Yousef Saanei

Saanei was born in the Persian month of Aban 1318 SH and in the month of Shaban 1458 AH in the semi-desert farming village of Yingabad (now Nikabad), 60 km (37 mi) southwest of Isfahan.[7] He was the third of four children (a fifth child died in infancy) of Hujjud-al-Islam Mohammed Ali Saanei (1892–1974) and his wife Sharbonoo (1899–1947).[8] His father, despite having lost his own father at the age of six, and being partially sighted rose from untrained village mullah to study in hawza in his thirties, going on to serve his community for fifty years. Mohammad Ali's father Hajjmulla Yousef Yingabadi (1867–1899) was an Isfahan-trained cleric known for his strong sense of social justice, and was active in the Isfahan-area activities of Ayatollah Shirazi's tobacco movement in the early 1890s.[9]

At age six he began his education at the local maktab, later studying at home with his father after the latter noticed his intellect, studying the Quran and other basic texts of the period.[10] Shortly before his tenth birthday, in the autumn of 1947, together with his father and brother Hassan (who also became a cleric and political official) he left for hawza in Isfahan, studying at that city's Kasseh Garan Madrassa (his father later returned to Nikabad).[11] In Isfahan, his most noted teacher was the historian Allamah Mirza Mohammed Ali Habib Abadi (1890–1976).[12][13]

Saanei completed his preliminary studies (the equivalent of secondary school) in 1951, whereupon he went to Qom to continue his studies.[14] 1955 saw Saanei place well in the first-level examinations (equivalent to a bachelor's degree) thus awarded the commendation of Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi.[5] While at Qom he was a student of the leading theologians of his day, among them Mohammad Mohaghegh Damad, Abbas Ali Shahroudi, Mohammad Ali Araki, and Borujerdi himself for about a year. His most lasting education came from the seven years he spent being taught by Khomeini until the latter's exile in 1964.[15] At the age of 22, he was granted the degree of Ijtihad allowing him to formulate religious judgements for his own use.[16]

In September 1964, Ayatollah Saanei married Khanum Shafiei (d. 2012) and has two sons and a daughter. One son, Fakruddin (Saeed) is also a cleric, with the honorific of Hujjud-al-Islam.[17]

He taught regularly in the hawza of Qom beginning in the 1950s. In 1975, Saanei became a teacher at the Haghani School of Divinity.[5] Later he became Grand Ayatollah.[5] In 1980, he was appointed chairman of the Guardian Council.[5] Saanei retired from the council in 1983 and has not held any political office since. According to the CBS GlobalPost, Saanei has been considered "the successor" of Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri and as "the spiritual leader" of the Iranian political opposition movement.[18] After the urging of many students and scholars, Saanei published his risalah in 1993, thus becoming a Marja', or source of imitation on matters of religious law to others.[19]

Ayatollah Saanei fell at his Qom home on the night of 10 September, fracturing his pelvis and arm. Due to preexisting conditions (he suffered from Diabetes-related kidney problems, as well as cirrhosis of the liver), he died during dialysis treatment before surgery could be safely performed to repair his injuries.[20][21] He died shortly after the time of Fajr prayer on 12 September 2020. Due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions, no public funeral was held. The Ayatollah was buried in Sheikhan Cemetery located near Fatima Masumeh Shrine in Qom.[22] He was survived by his three children. Tributes were paid to him from many parts of the clerical establishment and wider society, including the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khemanei and the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom.[23][24]

According to one report, Saanei was likely to replace Hossein-Ali Montazeri as the leading clerical opponent of the regime and to be even more aggressive. Saanei declared the government illegitimate and warned that it "cannot reverse the situation in the country with terror, killing, torture and imprisonment."[37]

A day after the funeral procession of Montazeri, around 1,000 members of Iran's Basij militia and "plainclothes men" attacked offices of Saanei in the central shrine city of Qom, a reformist website reported on 22 December 2009. The plainclothes militiamen broke the windows of Saanei's office and insulted him and his staff and also beat up his staff. They also put up posters of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who has been a staunch defender of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial June re-election and who ordered a post-election crackdown on opposition protests. Police sided with the militia and prevented Saanei's supporters from defending his office, the website said. There was no immediate official comment. However, earlier on Tuesday, the semi-official Fars News Agency said pro-government theology students had staged a rally in Qom to protest "the insult against sanctifies" during Montazeri's funeral procession. The demonstration ended outside Saanei's home, Fars said, but it was not clear whether it was linked to the attack on Saanei's house reported by the aforementioned reformist website. The demonstrators chanted "The city of Qom is no city for hypocrites," and signed a statement calling for Saanei to be defrocked, Fars reported. One of the signatories, cleric Ahmad Panahian, said: "The trenches of the hypocrites in Qom must be destroyed."[38][39]

On 3 October 2010, news sites linked with Iran's political opposition movement reported that Saanei's website was blocked. According to The New York Times, "Internet users who attempted to access them ... were automatically redirected to a standard Iranian government filtering page which offers links to government-authorized web sites ... and the official web site of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."[40]

On 2 January 2010, a top clerical body in Qom, (The Qom Theological Lecturers Association, Jame-e-Modarressin), declared that Saanei no longer qualified to be a marja al-taqlid, or a source of emulation – the highest clerical rank in Shia Islam. The body said that it had launched a yearlong investigation into the qualifications of Saanei in response to repetitive inquiries on the issue. In a statement bearing the signature of Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the former head of Iran's judiciary, the body announced that the result of the investigation indicate that Saanei is not eligible to be a marja'.

Conservatives and traditionalists condemned this move by Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi of Hoze Modaresin to disqualify Ayatollah Saanei as a Marja', questioned the authority of the government sanctioned and subsidised association, and pointed out that even Ayatollah Sistani is not even listed by them as such.[41][42]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Yousef Saanei.

• Saanei.org, official website

Yousef Saanei on Instagram

• (in Persian) RoozOnline.com, An interview with Ayatollah Sanei