Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (khalīfa) and the Imam after him, most notably at the event of Ghadir Khumm, but was prevented from succeeding Muhammad as the leader of the Muslims as a result of the choice made by some of Muhammad's other companions (ṣaḥāba) at Saqifah. This view primarily contrasts with that of Sunnī Islam, whose adherents believe that Muhammad did not appoint a successor before his death and consider Abū Bakr, who was appointed caliph by a group of senior Muslims at Saqifah, to be the first rightful (rāshidūn) caliph after Muhammad. Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shia Muslims.
A hawza or ḥawzah ʿilmīyah is the collective term for madrasa where Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated.
Rajab is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The lexical definition of the classical Arabic verb rajaba is "to respect", which could also mean "be awe or be in fear", of which Rajab is a derivative.
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.
Peshawar Nights is a written firsthand account by Sultan al-Wa'izin Shirazi, recalling ten days of dialogues between two Sunni scholars and a Shia author about major topics relating to Shia Islam, which took place in Peshawar beginning on 27 January 1927. The book was originally written in Persian and published in Tehran and has subsequently been translated into several languages, the first English edition was published in 1977 in Pakistan.
The Akhbārīs are a minority school of Twelver Shia Islam. The term is usually used in contrast to the majority branch of Twelver Shia – the Usuli. Like the Usulis, they follow the Quran and Hadith, but unlike them, Akhbārī rejects the use of reasoning by trained Islamic jurisprudents (faqih) to derive verdicts in Islamic law, maintaining it is forbidden (haram) to follow the legal rulings of anyone but one of the "Fourteen Infallibles" of Twelver Islam.
The Four Companions, also called the Four Pillars of the Sahaba, is a Shia term for the four Companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad who are supposed to have stayed most loyal to Ali ibn Abi Talib after Muhammad's death in 632:
- Salman al-Fārisī
- Abū Dharr al-Ghifāri
- Miqdad ibn Aswād al-Kindi
- Ammār ibn Yāsir
Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi is an Iranian Shia marja' and religious leader.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Sadiq Husayni Rohani was an Iranian Shia marja'.
Grand Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Bahjat Foumani was an Iranian Twelver Shia Marja'.
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.
Shi‘a Islam, also known as Shi‘ite Islam or Shia, is the second largest branch of Islam after Sunni Islam. Shias adhere to the teachings of Muhammad and the religious guidance of his family or his descendants known as Shia Imams. Muhammad's bloodline continues only through his daughter Fatima Zahra and cousin Ali who alongside Muhammad's grandsons comprise the Ahl al-Bayt. Thus, Shias consider Muhammad's descendants as the true source of guidance along with the teaching of Muhammad. Shia Islam, like Sunni Islam, has at times been divided into many branches; however, only three of these currently have a significant number of followers, and each of them has a separate trajectory.
Twelver Shīʿism, also known as Imāmiyya, is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term Twelver refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as the Twelve Imams, and their belief that the last Imam, Imam al-Mahdi, lives in Occultation and will reappear as the promised Mahdi.
The Ahlul Bayt Assembly of Canada is a federation of Shi'a Muslim organizations in Canada and includes 80 Shi'a Islamic centres and mosques in the country. The organization was founded in 1993 by Shia Muslim leaders in Canada. It had been registered with the Government of Canada as a charitable organization until 2019 when the Canada Revenue Agency stripped of the organization of its charitable status after it was alleged that the group was “acting as a facilitator organization to support the operational goals” of the Ahl Al-Bayt World Assembly in Iran, which has links to the Lebanese Hezbollah and its goal is “to facilitate the spread of the Iranian revolutionary ideology in Canada.”
Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ardabili was a Shia Grand Ayatollah of jurisprudence. After the death of Zayn al-Din al-Juba'i al'Amili, he became the Marja' of the Twelver Shia in Najaf, Iraq. He is known by the titles of Mohaghegh and Muoghaddas.
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.
The Najaf Seminary, also known as the al-Hawza Al-Ilmiyya, is the oldest and one of the most important Shia seminaries (hawza) in the world. It is located near the Imam Ali Mosque in the city of Najaf in Iraq, and also operates a campus in Karbala, Iraq. It was established by Shaykh al-Tusi, and continued as a center of study after the establishment of modern Iraq in 1921.
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 Ali al-Husayni al-Milani is an Iraqi-Iranian Shia scholar.
Seyed Mahdi Hosseini Rohani Persian: سید مهدی حسینی روحانی was an Iranian Ayatollah born in Qom. He served in the First, Second, and Third terms of the Assembly of Experts.
