Ayatollah Ayatollah (, ; ; ) is an Title of honor, honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy. It came into widespread usage in the 20th century. Originally used as a title bestowed by popular/clerical acclaim for a small number of the most di ...

Mohammad Momen (13 January 1938 – 21 February 2019) was a Faqih and a very influential member of the

Guardian Council The Guardian Council (also called Council of Guardians or Constitutional Council, ) is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The constitution ...

of the

Islamic Republic of Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Influence in government

He simultaneously sat on the

Expediency Discernment Council The Expediency Discernment Council of the System ( ''Majma'-e Tašxis-e Maslahat-e Nezâm'') is an administrative assembly of Iran appointed by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Supreme Leader and was created upon the revision to the Constitution of ...

and the

Assembly of Experts The Assembly of Experts (), also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts, is the deliberative body empowered to appoint the Supreme Leader of Iran. All directly elected members must first be vetted ...

, representing the Islamic holy city of

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 ...

in the latter and winning in the

2006 Iranian Assembly of Experts election The fourth Iranian Assembly of Experts election was held on 15 December 2006. The Assembly of Experts is a Council of 86 '' mujtahids'' that elect the Supreme Leader, and oversee his actions. The members of the Assembly are elected every eight ye ...

. He gained a very large percentage of the vote. His opponent, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, was a strong supporter and spiritual mentor of President

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 ...

, and his victory has been interpreted by some as a sign of dissatisfaction with Ahmedinejad's policies. Because of his political influence in the government, '' Siyasat'', a conservative weekly periodical, had been touted, along with the hard-line conservative Ayatollah Morteza Moghtadai, to be a possible replacement for Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi.

Political position

He was a moderate conservative,Financial Times
/ref> and was considered to be an excellent student of the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

. He was a notable figure among fundamentalists in Iran. Some considered him to be more of a theologian than a politician.

References

1938 births 2019 deaths Burials at Fatima Masumeh Shrine Iranian ayatollahs Islamic Republican Party politicians Members of the Expediency Discernment Council Members of the Guardian Council Members of the Assembly of Experts Religious leaders from Qom Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom members {{Iran-politician-stub