Shia Leadership Ranking: Twelver Shia Islam

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Shia Leadership Ranking

After the Quran, the Prophets, and the Twelve Shia Imams, Mujtahids are the highest authority on religious laws in the Twelver Shia Islam. Twelver Shias believe in twelve divinely ordained leaders known as the Twelve Imams. They believe the twelfth Imam is the Mahdi who will return from occultation bringing peace into the world. The Shia twelve Imam names in order are: 1. Ali ibn Abi Talib, 2. Hasan ibn Ali, 3. Hossein ibn Ali, 4. Ali ibn Hossein, 5. Muhammad ibn Ali, 6. Ja'far ibn Muhammad, 7. Musa ibn Ja'far, 8. Ali ibn Musa, 9. Muhammad ibn Ali, 10. Ali ibn Muhammad, 11. Hassan ibn Ali, 12.Muhammad ibn al-Hassan (al-Mahdi).

A Mujtahid is a Shia scholar who is legally competent to interpret Islamic …show more content…

Of equal importance is either the explicit or the tacit recognition of a cleric as a Mujtahid by laymen and scholars in the Shia community. There is no set time for studying a particular subject, but serious preparation to become a Mujtahid normally requires fifteen years to master the religious subjects deemed essential. It is uncommon for any student to attain the status of Mujtahid before the age of thirty; more commonly students are between forty and fifty years old when they achieve this …show more content…

The highest Shia cleric rank begins with Grand Ayatollah which means "Great Sign of God". All Grand Ayatollahs are considered Mujtahids. Under Grand Ayatollah is Ayatollah (Sign of God). Below Ayatollah is the rank of HojatolIslam, which is Arabic for "Authority on Islam" and HojatolIslam Wa l-Muslimin (Authority on Islam and Muslims) is given to middle-ranking. Next is Mubellegh al Risala or "Carrier of the Message". At the bottom of the ladder are religious students, Talibeh. At the time of the Revolution, there were slightly more than 11,000 talabehs in Iran; approximately 60 percent of these were studying at the Hawza in the city of Qom, another 25 percent were enrolled in the important Hawzas of Mashhad and Esfahan, and the rest were at Hawzas in Tabriz, Yazd, Shiraz, Tehran, Zanjan, and other