Ali al-Sistani
Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani is an Islamic scholar and the dean of the Hawza in Najaf, Iraq. A Grand Ayatollah, Sistani is considered one of the leading religious leaders of Twelver Shia Muslims. After the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent overthrow of the authoritarian Baathist regime, Sistani advocated for democratization instead of the system of Wilayat al-Faqih. He has likewise endorsed rule of law, Iraqi nationalism, non-sectarianism and popular sovereignty. He has been a vocal critic of foreign interference in Iraqi affairs and has warned foreign actors against imposing their will on the Iraqi people.
Born in Mashhad, Iran to a Sayyid family, Sistani studied in Qom under Hossein Borujerdi and later in Najaf under Abu al-Qasim al-Khu'i. An Usuli, Sistani rose to the rank of mujtahid in 1960 and succeeded Abd al-A'la al-Sabziwari as Grand Ayatollah. Sistani was included in top positions of The Muslim 500: The World's Most Influential Muslims from 2004 to 2024 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 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, and continuing later in Qom. In Qom he studied under Grand Ayatollah Seyyed 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 al-Khoei died in 1992, Abd al-A'la al-Sabziwari briefly became the leading marja'. However, when he died in 1993, 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, Sistani was untouched during the violent Baathist repression and persecution that killed many clerics including Muhammad al-Sadr in 1999, for which Saddam denied any involvement. Sistani's mosque was forcefully shut down in 1994 and did not reopen until the 2003 American-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 American 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 1 October 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, 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."
He has consistently urged the Iraqi Shia not to respond in kind to attacks from Sunni Salafists, which have become common in Sunni-dominated regions of Iraq like the area known as the "Triangle of Death," south of Baghdad. Even after the destruction of the Shia Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra in February 2006, his network of clerics and preachers continued to urge calm and told their followers that "it was not their Sunni neighbors who were killing them but foreign Wahhabis." Sistani's call for unity after the bombing of the mosque helped to control a potentially dangerous situation, preventing the country from entering in a bloody sectarian war. Sistani did the same when the same mosque was bombed again in 2007.
An alleged plot to assassinate Sistani was foiled on 29 January 2007, when three Jund al-Samaa gunmen were captured at a hotel near his office. It is believed to have been part of a larger attack against several targets in Najaf.
In an online open poll 2005, Ali Sistani was selected as the 30th topmost intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Prospect and Foreign Policy.
On 13 June 2014, Sistani appealed that Iraqis should support the government against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militant group, which had taken over Mosul and Tikrit and was threatening Baghdad. Later in June 2014, Sistani revised his statement and issued a fatwa calling for "citizens to defend the country, its people, the honor of its citizens, and its sacred places," against the ISIL.
Sistani said the Iraqi government and police were liable for killing protestors during the 2019–2021 Iraqi protests. He requested that the government prosecute those who gave the command to shoot protesters. The ayatollah rarely voices his opinion on politics except in extreme unrest. The protests have been described as Iraq's worst violence since ISIL was militarily defeated in 2017. A month later in November 2019, in response to the death of three Iraqi protesters, Sistani said "No person or group, no side with a particular view, no regional or international actor may seize the will of the Iraqi people and impose its will on them."
Shia patronage
As the leading cleric in Najaf, Sistani oversees sums amounting to millions of US dollars. His followers offer him a fixed part of their earnings, which is used for educational and charitable purposes. Sistani's office has reported that it supports 35,000 students in Qom, 10,000 in Mashhad, and 4,000 in Isfahan. It also oversees a network of representatives "who promote his views in large and small ways in neighborhoods, mosques, bazaars, and seminaries from Kirkuk to Basra".In Iran, due to the post-invasion opening of the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala to Iranians, many Iranians are said to return from pilgrimage in Iraq as supporters of Sistani.
Sistani sent nearly 1,000 aid packages, mostly food, but also other basic needs, to Balkhab, Afghanistan during the Balkhab uprising in 2022 to help out the displaced Shia Hazaras.
A spokesperson for the al-Abbas Shrine confirmed that Sistani was overseeing the relief campaign conducted by the shrine for displaced Lebanese families amid the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in October 2024. The relief campaign has delivered at least 1,200 tons of aid as of 8 October 2024.
Religious and political views
According to scholar Vali Nasr, Sistani, like his mentor Khoei, sees Islamic scholars "mainly as teachers and defenders of the faith". In government he saw the "role of Islam as providing values and guidelines for social order".He "was not shy" in confronting US occupation authorities about issues such as who had the authority to write Iraq's new constitution and kept them at arm's length, but also avoided "Khomeini-style denunciations" of the United States as the 'Great Satan'. His supporters' demonstrations were "impressively large but peaceful". He opposes both secularism and Shi'i sectarianism.
For Iraq, he "put forth a simple model of government" based "on the principle of majority rule… accountable and representative government that would reflect and protect Shia identity".
At the same time he is conservative in matters of religious law, "unaffected" by the ideas of "modernism".
Though his differences with Iraq's larger and more powerful neighbor the Islamic Republic of Iran and their theory of Velayat-e-faqih are "profound" according to Nasr, Sistani has avoided "entanglements" with them and with the rivalries of Iranian politics, politics and clerics in Lebanon, and "never tried to promote a rivalry" between his religious center of Najaf and the Iranian center in Qom, a reflection, Nasr believes, of Sistani's reluctance to become involved in politics.
Sistani met with Pope Francis on 6 March 2021 during the latter's visit to Iraq. They met for about 40 minutes in Sistani's home in Najaf.
In October 2023, during the Gaza war, Sistani issued a statement in which he 'condemned Israel and called on the world to stand up to the “terrible brutality” in besieged Gaza.' On 23 September 2024, Sistani's office issued a statement condemning the 'brutal Zionist aggression' in Lebanon amidst an intensified Israeli airstrike campaign in the country, urging the international community to uphold the protection of civilians and restore peace in the region. On 28 September 2024, Sistani mourned the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and condemned his assassination in an Israeli airstrike the previous day.