Grand Ayatollah Marja (; plural ''marājiʿ''; ) is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia religious cleric, with the authority given by a hawzah (a seminary where Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated) to make legal decisions within the confines of Sh ...

Asadollah Bayat-Zanjani () is an Iranian theologian, Islamic philosopher, writer and Grand marja of Islam. He has published objections to Iran's system of Islamic Jurist Guardianship known as ''

velayat-e faqih The Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist (, also ''Velayat-e Faghih''; ) is a concept in Twelver Shia Islamic law which holds that until the reappearance of the "infallible Imam" (sometime before Judgement Day), the religious and social affairs ...

'', asserting that this system is not founded on Islam.

Biography

Grand Ayatollah Zanjani studied religion in Zanjan and

Qom Qom (; ) is a city in the Central District of Qom County, Qom province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. The city is ...

and was promoted to degree of

Marja' Marja (; plural ''marājiʿ''; ) is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia religious cleric, with the authority given by a hawzah (a seminary where Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated) to make legal decisions within the confines of Sh ...

, thus being a

mujtahid ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ' , ) is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with '' taqlid'' (i ...

. Among his teachers were

Allameh Tabatabaei Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i (; 16 March 1903 – 15 November 1981) was an Iranian scholar, theorist, philosopher and one of the most prominent thinkers of modern Shia Islam. He is perhaps best known for his ''Tafsir al-Mizan'', a twenty-seven-volu ...

Morteza Motahhari Morteza Motahhari (; 31 January 1919 – 1 May 1979) was an Iranian Twelver Shia scholar, philosopher, lecturer. Motahhari is considered to have an important influence on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, among others. He was a co-found ...

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

, Ayatollah Araki and Golpaygani. He is author of more than 10 books and is currently teaching Philosophy and religion in

Qom Seminary The Qom Seminary (') is the largest and one of the foremost Shia Islam, Shia hawzas (Islamic seminaries), located in the city of Qom, Iran. It is the largest seminary in Iran, established in 1922 by Grand Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi in Qom to ...

Political career

Before the 1979

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

, Zanjani was a pro-democracy activist. In 1972, he was arrested and spent a year in prison. After the revolution, he was involved in the launching of the Islamic Republican Party. Zanjani was also a member of the committee to reassess the

Iranian constitution The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (, ''Qanun-e Asasi-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Iran'') is the supreme law of Iran. It was adopted by referendum on 2 and 3 December 1979, and went into force replacing the Constitution of 1906. It ...

. He was elected three times to

Iranian parliament The Islamic Consultative Assembly (), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the unicameral national legislative body of Iran. The parliament currently consists of 290 representatives, an i ...

where he represented the city of Zanjan. Grand Ayatollah Zanjani was among the influential clerics who supported ex-prime minister Mousavi and questioned the legitimacy of

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...

's presidency. In September 2022, following the

death of Mahsa Amini On 16 September 2022, 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini, died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the Islamic religious police, religious morality police of ...

in the custody of the

Guidance Patrol The Guidance Patrol () or morality police is an Islamic religious police force and vice squad in the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its role is to enforce Sharia law as defined by Iranian legislation, with a particula ...

, Zanjani said that the Guidance Patrol is “not only an illegal and anti-Islamic body, but also illogical. No part of our country’s laws assigns any mission or responsibility to this vigilante force,” and accused it of committing “repression and immoral acts.”Senior ayatollahs say Iran's morality police are 'illegal and un-Islamic' - Telegraph
/ref>

References

External links

Grand Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani's official website
(in Persian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bayat-Zanjani, Asadollah Iranian reformists Living people People from Zanjan, Iran 1941 births Association of Combatant Clerics politicians Deputies of Mah Neshan and Ijrud Deputies of Zanjan and Tarom Members of the 1st Islamic Consultative Assembly Members of the 2nd Islamic Consultative Assembly Members of the 3rd Islamic Consultative Assembly Second deputies of Islamic Consultative Assembly Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers members Qom Seminary alumni 20th-century Iranian people 21st-century Iranian people