Muhammad Hussain Najafi

Grand Ayatollah Shaikh Muhammad Hussain Najafi (آيت الله العظمى علامه شيخ محمد حسين; 10 April 1932 – 21 August 2023) was a Pakistani Twelver Shia Marja.

Muhammad Hussain Najafi was running a Hawza in Sargodha.

Muhammad Hussain was born in small town of Jehania shah in Sargodha District of Punjab province of Pakistan in April 1932.

He had two paternal uncles, both of whom were Shia ulema: Maulana Imam Bakhsh was a religious teacher in Jahanian Shah, while Maulana Sohrab Ali Khan was a reputed alim of Uch Sharif.

His father Rana Tajuddin was not an alim, but he had the wish of making his son a great alim.

However, he died in 1944 when Muhammad Hussain was 12 years old, after which the family members persuaded the widow that Muhammad Hussain should look after the family lands, but she kept up the wish of her dead husband.

After secondary school education, he got an admission in Madrasah Muhammadia in Jalalpur Nankiana, Sargodha, where one of his prominent teachers was Ayatollah Allama Hussain Bakhsh Jarra.

In 1947, he studied the courses of Dars-i-Nizami from Ayatollah Allama Muhammad Baqir Naqvi in Jhang.

Allama Baqir Naqvi had migrated from Iraq to spread Shia formal education in Pakistan.

Since (the first prominent Shia scholar in Pakistan Ustad ul ulama) Grand Ayatollah Allama Syed Muhammad Yar Shah Naqvi Najfi, the most prominent disciple of Allama Baqir Naqvi, had moved from his ancestral city Alipur to Jalalpur, Muhammad Hussain moved to Jalalpur to complete Dars-i-Nizami for the next five years.

Before going to Najaf for higher religious education, he was married to his maternal cousin in 1952.

His teacher Allama Yar Shah had links with ulema of Najaf, and he wanted Muhammad Hussain to get married in a scholarly family of Najaf, but Muhammad Hussain declined this proposal due to cultural differences.

In 1953, he passed the examination of Molvi Fazil from Punjab University, and moved to Najaf in 1954 for higher education.

In 1954, his only son Muhammad Sibtayn was born.

At the age of five, he got seriously ill and died, as Muhammad Hussain did not have enough money for his treatment.

(Muhammad Hussain used to spend his stipend money on household and buying books.)

After Sibtayn's death, Ayatollah Najafi did not have children for the next eleven years, later he had one daughter.

In 1954, he moved to Hawza Elmiye Najaf to finalize his religious education.

He attended the lectures of the following marjas:

In an interview to the Hawza Elmiye Qom's monthly magazine "Hawza", he was asked:

He wrote the following books during his stay at Najaf:

Grand Ayatollah Bazurg Tehrani has mentioned these books in his famous book Az-Zariya ila Tasaneef ush-Shia (A list of Shia Books), and Aalulbayt Global information Center has mentioned these books in their Musannifat-ush-Shia (Shia Books).

Najafi was fluent in Arabic, Persian, Punjabi and Urdu languages.

Najafi received ijazah's of ijtihad from following marjas of Hawza Elmiye Najaf, in 1960 AD (1379 AH):

After returning to Pakistan in 1960, Pir Fazal Shah (Parhezgar) asked him to become the principal of Dar-ul-Uloom Muhammadia, Sargodha, which he eagerly accepted.

In 1963, the principals of Shia madrasahs from all over Pakistan gathered in Karbala Gamey Shah, Lahore, and founded Tanzeeme Madarise Arabia Shia Pakistan (Organization of Shia Madrasahs of Pakistan).

Ayatollah Najafi was elected its president.

In 1964, Ayatollah Muhammad Hussain Najafi played a pivotal role in gathering about 250 Shia ulema and leaders in Imam Bargah Rizvia, Karachi, where "Shia Mutalbat Committee" was formed with Syed Muhammad Dehlavi as its president.

In 1965, a high-level organization of Shia ulema Mautamar Ulemae Shia Pakistan (Conference of Shia Ulema of Pakistan) was formed with Ayatollah Najafi as its president.

and Mufti Jafar Hussain as its patron.

Other members included Allama Gulab Ali Shah, Allama Akhtar Abbas, Allama Hussain Bakhsh Jarra, Hafiz Saifullah Jafari, Allama Syed Safdar Hussain Najafi, Mufti Inayat Ali Shah, Allama Muhib Hussain, Allama Riaz Hussain Najafi and Allama Ghulam Hassan Jarra.

He married the daughter of Haji Muhammad Shafi (Faisalabad) in 1970.

He had two daughters from this marriage.

In 1971, due to increased involvement in Majlis and Shia political movements it became impossible for him to run the affairs of Dar-ul-Uloom Muhammadia, therefore he stepped down from this post.

In 1978, after Zia ul Haq's announcement of promulgating Hanafi fiqh, Shia ulema and leaders gathered in Bhakkar and founded Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafaria (later called Tehrik-e-Jafaria Pakistan) with Mufti Jafar Hussain as its president.

He published his Tawzih ul Masail (treatise) named "Qawaneen ush-Sharia fi Fiqh-e-Jafariya" in 1980 AD (1400 AH).

He was being followed by a number of Shia Muslims in matters of fiqh from Pakistan and abroad.

His first wife died in 1996.

Najafi was included in all the editions of "The Muslim 500: The World's Most Influential Muslims" since 2010.

He is one of the nine marja's mentioned in the most recent edition.