mohammad Gonabadi ” Sultan Ali Shah”, was held by the imprisoned Dervishes rights activists in Evin and Adel-Abad prisons.
According to Majzooban Noor, imprisoned Dervishes in wards 7 and 8 of Evin prison held a ceremony which marks the martyrdom anniversary of His Holiness Soltan Ali Shah, with the feeding of prisoners, yesterday evening. Also the same memorial ceremony was held in Shiraz’s Adel-Abad prison.

The great Sufi Master’s of the Shah Nematullahi Gonabadi Sufi Order, His Holliness Sultan Ali Shah beidokhti Gonabadi, was born on the 28th Jaumadi-al-ula 1251 AHL and from the age of 3 years was deprived of seeing his father; His Holiness till the age of 6 years grew up in the care of his mother, who was a devoted believer, then, his mother entrusted him to a school, overflowing intelligence and a strong memory made him capable to recite the Koran and read books in less than six months.
He was one of the most famous Gnostics (‘Urafa) and ‘Ulama in Iran. His chain of authorization has been recorded from Shah Ni’matullah Wali. During his time, the Ni’matullahi Order became more famous and popular. He is also the author of many books on Islamic, especially Sufi, topics, including an exegesis (tafsir) of the Qur’an called Bayan al-Sa’adah (four volumes, in Arabic).
Aside from his position of leadership, Sultan ‘Alishah was a philosopher and a faqih, and both his philosophical positions and jurisprudential opinions were colored by his mysticism. He was a student of Mulla Hadi Sabzawari, who was at that time the most famous proponent of a philosophical system based on Sufism derived from the teachings of Mulla Sadra, and he himself adopted a system of philosophy that mostly followed in this tradition. In fiqh, he was a mujtahid, whose permission for ijtihad was granted by the great Shi’ite faqih of the time, Ayatullah Hajj Mirza Shirazi. Nevertheless, he did not issue any fatwas as a mujtahid, because he considered it necessary to keep the realms of tariqat and shari’at separate. However, some of his juridical opinions may be found in his tafsir, Bayan al-Sa’adat. His jurisprudential views show that he was completely aware of the need to take contemporary conditions into account when reaching decisions about Islamic law, and accordingly, he viewed music and chess as lawful, the People of the Book as essentially having ritual purity and slavery, taking more than one wife at a time, and opium smoking as prohibited.