Yousef Sanei

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Muslim jurist
Name:	Yousof Sanei
Title:	Grand Ayatollah
Birth:	1927
Death:	living
Ethnicity:	Persian
Region:	Iran
Maddhab:	Twelver Shia
School tradition:	Jafari jurisprudence
Main interests:	Fiqh, Irfan, Islamic philosophy, Islamic ethics, Hadith and politics
Notable ideas:	Dynamic Fiqh

Grand Ayatollah Yousof Sanei is an Iranian scholar, renowned theologian and Islamic philosopher. He is known as a senior reformist cleric and a Grand Marja of Shia Islam.

He is particularly noteworthy for issuing a fatwa in which he declared suicide bombing as haram and a "terrorist act".[2]^{[citation needed]}

1 Biography
2 His views
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Isfahan in 1927, he quickly rose to high ranks in his seminary studies at Qom's Hawzahs, and ranked first in the advanced level examinations in 1955, and was thus awarded the commendation of Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi for his exceptional achievement.

Sanei retired as the head of the Guardian Council in 1988 and has not held any political office since.

[edit] His views

[edit] about Nuclear weapons and WMDs

In an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle ([3]), Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanei said:

"There is complete consensus on this issue. It is self-evident in Islam that it is prohibited to have nuclear bombs. It is eternal law, because the basic function of these weapons is to kill innocent people. This cannot be reversed.".

Ayatollah Yousef Sanei said clerical authorities have quietly expressed opposition to the development of weapons of mass destruction for many years, and he described it as the reason that Iran never retaliated with chemical weapons when Saddam Hussein used them to kill Iranian troops and Iran-backed Kurds during the 1980- 88 Iran-Iraq war. "You cannot deliberately kill innocent people," he said.

[edit] His views on suicide bombing

Sanei, a marja cleric, has declared suicide bombing as unacceptable:

"حتي كساني كه با انتحار مي‌‏آيند و مي‌‏زنند عده‌‏اي را مي‌‏كشند، آن هم به عنوان عمليات انتحاري، اينها در قعر جهنم هستند"
"Even those who kill people with suicide bombing, these shall meet the flames of hell."^[1]

[edit] His views about Status of Women

He has declared that women have equal status in Islam, and they qualify for being a Judge (Qazi), Head of State, or even a Marja.

[edit] His views about Non-Muslims

Opposite to the consensus of other ulema and marjas, his view about non-Muslims is that they are not najis and they have equally deserve to go to Paradise if they follow their religion sincerely .