Sayyid Mortada Al-Musawi Al-Qazwini

Ayatollah Sayyid Murtadha al-Musawi al-Qazwini (; born 1 August 1930) is an Iraqi senior Shia jurist, poet and orator.

Al-Qazwini is currently the Imam of the eastern wing of the Imam Husayn shrine. He lived in exile for twenty three years between Kuwait, Iran and the United States, until he returned to Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

Al-Qazwini is currently the chief of the al-Qazwini family.

Early life and education Al-Qazwini was born in Karbala to the prominent religious al-Qazwini family. His father was Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Sadiq al-Qazwini, a mujtahid, that was the Imam at the Abbas shrine. He was abducted by the Baathist regime on April 18, 1980. He has been missing ever since. His mother was the daughter of his third cousin, once remove, Sayyid Muhammad-Mehdi al-Qazwini, a alim and poet, most known for authoring Huda al-Musanafin (Guidance of the Ranks), a critique on Shaykhism. He is the fourth of seven children.

Al-Qazwini naturally began his religious education at a young age. He carried out theological studies and academic education concurrently, and at the age of seventeen, was awarded by Salih Jabr, for being the highest achieving student in the country.

In 1942, he studied oratory under the supervision of his maternal uncle, Sayyid Muhammad-Salih al-Qazwini, who was a renowned cleric and orator. His uncle authored al-Mawidha al-Hasina (The Good Instruction), a critique of Ali al-Wardi's Wuadh al-Salatin (The Sultans Preachers').

By the 1950s, he was giving sermons in the Husayn shrine. Consequently, he began to travel to other countries in the Persian Gulf region, to deliver religious speeches.

Al-Qazwini was really interested to study in the Al-Azhar University, and so he travelled to Cairo to and enrolled into the university. However, upon looking into the syllabus, he realised that the studies were not as advanced as he imagined them to be, and that he felt the level in Karbala was of much higher calibre, which led him to abandon his studies in Al-Azhar, and return to Karbala.

In 1953, he was granted ijaza's from Sayyid Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din, Sheikh Agha Bozorg al-Tehrani and al-Milani.

Activism

Communist and Baathist Iraq During the days of the communist red tide, under the rule of Abd al-Karim Qasim, al-Qazwini supported Ayatollah Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim's fatwa deeming communism an infidelity and atheist. He took a strong stance against Qasim, by rejecting to join the iftar he had prepared for the religious convoy in Ramadan, 1960, which lead to his imprisonment, making him the first cleric to become a political prisoner in Baghdad.

After the Baathist regime took control in 1968, severe persecution began to gradually be administered towards the Shias, specifically the clerical class. As a result, al-Qazwini could not remain in home country for too long, and had to flee Iraq.

In 2004, al-Qazwini founded the Development and Relief Foundation (DRF). al-Qazwini embarked on a mission to revive Karbala. The DRF has established a school, orphanage, Islamic Seminary, hospital and clinic.

In 2008, he sponsored and lead the efforts of constructing the Imam Al-Hujjah Hospital, Assadiq Foundation, which is now known as the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno in Fresno, which is directed by his son Ali. City of Knowledge School in Pomona, which is a full-time academic Islamic school.

Personal life Al-Qazwini is married to the daughter of Sayyid Abd al-Amir Nasrallah, from the Nasrallah family in Karbala. He has six sons, who have all pursued clerical careers.