In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
Indeed, we belong to Allah, and to Him we shall return.
The passing of Grand Ayatollah Seyed Musa Shubayri Zanjani (may Allah’s mercy be upon him), an eminent jurist and distinguished religious authority in the Shia world, is a profound loss to the Islamic seminaries, the Shia scholarly community, and all who are devoted to the school of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them).
In the Shia tradition, the institution of marjaʿiyya is not merely an authority for expounding religious rulings; it represents the historical continuity of Islamic jurisprudence, safeguards the authentic teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), and stands as one of the foremost intellectual and spiritual pillars of the Muslim community. In shouldering this weighty responsibility, every great marjaʿ also enriches the enduring legacy of the Islamic seminaries through his distinctive scholarly and spiritual qualities. The late Grand Ayatollah Shubayri Zanjani was undoubtedly among the most eminent representatives of this luminous tradition in our time.
In addition to his exalted standing in Islamic jurisprudence, remarkable precision, and many years devoted to teaching and nurturing students, this learned and virtuous jurist occupied a distinguished place in the fields of biographical evaluation, chains of transmission, hadith, and the study of generations of narrators. His extensive command of biographical and hadith sources; his precise knowledge of narrators, their teachers, and their students; his meticulous attention to variant manuscripts; his ability to identify distortions and scribal errors in chains of transmission; and his examination of the historical relationships among hadith transmitters gave his scholarship a distinctive character and exceptional authority.
Complementing his scholarly distinction were his humility, dignity, simplicity of life, nobility of character, and lifelong fellowship with scholars and the intellectual heritage of the seminary. Together, these qualities made him a figure whose very presence recalled the authentic traditions of the Islamic seminaries and the exemplary conduct of the great scholars of earlier generations.
I extend my heartfelt condolences on this grievous loss to Imam al-Mahdi (may Allah hasten his blessed reappearance), the esteemed marājiʿ, the Islamic seminaries, scholars and learned figures, the late scholar’s students and admirers-especially his honoured family and bereaved loved ones-and Shia Muslims throughout the world.
I pray that Almighty Allah will unite this godly scholar and lifelong servant of the school of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) with his pure forebears, exalt his rank, and enable the Islamic seminaries to preserve his invaluable scholarly legacy and pass it on to future generations.
Was-salāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuh
Seyed Hashem Moosavi
Islamic Centre of England
