Ayatollah is an honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.
Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani is an Iranian-Iraqi Islamic scholar. One of the most senior scholars of Twelver Shia with the rank of Grand Ayatollah and marja', he has been described as the spiritual leader of Shia Muslims worldwide, "the undisputed leader of Iraq's Shias", included in top positions of "The Muslim 500: The World's Most Influential Muslims", from 2009 to 2024, and named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2004 and 2005.
Qom is a city in the Central District of Qom County, Qom province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. The city is 140 km (87 mi) to the south of Tehran, and on the banks of the Qom River.
Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Fazel Lankarani was an Iranian Twelver Shia Marja'. He was student of Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi. He was a child of a Persian mother and an Azerbaijani father.
Mohammad Yazdi was an Iranian conservative and principlist cleric who served as the head of Judiciary System of Iran between 1989 and 1999. In 2015, he was elected to lead Iran's Assembly of Experts, defeating Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president, by a vote count of 47 to 24.
Musa Sadr al-Din al-Sadr was an Iranian-Lebanese Shia Muslim cleric and politician. In Lebanon, he founded and revived many Lebanese Shia organizations, including schools, charities, and the Amal Movement.
Muhammad Taqi Misbah YazdiGiwachi was an Iranian Shia scholar, political theorist and philosopher who served as the spiritual leader of the Front of Islamic Revolution Stability.
The Shrine of Fatima Masumeh is located in Qom, which is considered by Twelver Shia Muslims to be the second most sacred city in Iran after Mashhad.
Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi is an Iranian Shia marja' and religious leader.
Abdollah Javadi Amoli is an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja. He is a conservative and Political moderate Iranian politician, philosopher and one of the prominent Islamic scholars of the Iran. The official website for his scientific foundation, Isra, states that his ideas and views have been guidance to the Islamic Republic of Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and that "his strategic and enlightening guidance" has been "extremely constructive" during the past three decades. He is known as one of the biggest critics of the banking system in Iran.
The Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom is an Iranian group founded in 1961/3 by the leading Muslim clerics of Qom. Established by the students of Ayatollah Khomeini after his exile to Iraq, it was formed in order to organize political activities of Khomeini's followers and promote his revolutionary interpretation of Islam, such as the idea of Islamic government. Since the 1979 revolution, it has largely become the body to keep the regime's registrar of who counts as a grand ayatollah, an ayatollah and a hojjat ul Islam. It has a head who is appointed by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. It currently heads the Supreme Council of Qom Hawzas, and proposes judges to the judiciary system. The body gained international prominence when it announced in 1981 that Ayatollah Shariatmadari was no longer a source of emulation (marja'). It has demoted a number of clerics over the last three decades. A recent case was that of Ayatollah Yousef Saanei, who for his solidarity with the green movement was demoted from marja' to hojatoleslam. The society also includes Ayatollah Sistani on its list.
Sayyid Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei is an Iranian Shia cleric and son of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran. He served in the Iran–Iraq War from 1987 to 1988. He also reportedly took control of the Basij militia that was used to suppress the protests over the 2009 election.
The Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers is an association of Shia Islamic clerics in Iran's religious capital of Qom.
Nimr Baqir al-Nimr was a Shia cleric and critic of the government in Saudi Arabia, who was beheaded on 2 January 2016, one of 47 people executed that day for terrorism offenses. Others executed included Sunnis who had been convicted of involvement in terror attacks linked to al-Qaeda which took place in 2003. News of the killings triggered international demonstrations, and condemnation by nations, supranational organizations, and human rights groups.
Kashf al-Asrar is a book written in 1943 by Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to respond to the questions and criticisms raised in a 1943 pamphlet titled The Thousand-Year Secrets by Ali Akbar Hakimzadeh, who had abandoned clerical studies at Qom seminary and in the mid-1930s published a modernist journal titled Humayun that advocated reformation in Islam. Kashf al-Asrar is the first book that expresses Khomeini's political views.
Marja' is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia religious cleric, with the authority given by a hawzah to make legal decisions within the confines of Islamic law for followers and clerics below him in rank. The highest ranking marjiʿ is known as the marja al-mutlaq or marja al-taqlid al-mutlaq. A marji' is also, or usually is also, a grand ayatollah.
Ali Banaei is and Iranian Shia cleric and conservative politician who currently serves as the parliamentary advisor to the Judiciary Chief.
Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani Araghi was an Iranian Shia cleric and conservative politician who represented Qom in the Iranian Parliament from 2004 to 2016.
Mohsen Faqihi is an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Ayatollah. He has studied in seminaries of Qum, Iran under Morteza Haeri Yazdi, Mohammad-Reza Golpaygani and Mohammad Ali Araki. Faqihi is known for his book Maʻrifat Abwāb al-Fiqh in which he summarized Tahrir al-Wasilah. He is a member of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom.
Ayatollah Sayyid Hussein al-Husayni al-Shirazi is an Iraqi-Iranian Twelver Shia cleric. He is a son of Grand Ayatollah Sadiq al-Shirazi. He is currently the head of his father's office and is residing in Qom, Iran.
Qom