Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

Hassan al-Saffar (Arabic: الشيخ حسن الصفار, born 1958) is a

Shi'a 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 ...

scholar from

Qatif Qatif or Al-Qatif ( ar, ٱلْقَطِيف ''Al-Qaṭīf'') is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. He is considered one of the most important Shi'a leaders in Saudi Arabia. He established the Shi'a Islamic Reform Movement in the early 1990s, which sought to improve the relations between the Shi'a and the ruling family. On 23 October 2009,

The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought ( abbr. RABIIT) is an international Islamic non-governmental, independent institute in Amman, Jordan. It is affiliated with the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. The late King Hussein B ...

mentioned him as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world."Rasid News Network 21 October 2009
/ref>

References

20th-century Saudi Arabian people 21st-century Saudi Arabian people 1958 births Living people People from Qatif Shia scholars of Islam Saudi Arabian Shia Muslims {{Islam-bio-stub