Ijtihad Network Being Wise and Faithful Muslim in the Contemporary World
Born & Upbringing
Ayatollah Sayyed Abd al-Hadi Shirazi, a Shiite scholar of Najaf, highly regarded for his learning and piety was born in Samarra, Iraq in 1926. His father, Mīrzā Esmāʿīl Shirazi, also a faqīh, was a cousin of the celebrated Mīrzā Ḥassan Shiraz the moǰadded, and had worked with him in establishing a new center of Shiite learning and guidance at Sāmarrā. Mīrzā Esmāʿīl died shortly after ʿAbd-al-Hādī’s birth, and the responsibility for his upbringing was assumed first by Mīrzā Ḥasan himself, and then by one of his sons, Mīrzā ʿAlī, who taught ʿAbd-al-Hādī the rudiments of fiqh and oṣūl.
Move to Najaf
In 1326/1908, ʿAbd-al-Hādī went to Najaf, where he stayed for four years, pursuing his studies under major scholars of the day such as Āḵund Mullā Muḥammad Kāẓem Ḵorāsānī and Sheikh-al-Sharīʿa Eṣfahānī.
His Teachers
Mirza Muhammad Taqi Shirazi
Muhammad Kazem Khorasani
Sheikh al-Shari’a Isfahani
Muhammad Baqir Estahbanati Shirazi
His Students
Mirza Mohsin Kochebaghi Tabrizi
Sayyed Ezuddin Zanjani
Ayatollah Nasrullah Shah-Abadi
Ayatollah Muhammad Taqi Jafari
Ayatollah Muslim Malekooti
Sheikh Muhammad-Reza Muzaffar
Ayatollah Muhammad-Yousef Gharavi
Ayatollah Hussain Wahid Khorasani
Ayatollah Mirza Javad Tabrizi
Mirza Ahmad Dashti
Sayyed Muhammad-Ali Movahhed Abtahi
Ayatollah Sayyed Taqi Tabatabaei Qomi
Move to Karbala to Joining the Scholars Who Waging Jihad against British Occupation of Iraq
In the early 1920s, he moved to Karbalā, where he joined the Shiite ʿolamāʾ waging jihad against the British occupation of Iraq, and collaborated in particular with Mīrzā Muḥammad Taqī Shirazi, another son of Mīrzā Ḥassan.
Return to Najaf
After the suppression of the jihad movement, he returned to Najaf, and devoted himself to the further study of fiqh, now under the exclusive guidance of Sheikh-al-Sharīʿa Eṣfahānī. When his teacher died in 1339/1921, he began teaching fiqh himself, and soon acquired widespread fame and popularity. Despite his reluctance to assume the burdens of marǰaʿīyat, his close associates ultimately persuaded him to agree to the publication of his handbook on fiqh, and thereby to announce his readiness to be followed as marjaʿ-e taqlīd. Many people came to follow him, primarily in Iraq, where his prominence became particularly apparent during the Shiite campaign against the regime of ʿAbd-al-Karīm Qāsem and the Iraqi Communist Party.
Went Blind
ʿAbd-al-Hādī Shirazi went blind in1369/1950, and soon after undertook a journey to Tehran for treatment. The treatment was unsuccessful, but his trip to Tehran, followed by visits to Qom and Mashhad, enabled him to broaden the scope of his following in Iran and to renew his acquaintance with Ayatollah Buroujerdi. When Ayatollah Borūjerdī died in March, 1961, ʿAbd-al-Hādī inherited from him the responsibility for overseeing the distribution of bread among the needy of Najaf, as well as—more importantly—a considerable portion of his following in Iran. It was even predicted that he would soon exert an influence akin to that of Borūjerdī.
Demise
