Abd al-A'la al-Sabziwari

Muhammad died in a car accident, between Tehran and Qom in April, 1994, aged 48. Ali is a senior cleric that resides in Najaf, and is a teacher at the seminary of Najaf; Hussain is also a cleric, he resides in Mashhad, and teaches in its seminary. al-Sabziwari's wife is the paternal auntie of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad-Taqi al-Modarresi.

al-Sabziwari passed away in the late hours of Monday, August 16, 1993, in Najaf. According to London-based researcher, Dr. Sahib al-Hakim, al-Sabziwari was killed by poisoning, at the hands of the Bathist regime.

He was briefly the head of the Najaf seminary after the death of al-Khoei in 1992. After al-Sabzawari's death in 1993, there was competition between Ali al-Sistani and a few other senior jurists, to lead the seminary. It was after the fall of the Bathist regime, that al-Sistani took exclusive control of the marja'iya.

al-Sabziwari was an avid supporter of the people of Iraq and was the only marja' that issued a fatwa in support of the 1991 uprising, which began with the quranic verse "Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged. And indeed, Allah is competent to give them victory." [22:39], disregarding the inevitable consequences.

He gained the level of ijtihad at the age of 36, from prominent scholars, Sheikh Abdallah al-Mamaqani, Sheikh Abbas al-Qumi and a few other of his teachers. By 1946, he was teaching advanced level of jurisprudence and principles of jurisprudence.

In 1932, he decided to go to Najaf to complete his advanced education in jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence, philosophy, exegesis and other Islamic sciences. However, he decided to walk the distance from Mashhad, and this took him approximately just over a month. In Najaf, he attended the classes of great religious authorities such as Sheikh Muhammad-Hussain al-Na'ini, Shiekh Dhiya al-Dina al-Iraqi, Sheikh Muhammad-Hussain al-Gharawi al-Isfahani, Sayyid Abu al-Hasan al-Isfahani and others.

In 1924, he travelled to Mashhad and studied under more senior clerics such as Sheikh Hasanali al-Isfahani, Mirza Adib Nishaburi, Mirza Askar Shahidi, Sayyid Muhammad al-Lawasani al-Assar and Sheikh Ali Akbar al-Nahawandi. He remained in Mashhad for eight years.

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abd al-A'la al-Musawi al-Sabziwari (Persian: عبدالأعلى موسوى سبزواراى; Arabic: عبد الأعلى الموسوي السبزواري; December 21, 1910 – August 16, 1993) was an Iranian-Iraqi Shia marja'. He is regarded as one of the most influential grand religious authorities, and a contemporary of Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei.