Ayatollah Mohammad Va'ez Abaee-Khorasani (1940,

Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, 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. ...

- October 13, 2004,

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

) was an Iranian cleric and

reformist Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political or religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution. Within the socialist movement, ref ...

politician. He was a representative of

in the

Majlis of Iran The Islamic Consultative Assembly (), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the unicameral national legislative body of Iran. The parliament currently consists of 290 representatives, an ...

from 2000 to 2004.

Early life

Born in Mashhad in a religious family, he studied

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic sciences in Mashhad and then moved to

Qom Qom (; ) is a city in the Central District of Qom County, Qom province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. The city is ...

to continue his studies there. Because of his religious-political speeches, he was arrested by the Pahlavi government twice, the first time in 1972 when he was sentenced to a short jail time. But the second time, in 1973, he was exiled to

Bandar Deylam Bandar Deylam () is a port city in the Central District of Deylam County, Bushehr province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Demographics Population At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's populat ...

and Nain for three years. Abaee-Khorasani restarted his political speeches in 1976, with other cleric colleagues of his, especially

Sadegh Khalkhali Mohammed Sadeq Givi Khalkhali (; 27 July 1926 – 26 November 2003) was an Iranian Shia cleric who is said to have "brought to his job as Chief Justice of the revolutionary courts a relish for summary execution" that earned him a reputation ...

Mehdi Karroubi Mehdi Karroubi (, born 26 September 1937) is an Iranian Shia cleric and reformist politician leading the National Trust Party. Following 2009–2010 Iranian election protests, Karroubi was put under house arrest in February 2011. As of 2021, he ...

, and

Mohammad Mousavi-Khoiniha Sayyid Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha (Persian: سید محمد موسوی خوئینی‌ها) (born 1945) is an Iranian cleric and secretary general of the reformist Association of Combatant Clerics. He was the founder of the now defunct '' Salam' ...

Career

After the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

, Abaee-Khorasani's first governmental post was as the

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

ruler in

Ahwaz Ahvaz (; ) is a city in the Central District of Ahvaz County, Khuzestan province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is home to Persians, Arabs and other groups such as Qashqai and Kurds. Languages spok ...

. Shortly after, he moved back to Qom to head the provincial branch of the Organization for Islamic Evangelization (''saazmaan-e tablighaat-e eslaami''), which sent clerics to the whole country for speeches during the holy

Shi'a Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor ( caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community ( imam). However, his right is understoo ...

months of

Muharram Al-Muharram () is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is banned. It precedes the month of Safar. The tenth of Muharram is known as Ashura, an important day of commemoration in ...

Safar Safar (), also spelt as Safer in Turkish, is the second month of the lunar Islamic calendar. Most of the Islamic months were named according to ancient Sabean/Sabaic weather conditions; however, since the calendar is lunar, the months shift ...

, and

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

, and also published periodicals, which sometimes contained critiques of extremist or conservative factions of the ''

hawza A hawza () or ḥawzah ʿilmīyah () is the collective term (plural hawzat) for a ''madrasa'' (i.e. seminary) where Marja', Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated. The word ''ḥawzah'' is Arabic, and has been adopted into Persian as a loan word. ...

''. While keeping the position in Qom, Abaee-Khorasani moved to Mashhad and was one of the

Friday prayer Friday prayer, or congregational prayer (), is the meeting together of Muslims for communal prayer and service at midday every Friday. In Islam, the day itself is called ''Yawm al-Jum'ah'' (shortened to ''Jum'ah''), which translated from Arabic me ...

Imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

s of the city for ten years, where he escaped an unsuccessful assassination attempt in 1994. He also represented the

Khorasan province Khorasan ( ; also transcribed as Khurasan, Xorasan and Khorassan), also called Traxiane during Hellenistic and Parthian Empire, Parthian times, was a Provinces of Iran, province in northeastern Iran until September 2004, when it was divided in ...

in the first

Assembly of Experts The Assembly of Experts (), also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts, is the deliberative body empowered to appoint the Supreme Leader of Iran. All directly elected members must first be vetted ...

. Abaee-Khorasani moved to Qom again as the head of

Mohammad Khatami Mohammad Khatami (born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to 1992. Later, he was critic ...

's presidential campaign office in the city of Qom. The Qom campaign led to about 70% of the people of the city voting for the reformist Khatami, which was unexpected because of the supposedly conservative leanings of the citizens of the city. The local campaign team later became the founding members of the Society of Scholars and Teachers of Qom's Hawza (''majma'-e mohaghgheghin va modarresin-e howze-ye elmiyye-ye ghom''), the political organization of reformist clerics of the city. When Khatami became president in 1997, he appointed Abaee-Khorasani as one of his advisors. Later, he was elected in 2000 in the parliamentary elections to represent the city of Mashhad, his birthplace, in the

. He collected the most votes in the city. During his term there, he participated in the reformist candidates' sit-in in early 2004, amid his old

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

and

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function (biology), function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical condi ...

. He also participated in the symbolic mass resignation of more than a hundred colleagues from the sixth ''Islamic Consultative Assembly''.

Death

After a long physical illness, Abaee-Khorasani died on October 13, 2004, in the Khatam ol-Anbia Hospital. On October 16, he was buried in Qom, near the shrine of Fatima bint Musa ibn Jafar, the daughter of the seventh

Shia Imam In Shia Islam, the Imamah () is a doctrine which asserts that certain individuals from the lineage of the Islamic prophet Muhammad are to be accepted as leaders and guides of the ummah after the death of Muhammad. Imamah further says that Imam ...

Reference

Founder of Reformism in Qom

Shargh ''Shargh'' (; also as ''Sharq'') is one of the most popular Reformist daily newspapers in Iran. The owner iMehdi Rahmanian the editor-in-chief of the newspaper iAli Dehghanand the editor-in-chief of online iSina Rahimpour History and profil ...

's article on Abaee-Khorasani (in Persian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Abaee-Khorasani, Mohammad Iranian ayatollahs Members of the 6th Islamic Consultative Assembly 1940 births 2004 deaths Burials at Fatima Masumeh Shrine Members of the Assembly of Experts