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ayatollah

  (ī'yə-tō'lə, -tō-lä') pronunciation
n. Islam.
  1. A high-ranking Shiite religious authority regarded as worthy of imitation in matters of religious law and interpretation.
  2. Used as a title for such a leader.

[Persian āyatollāh, from Arabic ’āyatu llāh, sign of God : ’āyatu, bound form of ’āya, sign, Koranic verse + allāh, Allah; see Allah.]


 
 

Ayat Allah, ‘a miraculous sign, a mark, an exemplar of God’. This is a designation which came into use in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries among the Imamis, or Twelvers, the majority tradition in Shi'i Islam. Ayatollahs are found in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. ‘Ayatollah’ denotes a religious scholar of outstanding quality and reputation. He is a mujtahid, a specialist in law who is capable of formulating through independent reasoning interpretations (ijtihad) in legal and theological matters based on the Jafari school of jurisprudence. Mujtahids are ulama (recognized religious scholars). Among the Imamis, by the end of the seventeenth and into the eighteenth centuries, mujtahids came to perform a more enhanced role within the Shi'i ulama.

During the fourteenth century, a practice had emerged that all Shi'i throughout their lifetime should follow the religious guidance of a mujtahid and, should the mujtahid die, choose a successor. The individual Shi'i decides which mujtahid he or she will follow. A mujtahid of the Imamis came to be regarded as representing the will of the Hidden Imam (the twelfth Imam), as His deputy until His return. By the early nineteenth century, a further development in the differentiation of the Shi'i ulama led to the recognition of the marja i taqlid (source of imitation), that is, the most pre-eminent of the mujtahids. As the number of marja i taqlid grew, the designation ‘Ayatollah’ began to be used in the twentieth century to refer to the outstanding marja. Thus, a hierarchy came to exist among the Shi'i ulama unlike the Sunni ulama. Those that become pre-eminent among the mujtahids evidenced by the number of followers that he can attract emerge as Ayatollahs. Among the Ayatollahs a few will become known as Grand Ayatollahs (Ayat Allah al-uzma). It is from these that the one that is able to attract an exceptional following will emerge as the marja—the apex of the Shi'i hierarchy. This particular evolution of an informal hierarchy arrived at via consensus within the Shi'i ulama had the effect, amongst other things, of facilitating the accommodation of the religion to the changing times.

Ayatollahs also act as administrators: as collectors of religious taxes, managing pious gifts and property, dispenser of grants and alms, responsible for schools, orphanages, publishing houses, libraries and other social services institutions. Ayatollahs can at time attract considerable following abroad as evidenced by the popularity of the now deceased Ayatollah al-Khu'i, well known for his erudition in Shi'i jurisprudence and pious works in many countries.

— Barbara Allen Roberson

 

In the Shiite branch of Islam, a high-ranking religious authority regarded by his followers as the most learned person of his age. The ayatollah's authority rests on the infallible imam. His legal decisions are accepted as binding by his personal followers and (in the present day) by the wider community.

For more information on ayatollah, visit Britannica.com.

 

"Sign of God." A title used in Iranian Islamic Shiism for the most highly honored members of the ulama.

 
Wikipedia: Ayatollah

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Ayatollah (Arabic: آية الله; Persian: آيت‌الله); is a high ranking title given to Shi'a clerics. The word means "Sign of God" and those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in seminaries of Islamic science. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin.

Rank

The title is currently granted to top Shia mujtahid, after completing sat'h and kharij studies in the hawza. By then he would be able to issue his own edicts from the sources of religious laws: Qur'an, Sunnah, Ijmāˤ and 'Aql "intellect" (rather than the Sunnī principle of Qiyas). Most of the time this is attested by an issued certificate from his teachers. The Ayatollah can then teach in hawzas according to his speciality, can act as a reference for their religious questions, and act as a judge.

There is an important difference from Shi'a Ayatollah's and "saints" in other religions and Sunni Islam. They are not regarded as enlightened by God Himself, but by the Word of God.

There are a few females which are equal in ranking to the Ayatollahs, and are known as Lady Mujtahideh. An example of which is Lady Mujtahideh Zohreh Sefati.[1] The first Lady Mujtahideh was Nosrat Amin Esfhani, born in 1886 to a religious family, she received her Ijtihad degree from Grand Ayatollahs of Qom at the age of 40.[2]

Grand Ayatollah

Main article: Marja

Only a few of the most important Ayatollah are accorded the rank of Grand Ayatollah (Ayatollah Ozma, "Great Sign of God"). This usually happens when the followers of one of the Ayatollahs refer to him in many situations and ask him to publish his Juristic book in which he answers the vast majority of daily Muslim affairs. The book is called Resalah, which is usually a reinvention of the book Al-Urwatu l-Wuthqah, according to their knowledge of the most authentic Islamic sources and their application to current life.

There is usually one Grand Ayatollah in Iraq that heads the Hawzas (currently Ali Sistani) and a few that coordinate with him like Mohammad Said Al-Hakim, Mohammad Ishaq Al-Fayyad, and Mohammad Taqi Modarresi. There are more in Iran and wherever the Shi'a exist. There are more than 20 living world-wide; the most famous of them are Ali Khamenei, Ali Sistani, Makarem Shirazi, Malakouti , Montazeri, Fadlullah, Haeri and Sadiq Shirazi.

The Ayatollah

Westerners who say "the Ayatollah" usually mean Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who brought the word into the international limelight during the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the brutal religious extremist rulership that followed; a possible secondary meaning would be the term's use to indicate the serving Supreme Leader of Iran.

References

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Translations: Translations for: Ayatollah

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ayatollah

Nederlands (Dutch)
sjiitisch religieuze leider (Iran)

Français (French)
n. - ayatollah

Deutsch (German)
n. - Ajatollah, Ayatollah, (Schiitischer religiöser Führer im Iran)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αγιατολάχ

Italiano (Italian)
ayatollah

Português (Portuguese)
n. - aiatolá (m) (Rel.)

Русский (Russian)
аятолла, мусульманский религиозный лидер

Español (Spanish)
n. - ayatollah

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ayatollah

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
依朗回教什叶特派的宗教领袖

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 依朗回教什葉特派的宗教領袖

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 어야톨라(이란 회교 시아파 지도자의 칭호)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - アーヤトッラー

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) لقب للزعيم المسلم في ايران‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮איתוללה ("אות אלוהים") - מנהיג דתי שיעי באירן‬


 
 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Political Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Islamic Dictionary. Copyright © 2002 yourDictionary.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ayatollah" Read more
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