Hadi al-Modarresi

Family Al-Modarresi was born into a distinguished Shia religious family in Karbala in Iraq. His father is Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Kadhim al-Modarresi, the grandson of grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir Golpayegani (also known as Jorfadiqani). His mother is the daughter of grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mahdi al-Shirazi. He claims descent from Zayd ibn Ali (died c. 740 AD), the great-great-grandson of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.

Biography

Early life Al-Modarresi began his religious education in the religious seminaries of Karbala, at the age of thirteen. He actively sought his religious studies under the auspices of many high ranking scholars, such as Sheikh Hasan al-A'lami, Sheikh Muhammad al-Karbassi, Shaykh Jafar al-Rushti, Shaykh Muhamamd-Husayn al-Mazindarani and his uncles, Sayyids Muhammad, Hassan and Sadiq al-Shirazi. He completed the advanced level of his religious education in his early twenties.

Bathist opposition Al-Modarresi's advocacy of political freedom and strong stance against terrorism started from an early age when Saddam Hussein took power in Iraq. Seventeen members of his wife's family–Al-Qazwini–were executed by Saddam's regime or simply disappeared in the notorious Bathist penitentiaries. Al-Modarresi wrote the first book to openly attack the regime, published by a religious scholar. Published under a pseudonym in Beirut, the book was titled No To Rulers of Iraq and sparked a massive political crisis in Baghdad and caused the Bathist regime to issue an ultimatum for the removal of all Lebanese nationals from Iraq within 72 hours. Al-Modarresi left Iraq in 1970, for Lebanon, and then briefly joined his brother Muhammad-Taqi, in Kuwait.

Bahraini leadership In 1973, he emigrated to Bahrain, and exercised his religious activism there. In 1974, he was granted Bahraini citizenship. In Bahrain, al-Modarresi rose to national prominence, and was awarded with power of representation from grand religious authorities such as Muhammad al-Shirazi, Ruhollah Khomeini, Shihab al-Din al-Marashi, and Abd al-A'la al-Sabziwari, being labelled as a scholar "worthy of taking a leadership position" and urging Muslims to follow his lead.

In 1979, the Bahraini authorities placed a travel ban on al-Modarresi, after his organisation, the Islamic Front for Liberation of Bahrain (a branch of his brother's (Muhammad-Taqi) larger risali movement), was announced in the press, being dubbed as an organisation that wanted to import the Iranian revolution into Bahrain, and pointing the finger at al-Modarresi, as its leader. However the coup failed, and so al-Modarresi reorganised the structure of the Front, focusing on its information efforts in Europe.

Al-Modarresi became a founding member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and was among the active figures of the Iraqi opposition in exile. He was closely involved in efforts to expose and bring down the regime in Baghdad. He managed to escape a number of assassination attempts abroad, including one in Brazil in 1991 as well as two more attempts in Syria, by the Bathist intelligence operatives, in 2001.

Return to Iraq Upon returning to Iraq after the fall of Saddam's regime, he was greeted by over thirty thousand people in Baghdad, fifty thousand in Sadr City and a similar crowd in his hometown, Karbala.

Al-Modarresi established a television station upon his return to his hometown. He has five sons (Mahdi, Muhammad-Ali, Mustafa, Husayn and Muhammad-Kadhim). All of his sons are clerics.

COVID-19 In March 2020, al-Modarresi contracted the virus, but has since recovered and reported to be in good health.

Works Al-Modarresi has authored more than 250 books. Some of his books were published under different pen names such as 'Muhammad Hadi' and 'Abdallah al-Hashimi', and 'Muhammad al-Amin Association'.

Some of al-Modarresi's books include:

(7 Volumes)

(3 Volumes)