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Ayatollah is an honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.
Ijtihad is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with taqlid. According to classical Sunni theory, ijtihad requires expertise in the Arabic language, theology, revealed texts, and principles of jurisprudence, and is not employed where authentic and authoritative texts are considered unambiguous with regard to the question, or where there is an existing scholarly consensus (ijma). Ijtihad is considered to be a religious duty for those qualified to perform it. An Islamic scholar who is qualified to perform ijtihad is called as a "mujtahid".
A hawza or ḥawzah ʿilmīyah is the collective term for madrasa where Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated.
Mohsen Kadivar is a mujtahid, Islamic theologian, philosopher, writer, leading intellectual reformist, and research professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. A political Iranian dissident, Kadivar has been a vocal critic of the doctrine of clerical rule, also known as Velayat-e Faqih, and a strong advocate of democratic and liberal reforms in Iran as well as constructional reform in understanding of shari'a and Shi'a theology. Kadivar has served time in prison in Iran for his political activism and beliefs.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hossein Ali Tabatabaei Borujerdi was a leading Iranian Shia Marja' in Iran from approximately 1947 to his death in 1961.
A faqīh is an Islamic jurist, an expert in fiqh, or Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic Law.
Sayyid Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari, also spelled Shariat-Madari, was an Iranian Grand Ayatollah. He favoured the traditional Shiite practice of keeping clerics away from governmental positions and was a critic of Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, denouncing the taking hostage of diplomats at the US embassy in Tehran.
In Shi'a Islam the guidance of clergy and keeping such a structure holds great importance. There are several branches of Shi'ism, of which Twelver Shi'ism is by far the largest, and each of the branches has different clergy structures. Individual clerics are referred to as mullā or ākhūnd, but since those terms have developed "a somewhat pejorative connotation" since at least the 1980s, the term rūḥānī has been "promoted" as an alternative, "especially by the clerical class itself".
Grand Ayatollah Yousef Saanei was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja' and politician, a member of the Islamic Republic of Iran's powerful Guardian Council from 1980 to 1983 and also Attorney-General of Iran from 1983 to 1985.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Sadiq Husayni Rohani was an Iranian Shia marja'.
A constitutional referendum was held in Iran on 28 July 1989, alongside presidential elections. Approved by 97.6% of voters, it was the first and so far only time the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been amended. It made several changes to articles 5, 107, 109, 111, and added article 176. It eliminated the need for the Supreme Leader (rahbar) of the country to be a marja or chosen by popular acclaim, it eliminated the post of prime minister, and it created a Supreme National Security Council.
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.
Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Mirza Jawad Kubar Tabrizi was an Iranian Shia marja'.
Ayatollah Mirza Hashem Amoli Larijani was an Iranian Shia Marja' and scholar of jurisprudence.
Grand AyatollahJafar Sobhani is an Iranian Twelver Shia marja, influential theologian and writer. Sobhani was a former member of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom and founder of Imam Sadiq Institute in Qom.
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.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hassan Tabatabaei Qomi was a prominent Shia marja' who was born in Najaf but lived in Mashhad, Iran. He was the son of Seyyed Hussein Qomi, and the brother of Seyyed Taqi Qomi.
Maktab-e Tawhid was a Shi'i seminary for women, established in Qom, Iran's clerical center in 1975, as a wing of the Haghani school.
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.
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.
References
- ↑ Zindagīnāmah (biography),
- ↑ Muḥammad Badīʿī, “Guftugū bā Faqīh Pizhūhandah Bānū Zuhrah Ṣifātī (Interview with the Researcher Jurist, Lady Zuhrah Ṣifātī)”, Keyhan Farhangī, No. 199, April 2003, 6. Available online at http://www.noormags.com/View/Magazine/ViewPages.aspx?numberId=1131&ViewType=1&PageNo=8.%5B%5D
- ↑ See Mirjam Künkler and Roja Fazaeli, ‘The Life of Two Mujtahidas: Female Religious Authority in 20th Century Iran’, in Women, Leadership and Mosques: Changes in Contemporary Islamic Authority, ed. Masooda Bano and Hilary Kalmbach (Brill Publishers, 2012), 127-160. SSRN 1884209
- ↑ ""El islam no hace diferencias entre mujeres y hombres"" EL PAIS, 12.6.2006. http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2006/06/12/actualidad/1150063201_850215.html