Hussein-Ali Montazeri - Early Life and Public Career

Early Life and Public Career

Born in 1922, Montazeri was from a peasant family in Najafabad, a city in Isfahan Province, 250 miles south of Tehran.

Muslim scholar
Hossein-Ali Montazeri
Title Grand Ayatollah
Born 1922
Died 19 December 2009 (aged 87)
Era Modern era
Region Iran
Madh'hab Shia Islam
Main interest(s) Fiqh, Irfan, Islamic philosophy, Islamic ethics, Hadith, politics
Notable idea(s) Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists, Islamic Democrasy, Dynamic Fiqh
Notable work(s) Al-Hodod, From Beginning to End, Hoghogh, Islam-Religion of mould
Influenced by
  • Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi, Ruhollah Khomeini, Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari
Influenced
  • Ali Khamenei, Mohammad Beheshti, Morteza Motahhari, Akbar Hashemi, Mohsen Kadivar

His early theological education was in Isfahan. Montazeri then went to Qom where he studied under Khomeini and went on to become a teacher at the Faiziyeh Theological School. While there he answered Khomeini's call to protest the White Revolution of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in June 1963 and was active in anti-Shah clerical circles.

After Khomeini was forced into exile by the Shah, Montazeri "sat at the center of the clerical network" which Khomeini had established to fight the Pahlavi rule. He was sent to prison in 1974 and released in 1978 in time to be active during the revolution.

Read more about this topic:  Hussein-Ali Montazeri

Famous quotes containing the words early, life, public and/or career:

    Foolish prater, What dost thou
    So early at my window do?
    Cruel bird, thou’st ta’en away
    A dream out of my arms to-day;
    A dream that ne’er must equall’d be
    By all that waking eyes may see.
    Thou this damage to repair
    Nothing half so sweet and fair,
    Nothing half so good, canst bring,
    Tho’ men say thou bring’st the Spring.
    Abraham Cowley (1618–1667)

    This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. And also the only real tragedy in life is being used by personally minded men for purposes which you recognize to be base.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    ... the Wall became a magnet for citizens of every generation, class, race, and relationship to the war perhaps because it is the only great public monument that allows the anesthetized holes in the heart to fill with a truly national grief.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

    It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)