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Hawza
A hawza ( ar, حوزة) or ḥawzah ʿilmīyah ( ar, حوزة علمیة) is a seminary where Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated. The word ''ḥawzah'' is found in Arabic as well as the Persian language. In Arabic, the word means "to hold something firmly". Accordingly, ''ḥawzah ʿilmīyah'' would mean a place where the firm knowledge (of the Muslim religion) is acquired. In the Persian language, ''ḥawzah'' refers to the middle part of a place or an area. ''Ḥawzah ʿilmīyah'' in Persian, therefore, means "the place of knowledge". Another meaning of the word is "circle of knowledge". Several senior Grand Ayatollahs constitute the hawza. The institutions in Najaf, Iraq and Qom, Iran, are the preeminent seminary centers for the education of Shi'a scholars. However, several smaller hawzas exist in other cities around the world, such as at Karbala, Iraq, Isfahan and Mashhad in Iran, Beirut, Lebanon, Lucknow, India, Lahore, Pakistan, Europe and North America. Law school ...
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Bashir Al-Najafi
Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Basheer Hussain Najafi ( ar, آية الله العظمى بشير النجفي) (born 1942) is a Pakistani Twelver Shia Marja' and one of the Four Grand Ayatollahs of Najaf, Iraq. He was born in Jalandhar, a city in then British India. Migration to Pakistan After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, his family moved to Pakistan and settled in the city of Gujranwala, Punjab. In Gujranwala he had his initial education in religion. He was then able to move to Iraq for studies in the early 1960s. He is one of many individuals from South Asia and one of the few Pakistanis to have ever been elevated to the highest rank of Grand Ayatollah in Shia Islam. He was one year senior to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Al Najafi was attacked on 6 January 1999 by a group of armed men, reportedly members of Fedayeen Saddam, while he and members of his seminary were performing religious duties. The attack, which included use of a hand grenade, resulted in the death of thre ...
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Shaykh Tusi
Shaykh Tusi ( fa, شیخ طوسی), full name ''Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Hassan Tusi'' ( ar, ابو جعفر محمد بن حسن طوسی), known as Shaykh al-Taʾifah ( ar, links=no, شيخ الطائفة) was a prominent Persian scholar of the Twelver school of Shia Islam. He was known as the "sheikh of the sect (''shaikh al-ta'ifah'')", author of two of the four main Shi'i books of hadith, ''Tahdhib al-Ahkam'' and ''al-Istibsar'', and is believed to have founded the hawza. He is also the founder of Shia jurisprudence. Life Shaykh Tusi was born 995 AD in Tus, Iran, and by 1018 AD he was living under the rule of the Buyid dynasty. Tusi's birth is considered a miracle, as he was born after the twelfth Imam of Shia, al-Mahdi's, supplications. He started his education in Tus, where he mastered many of the Islamic sciences of that period. He later studied in Baghdad, which was taken by Tughril-bek in 1055 AD. There he entered into the circles of Shaykh Al-Mufid as a paramount teac ...
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Qom Hawza
The Qom Seminary () is the largest Islamic seminary (''hawza'') in Iran, established in 1922 by Grand Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi in Qom. It trains Usuli scholars. History Although big Shi'a academies existed in Qom dating back as early as 10th century CE, the hawza of the city became prominent at the time of the Safavids when Shi'a Islam became the official religion of Iran. The famous teachers of that era included Mulla Sadra and Shaykh Bahai. The modern Qom hawza was revitalized by Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi and Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi and is barely a century old. There are nearly three hundred thousand clerics in Iran’s seminaries. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani currently heads the Qom Seminary. Law school Because Sharia is legally binding in Iran, the Qom seminary also functions as a law school in Iran. Ebrahim Raisi, the former Chief Justice of the Islamic republic of Iran, is one of the more prominent alumni of the Qom seminary. All judges in the Isl ...
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Qom Seminary
The Qom Seminary () is the largest Islamic seminary (''hawza'') in Iran, established in 1922 by Grand Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi in Qom. It trains Usuli scholars. History Although big Shi'a academies existed in Qom dating back as early as 10th century CE, the hawza of the city became prominent at the time of the Safavids when Shi'a Islam became the official religion of Iran. The famous teachers of that era included Mulla Sadra and Shaykh Bahai. The modern Qom hawza was revitalized by Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi and Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi and is barely a century old. There are nearly three hundred thousand clerics in Iran’s seminaries. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani currently heads the Qom Seminary. Law school Because Sharia is legally binding in Iran, the Qom seminary also functions as a law school in Iran. Ebrahim Raisi, the former Chief Justice of the Islamic republic of Iran, is one of the more prominent alumni of the Qom seminary. All judges in the Is ...
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Ayatollah Al-Khoi And Ali Al-Sistani
Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیت‌الله, āyatollāh) is an honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century. Etymology The title is originally derived from Arabic word pre-modified with the definite article and post-modified with the word ''Allah'', making ( ar, آية الله). The combination has been translated to English as 'Sign of God', 'Divine Sign' or 'Reflection of God'. It is a frequently-used term in Quran, but its usage in this context is presumably a particular reference to the verse "We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in their own selves", while it has been also used to refer to The Twelve Imams by Shias. Variants used are ( ar, آية الله في الأنعام, lit=Sign of God among mankind), ( ar, آية الله في العالمَین, lit=Sign of God in the two worlds, dual form) or ( ar, في العالمین, lit=in the worlds, plural form) and ( ar, آية ا ...
