Ayatollah Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیت‌الله, āyatollāh) is an Title of honor, 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 ...

Sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali ...

Ali-Akbar al-Husayni al-Modarresi ( fa, ; ar, علي أكبر الحسيني المدرسي; b. 17 September 1957) is a

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

- Iraqi

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

and

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. He is the brother of

grand Ayatollah 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 giv ...

Sayyid Muhammad-Taqi al-Modarresi. Al-Modarresi is a teacher at the religious seminary of

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 R ...

Family

al-Modarresi was born into a distinguished Shia religious family in Karbala in Iraq. His father is Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Kadhim al-Modarresi, the grandson of grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir Golpayegani (also known as ''Jorfadiqani''). His mother is the daughter of grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mehdi al-Shirazi. He claims descent from

Zayd ibn Ali Zayd ibn Zayn al-Abidin ( ar, زيد بن زين العابدين; 695–740), also spelled Zaid, was the son of Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-Abidin, and great-grandson of Ali ibn Abi Talib. He led an unsuccessful revolt against the Umayyad Calipha ...

(died c. 740 AD), the great-great-grandson of the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

Religious career

al-Modarresi studied in the religious seminaries of Karbala, under his father, Sayyid Muhammad-Kadhim and brother Sayyid Muhammad-Taqi, as well as senior scholars such as Shaykh Muhammad-Husayn al-Mazindarani, Shaykh Jafar al-Rushti, and his maternal uncles Sayyid Muhammad al-Shirazi and Sayyid Hassan al-Shirazi. He emigrated to Kuwait with his older brothers in 1971, due to the Bathists anti-Shia sentiment. They settled there until 1979, after which they moved to Iran after the

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

. al-Modarresi taught in al-Qaim seminary, which was established by his brother Muhammad-Taqi, in 1980, until it was closed down in 1990. He remained in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

whilst his brothers went to

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, teaching in different religious seminaries, until he moved to Mashhad in 2014, and began teaching at its seminary, near the shrine of Imam al-Ridha. During his time in al-Qaim, al-Modarresi taught distinguished Saudi activist

Nimr al-Nimr Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr ( ar, نمر باقر النمر, Nimr Bāqir an-Nimr, Bakir al-Nimr, al-Nemr, al-Namr, al-Nimer, al-Nemer, al-Namer; 21 June 1959 – 2 January 2016), commonly referred to as Sheikh Nimr, was a Shia sheikh in ...

and was considered as his mentor. He had a close relationship with him even after the closure of the seminary, until his execution in 2016. In al-Qaim, he also taught Sayyid Rasheed al-Husayni, a representative of grand Ayatollah Sayyid

Ali al-Sistani Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani ( ar, علي الحسيني السيستاني; fa, , Ali-ye Hoseyni-ye Sistāni; born 4 August 1930), commonly known as Ayatollah Sistani, is an Iranian–Iraqi Twelver Shia Ayatollah and marja'. He has been described ...

, who appears on Iraqi state television and delivers the

fatwas A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...

of al-Sistani.

Personal life

al-Modarresi is married to the daughter of Sayyid Baqir al-Qazwini, and has seven children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Modarresi, Ali Akbar Muslim activists Iraqi people 20th-century Muslim theologians 21st-century Muslim theologians People from Karbala Iranian Shia scholars of Islam 1957 births Living people

Family

Religious career

Personal life

See also

References