Abdullah Musawi Shirazi


Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Abdullah Al-Musawi Al-Shirazi was a Grand Ayatollah of Twelver Shi'a Islam.

Life

Grand Ayatollah Haj Sayyed Abdullah al-Shirazi was born in Shiraz, Iran. At the age of 15 he was sent into exile with his father, Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammad Tahir al-Shirazi, for resisting the Qajar and British colonial rule in southern Iran. His father was a nationally renowned cleric who was known for his resistance against the British government.
In 1914 he was sent to Najaf, Iraq to study advanced Islamic jurisprudence under Shaikh Na'ini.
al-Shirazi was sentenced to 4 years in prison in 1935, during the famous Goharshad Mosque uprising in the city of Mashad against the anti-religious policies of Reza Shah Pahlavi. After his release, he returned to Najaf, and soon became one of the Marja of Taqleed of Shi'a there. The Marja of Taqleed are clerics that have the authority to declare fatwas and decrees into all matters of Islamic jurisprudence. Only a few exist at any given time.
In 1975 al-Shirazi returned to Iran and joined the movement against the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, until his government was overthrown in 1979. By then he had ascended to the rank of Grand Ayatollah, thus becoming one of the highest ranking clerics of the Shi'a faith.
He died on 29 September 1984 in Mashhad. Local papers reported a turnout of "a few hundred thousand people" for the funeral ceremony commemorating him at the Shrine of Imam Reza, including figures such as Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri, Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, and Yousef Saanei.

Services and accomplishments