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Marja'
Marji ( ar, مرجع, transliteration: ''marjiʿ''; plural: ''marājiʿ''), literally meaning "source to follow" or "religious reference", is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia authority, a Grand Ayatollah with the authority given by a hawzah to make legal decisions within the confines of Islamic law for followers and lower-ranking clerics. The highest ranking ''marjiʿ'' is known as the ''marja al-mutlaq'' or ''marja al-taqlid al-mutlaq''. Sources differ as to when the institution of the marja˓ emerged, with Murtadha al-Ansari (d. 1864) and Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni (d. 940 or 941 CE) both being called the first marja'. Title Currently, maraji' are accorded the title ''Grand Ayatollah'' ( ar, آية ‌الله العظمی ''ʾĀyatullāh al-ʿUẓmā''). Previously, the titles of Allamah (such as Allameh Tabatabaei, Allameh Majlesi, Allameh Hilli) and Imam (such as Imam Khomeini, Imam Rohani, Imam Shirazi and Imam Sadr) have also been used. Someo ...
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Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi
Grand Ayatollah Hajj Sheikh Abdolkarim Haeri Yazdi ( fa, عبدالکریم حائری یزدی; ar, عبد الكريم الحائري اليزدي ; 1859 – 30 January 1937) was a Twelver Shia Muslim scholar and marja. He was the founder of an important Islamic seminary (hawza) in Qom, Iran. He was described as "studied disinterest in politics". Among his students was Ruhollah Khomeini. Early life Haeri was born in the city of Meybod in Mehrjard village in southeastern Iran. He studied at Yazd, then at Samarra under Grand Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi, and completed his training at Najaf with Mohammad-Kazem Khorasani and Muhammad Kazim Yazdi. In 1906, he reportedly became disenchanted with the politicization from the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and moved back to Najaf, Iraq. When Najaf became political, he moved to Karbala until political excitement cooled in 1913 when he moved back to Arak in Iran. By 1921, he was a "well-known and respected teacher" and "good ad ...
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Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hossein Ali Tababataei Borujerdi (Luri/ fa, آیت الله العظمی سید حسین طباطبایی بروجردی; 23 March 1875 – 30 March 1961) was a leading Iranian Shia Marja' in Iran from approximately 1947 to his death in 1961. Life Borujerdi was born on 23 March 1875 in the city of Borujerd in Lorestan Province in Iran. His family traced its lineage 30 generations to Hassan ibn Ali (the grand son of the Prophet Muhammad). His father Sayyid Ali Tabataba'i was a religious scholar in Borujerd and his mother, Sayyidah Agha Beygum, was the daughter of Sayyid Mohammad Ali Tabataba'i. Tenure as Ayatollah and Marja Borujerdi revived the hawza of Qom in 1945 (1364 AH), which had waned after the death of its founder Abdul-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi in 1937. When Sayyid Abul Hasan Isfahani died the following year, the majority of Shi'a accepted Ayatullah Borujerdi as Marja'. Scholar Roy Mottahedeh reports that Borujerdi was the sole marja "in the Shia wor ...
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Najaf
Najaf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف) or An-Najaf al-Ashraf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف ٱلْأَشْرَف), also known as Baniqia ( ar, بَانِيقِيَا), is a city in central Iraq about 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2013 was 1,000,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate. It is widely considered amongst the holiest cities of Shia Islam and one of its spiritual capitals, whilst also remaining the center of Shia political power in Iraq. Name According to Ibn al-Manzur, the word, "najaf" (), literally means a high and rectangular place around which water is accumulated, although the water does not go above its level. Al-Shaykh al-Saduq appeals to a hadith from Imam al-Sadiq (a), claiming that "Najaf" comes from the phrase, "nay jaff" which means "the nay sea has dried" which gradually changed into "Najaf". "Najaf" is usually accompanied with the adjective, "al-Ashraf" (dignified). According to the author of ''al-Hawza al-'ilmiyya f ...
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Karbala
Karbala or Kerbala ( ar, كَرْبَلَاء, Karbalāʾ , , also ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 1,218,732 people (2018). The city, best known as the location of the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD, or for the shrines of Husayn ibn Ali and Abbas ibn Ali,Shimoni & Levine, 1974, p. 160.Aghaie, 2004, pp. 10–11. is considered a holy city for Shia Muslims, in the same way as Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Tens of millions of Shi'ite Muslims visit the site twice a year, rivaling Mecca and Mashhad by the number of pilgrims annually. The martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali is commemorated annually by millions of Shi'ites. Up to 8 million pilgrims visit the city to observe '' ʿĀshūrāʾ'' (the tenth day of the month of Muharram), which marks the anniversary of Husayn's death, but the main event is the '' ...
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Grand Ayatollahs
Maraji are the supreme legal authority for Twelver Shia Muslims. The following articles contain lists of Maraji: * List of current Maraji'' * List of deceased Maraji'' See also *Marja' * Ijtihad *Hawza *Risalah (fiqh) * List of Ayatollahs *List of Hujjatul Islams This is a partial list of Hujjat al-Islam, Hujjatul Islams, a title given to mid ranked Twelver Usuli Shi'a Muslim clerics. The next higher clerical rank is Ayatollah, followed by Grand Ayatollah. This list contains only the names of those who hav ... {{DEFAULTSORT:Maraji ...
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Mashhad
Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province and has a population of 3,001,184 (2016 census), which includes the areas of Mashhad Taman and Torqabeh. The city has been governed by different ethnic groups over the course of its history. Mashhad was once a major oasis along the ancient Silk Road connecting with Merv to the east. It enjoyed relative prosperity in the Mongol period. The city is named after the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam, who was buried in a village in Khorasan Province, Khorasan which afterward gained the name, meaning the "place of Martyr, martyrdom". Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine. The Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid is also buried within the same shrine. Mashhad is also known colloq ...
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