Tag Archives: Marja al-Taqlid

In his new book, God’s Man in Iraq: The Life and Leadership of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,  Sajad Jiyad draws on original sources and hundreds of interviews during decades of fieldwork inside Iraq to show how Sistani, as the revered senior Shia cleric in a Shia-majority country, commands the loyalty of millions of faithful....

The marjaʻīyat have played an important role in the political life of Shīʻī Iran. They strongly resisted foreign economic and political influences. They collaborated with Iranian liberal forces to serve the case of...

The most important reason for the permissibility of Taqlid in religious affairs rests in the very rational point that every layman or inexpert individual turns to an expert for advice on technical and...

This paper deals with the death of a high religious authority, the Twelver Shiʿi marjaʿ al-taqlīd, or “Grand Ayatollah”, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Faḍl Allāh...

According to Ayatollah Khamenei, what should people do when there is difference of opinion between a Marja and Wali Faqih.....

According to Islamic doctrines, acquiring religious knowledge and becoming familiar with the fundamentals of faith is everyone's obligatory duty. The Quran being the most important source of legislation calls on every individual to acquire knowledge as...

Marja' is a mujtahid who is followed by a number of the Shi'as, that is, some Shi'as practice their religious acts in accordance with that of mujtahid's jurisprudential views (that is, fatwas) and pay their judicial alms (al-wujuhat) to him or his representatives. To follow a religious scholar in...

The reason that the jurisprudent is an authority in matters of the law is because of his specialization in jurisprudence and his power to derive the rules of Allah (awj) from their sources. While the reason that a leader is what he is, is because aside from the above mentioned qualities, he has the ability to manage society according to the principles and values of...

The article “Selecting a Spiritual Authority: The Maraj al-Taqlid among First- and Second-Wave Iraqi Shi͑a Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan” seeks to...