Muhammad-Sadiq Rohani | |
|---|---|
سيد محمدصادق حسينى روحانی | |
 Rouhani in 2006 | |
| Title | Grand Ayatollah |
| Personal life | |
| Born | (1926-07-16)16 July 1926 |
| Died | 16 December 2022(2022-12-16) (aged 96) |
| Parent | Mahmoud Rohani (father) |
| Relatives | Mohammed RohaniBrother Mahdi Hosseini RohaniCousin |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | UsuliTwelverShia Islam |
| Senior posting | |
| Based in | Qom, Iran |
| Period in office | 1961–2022 |
| Predecessor | Hossein Borujerdi |
| Website | http://www.rohani.ir/ |
Grand AyatollahSayyidMuhammad-Sadiq Husayni Rohani (Persian:محمد صادق حسینی روحانی; 16 July 1926 – 16 December 2022) was an IranianShiamarja'.[1]
Rohani resided inQom. He claimed to have gainedijtihad from the grand AyatollahAbu al-Qasim al-Khoei, at the age of 14. He announced his marja'iyya after the death of grand AyatollahHossein Borujerdi, at the age of 35.[2]
Rohani was one of the first senior clerics to be placed under house arrest under direct order from grand AyatollahRuhollah Khomeini just a few years after theIranian revolution.[3] Rohani was for a time a critic of theIranian government.[4]
Rohani was born on 16 July 1926,[5] to Sayyid Mahmoud Rohani (d. 1961), a renowned instructor in the Islamic seminary of Qom. It is believed that his father was the person who convinced Sheikh Abd al-Karim al-Haeri to move to the city of Qom and establish the seminary there.[citation needed]
His mother was the daughter of Sayyid Ahmed Tabatabei Qomi, an Imam of theFatima Masumeh Shrine.[2] His brother, Muhammad Rohani (d. 1997), was also a grand Ayatollah.[6]
Rouhani started his religious education at the age of four. He completed hismuqadamat (introductory studies) by ten, and moved toNajaf. He studied in Najaf for sixteen years and returned to Qom in 1950. When he entered Qom, he began teaching jurisprudence and principles of jurisprudence in the courtyard of the Masumeh shrine. Some of his prominent teachers include: Sheikh Kadhim al-Shirazi, Sheikh Muhammad-Husayn al-Isfahani, Sheikh Muhammad-Ali al-Kadhimi, SayyidAbu al-Hasan al-Isfahani and Sayyid al-Khoei.[2]
Al-Milani has been reported to be very close with al-Khoei, and studied under him for fifteen years.[7] Ayatollah Zadeh Milani has said “al-Khoei once said to my father Ayatollahal-Milani: I take pride in the Islamic Seminary in which an eleven year old studies alongside the elder students and learned scholars, and with readsmakaseb (a compilation byMorteza Ansari that is taught in Islamic seminaries) and understands the contents better than them and further analyses it”. The eleven year old he refers to is Rohani.[2]
Rohani also claimed to own a letter written by al-Khoei praising him whilst he was at the age of fifteen.[2]
Both Rohani and Khoei issued fatwas against the purchase, sale and reading of the writings of prominent academicAli Shariati.[8]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: additional citations. You can help byadding missing information.(April 2020) |
At first, Rouhani, like most other conservative clerics, was the follower of theIslamic Revolution. In fact, in 1975, Rohani stood by Khomeini and condemned theRastakhiz party, by issuing a fatwa against the party.[9] In 1980, he warned the ruler ofBahrain to govern in conformance with Islamic principles or face popular overthrow, and then later stood with the Iranian backed revolution in Bahrain, led byHadi al-Modarresi, stating "Iran may claim Bahrain again if Iraq continues claiming the three islands in the Gulf".[10]
Rouhani was so against the idea of Montazeri being declared Khomeini’s successor that he publicly declared Ayatollah Khomeini's government to be un-Islamic. He believed that a successor should be chosen by divine powers rather than an ulema of clerics.[11] Rouhani was one of the first senior clerics to be placed under house arrest under a direct order from Ayatollah Khomeini just a few years after the Iranian revolution.
In the year 1985,Hussein-Ali Montazeri was selected as the deputy Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts, to which Rouhani objected and said"the supreme religious leader of an Islamic state should not be selected by an assembly of other clerics, but rather chosen by divine powers." Rouhani was so angry at the selection of Montazeri that he publicly declared Khomeini's government un-Islamic, armed security forces immediately attacked his house in the middle of the night and he was put under house arrest for 15 years.
Rouhani's Hajj Mollah Sadegh School in Qom was confiscated by the state after he was put under house arrest in 1995. His home was attacked again in 1995 after he had published a letter to PresidentRafsanjani in which he openly criticized certain governmental policies. His books and parts of his writings were confiscated and his youngest son, Javad, was arrested and later sentenced to three years imprisonment. Furthermore, Rohani was pledged “not to continue as a ‘Source of Emulation’ for his seven million followers and not to have any visitors.”
After the fall ofSaddam Hussein, Rouhani attempted to relocate to Iraq but was barred from leaving the country. His brother Muhammad was arrested in 1994 for insisting that the role of the clergy should be a social, not a political one and criticizing the regime for discrediting Islam.[12] Muhammad died in 1997. A third brother, Mehdi Rohani, died inParis in 2000.
As a result of contact with forces affiliated with Hezbollah, Rohani in later years once more became active politically. One effect of this was his issuing of afatwa approving ofIranian intervention in the Syrian civil war, describing it as ajihad and labelling those killed in it as martyrs. This led to the opening of official registration sites in Iran, where people could volunteer to participate in the war.[13]
Rouhani died on 16 December 2022, at the age of 96. He served for 61 years as Marja.[14] Iranian leader AyatollahAli Khamenei issued his condolences to the family, students, and followers of Ayatollah Rouhani on the occasion.[15]
Rohani owned a large library of publications of his own. His most renowned work isFiqh al-Sadiq (Jurisprudence of al-Sadiq) which comes in 41 volumes. Other books include:[4]
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| National | |
