Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani (; ; born 4 August 1930), is a Twelver Shia Iranian–Iraqi Grand Ayatollah and marja'. One of the most senior scholars in Shia Islam, he has been described as the spiritual leader of Shia Muslims worldwide (as of 2003), "the undisputed leader of Iraq's Shias", included in top positions of "The Muslim 500: The World's Most Influential Muslims", from 2009 to 2023, and named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2004 and 2005.
Biography
Early life
Sistani was born in either 1929 or 1930 in Mashhad, to a family of religious clerics who claim descent from Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad. His father was Mohammad-Baqir al-Sistani and his mother was the daughter of Ridha al-Mehrebani al-Sarabi.
Sistani began his religious education as a child, first in Mashhad in his father's hawzah, and continuing later in Qom. In Qom he studied under Grand Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi. Later in 1951, Sistani traveled to Iraq to study in Najaf under Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei. Sistani rose to the rank of mujtahid in 1960 at thirty-one.
Grand Ayatollah
When Ayatollah Khoei died in 1992, Abd al-A'la al-Sabziwari briefly became the leading marja'. However, when he died in 1993, al-Sistani ascended to the rank of Grand Ayatollah through formal peer recognition of his scholarship. His role as successor to Khoei was symbolically cemented when he led funeral prayers for Khoei, and he also inherited most of Khoei's network and following.
Baath Party
During the years of Saddam Hussein's rule of Iraq through the Arab nationalist and Sunni dominated Baath Party, al-Sistani was untouched during the violent Baathist repression and persecution that killed many clerics including Mohammad al-Sadr in 1999, for which Saddam denied any involvement. Al-Sistani's mosque was forcefully shut down in 1994 and did not reopen until the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
Role in contemporary Iraq
Since the overthrow of the Baath Party of Iraq in 2003, Sistani has played an increasingly prominent role in regional religious and political affairs and he has been called the "most influential" figure in post-invasion Iraq.
Shortly after the US invasion began, Sistani issued a fatwa advising Shia clergy to become engaged in politics to better guide the Iraqi people toward "clearer decisions" and to fight "media propaganda." As the summer of 2003 approached, Sistani and his followers began petitioning the occupying forces for a constitutional convention. Later, Sistani called for a democratic vote of the people to form a transitional government. Observers described the move as being a path leading directly to Shia political dominance over Iraq's government, as Shia Muslims make up approximately 65% of the total Iraqi population. Subsequently, Sistani criticized plans for an Iraqi government for not being democratic enough.
In early August 2004, Sistani experienced serious health complications related to a previously diagnosed heart condition. He traveled to London to receive medical treatment. It was, reportedly, the first time that Sistani had left Iraq in decades, and may have been due, in part, to growing concerns for his safety from sectarian violence. Though still recovering, Sistani returned later in the month to broker a military truce at the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf where Muqtada al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army had been cornered by American and Iraqi forces. Sadr, who rose rapidly to prominence through a series of independent military actions beginning in 2004, has since actively challenged Sistani's more progressive influence over Shia in the region.
Sistani's edicts reportedly provided many Iraqi Shia cause for participating in the January 2005 elections—he urged, in a statement on October 1, 2004, that Iraqis recognize the election as an "important matter," additionally, Sistani asked that the elections be "free and fair ... with the participation of all Iraqis." Soon after, al-Sistani issued a fatwa alerting Shia women that they were religiously obligated to participate in the election, even if their husbands had forbidden them from voting. In an issued statement Sistani remarked that "truly, women who go forth to the polling centers on election day are like Zaynab, who went forth to Karbala."