Sadiq al-Husayni al-Shirazi is an Iraqi-Iranian Shiamarja'. He hails from an influential transnational clerical family, and is the younger brother of Muhammad al-Shirazi, and considered his successor.
He began his religious education in Karbala, under his father and older brothers Muhammad and Hasan. After completing his primary education, he studied under Sayyid Muhammad-Hadi al-Milani, Sheikh Muhammad-Ridha al-Isfahani, Sheikh Muhammad al-Shahroudi, Sheikh Muhammad al-Karbassi, Sheikh Jafar al-Rashti and Sheikh Muhammad-Husayn al-Mazindarani. In 1971, he was exiled from Iraq by the Baathist regime. He settled in Kuwait for a while with his older brother, Muhammad. Him and his family then migrated to Iran, after the Islamic revolution. He resumed classes under his brother, until he gained ijtihad, and began his own classes. He has been residing in Qom ever since he moved in 1980.
Marja'iyya
After his brother, Muhammad passed awayin 2001, he succeeded him as marja'. al-Shirazi believes not against the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist in principle, but opposes how the supreme leaders have carried out the concept by concentrating all state control in a single jurist who is virtually impossible to remove from power.
Clashes with Iran
al-Shirazi's marja'iyya was relatively quieter than his late brothers. However, after the emergence of controversial Kuwaiti cleric, Yasser al-Habib, and his claimed affiliation with al-Shirazi–al-Shirazi's marja'iyya was placed under scrutiny. Iranian hardliner, Mohsen Araki, has accused al-Shirazi of “receiving funds from Britain and Saudi Arabia” based on the views he projects, and is aggravated by al-Shirazi's efforts for the al-Askari shrine on the last Friday of Ramadan, instead of supporting or rallying for Quds day. al-Shirazi has never denied anyone's self-proclaimed affiliations to him, but has announced that no person or body represents him, other than Marjayeat TV, which represents his official opinion. Most accusations made against al-Shirazi are a result of his independence and criticism of Iran's ruling establishment. al-Shirazi's followers form the Shia majority in Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of Sheikh Hassan al-Saffar, an activist and proponent of sectarian reconciliation.
Length of fasts
In the Summer, fasts in some countries become extremely long, because the day light hours are extended. Hence, there has been an increased discussion on whether there is a maximum length of a fast, including many schools banning fasting for children. al-Shirazi holds a distinguished ruling to this, where his rationale is to change the length of the fast to a maximum of what is "normal" and there is no need to repeat the fast. His view is a minority ruling, only shared by Sheikh Nasser Makarim Shirazi and a few other jurists. al-Shirazi believes a maximum of 17.5 hour fast from Fajr. This is based on an interpretation of what the urf is, and understanding the terms layl and nahar when fasting is referred to in the Quran and Hadith, i.e. what a normal person would understand when hearing these words. Therefore, fasting in extreme temperatures for extreme lengths of time is not what is understood by the urf when the verses are read. Proponents of this view, say that the urf would expect that fasting is what is mu'tadil i.e. say 17.5 hours. He explicitly says that this is due to the understanding of the words above, not due to la haraj i.e. even if it does not cause difficulty, you are still required to fast a maximum of 17.5 hours The consequence of the viewpoint of al-Shirazi is that if the fast is longer than 17.5 hours, you should revert to times with mu'tadil lengths of day e.g. Mecca or Karbala which could be 14–16 hours.
al-Shirazi is married and has four sons. His sons are all clerics. His son Husayn plays a key role in running al-Shirazi's office. He spreads his father's teachings, on a number of media outlet platforms including four satellite channels. On March 6, 2018, his son, Husayn was arrested reportedly by the IRGC as he appeared at the Special Clerical Court. He was prosecuted after a lecture comparing Iran's government—the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist —to a regime of "pharaohs". His arrest fuelled debates on whether Iran's supreme leaderAli Khamenei should be able to claim divine sanction for unlimited state powers. Protests against his arrest were held at the Iranian consulate in Karbala, Basra and Najaf, Kuwait City and Iran's embassies in Baghdad and London. He was released on bail on March 18.
