A BIOGRAPHY OF GRAND AYATULLAH SHIRAZI

Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Shirazi was born in Najaf Al-Ashraf, Iraq, in 1928 AD. He belongs to a distinguished family deeply rooted in Islamic sciences, literature and virtue. The Shirazi family has produced many great scholars and Marje’s. His father, the late Grand Ayatollah Mehdi Shirazi, has been a famous and a highly respected scholar and the Marje’ of his time.

Along with his father, Muhammad Shirazi settled in the holy city of Karbala, Iraq, at the age of nine. After primary education, the young Shirazi continued his studies in different branches of learning under his father’s guidance as well as those of various other eminent scholars and specialists. In the course of his training he showed a remarkable talent and appetite for learning as well as a tireless commitment to his work and the cause he believed in. His extraordinary ability, and effort, earned him the recognition, by his father and other Marje’s and scholars, of being a Mujtahid; a qualified religious scholar in the sciences of Islamic jurisprudence and law. He was subsequently able to assume the office of the Marje’ at the early age of 33 in 1961. His followers are found in many countries around the globe.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi has written various specialized studies that are considered to be among the most important references in the Islamic sciences of beliefs or doctrine, ethics, politics, economics, sociology, law, human rights, etc. He has enriched the world with his staggering contribution of more than 1200 books, treatise and studies on various branches of learning. His works range from simple introductory books for the young generations to literary and scientific masterpieces. His work on Islamic Jurisprudence (al-Fiqh series) for example constitutes 150 volumes, which run into more than 70,000 pages. Through his original thoughts and ideas he has championed the causes of issues such as the family, human right, freedom of expression, political pluralism, nonviolence, and Shura or consultative system of leadership.

In 1971 he was exiled to Lebanon by the Ba’thist regime of Iraq. He later stayed in Kuwait until 1979 when he migrated to the holy city of Qum, Iran.

Imam Shirazi has established many Islamic centers, medical and charitable financial services, educational, welfare and social foundations, libraries and Hawzah’s, or universities for Islamic Sciences, in different regions of the world. These institutions are found in scores of countries around the globe.

Hundreds of individuals have graduated from his school as scholars, lecturers, authors and intellectuals. He was died in December 2002 in the holy city of Qum.