Hussein-Ali Montazeri

Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri (24 September 1922 – 19 December 2009) was an Iranian Shia Islamic theologian, Islamic democracy advocate, writer and human rights activist.

He was one of the leaders of the Iranian Revolution and one of the highest-ranking authorities in Shīʿite Islam.

Born in 1922, Montazeri was from a peasant family in Najafabad, a city in Isfahan Province, 250 miles south of Tehran.

His early theological education was in Isfahan.

After Khomeini was forced into exile by the Shah, Montazeri "sat at the center of the clerical network" which Khomeini had established to oppose Pahlavi rule.

He became a teacher at the Faiziyeh Theological School.

While there he answered Khomeini's call to protest the White Revolution of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in June 1963 and was active in anti-Shah clerical circles.

He was sent to prison in 1974 and released in 1978 in time to be active during the revolution.

Montazeri then went to Qom where he studied theology.

Montazeri was known as an Islamic jurist who was made to pay for his liberal-leaning beliefs.

He supported a democratic republic as the best form of government; however in his ideal model for government, an Islamic jurist acts as a supervisor and advisor, what he, along with Ayatollah Khomeini, termed as velayat-e faqih.

He was the author of Dirasāt fī wilāyah al-faqīh, a scholarly book advocating the supervision of the administration by Islamic jurists.

He believed in the independence of the government and did not accept any executive and policy making role for the Islamic jurist.

Montazeri asserted that the rule of the jurisprudent should not be an absolute rule; instead, it should be limited to the function of advisor to the rulers, who are elected by the people.

In 1979, following the overthrow of the Shah, he played a pivotal role in instituting Iran's new constitution.

He was one of the leaders of the movement to replace the democratic and secular draft constitution proposed for the Islamic Republic with one where the supervision of Islamic jurists was recognized.

He distributed "a detailed commentary and alternate draft" for Iran's new constitution.

It included proposals to specify that Twelver Shi'ism—and not Islam in general—was the official religion of the state and to state that Islamic jurists should appoint judges with the right of veto over all laws and actions that are against the Islamic principles.

Later he served on the Assembly of Experts (Majles-e-Khobregan) that wrote the constitution and that implemented many of his proposals.

During this time, Montazeri also served as Friday prayer leader of Qom, as a member of the Revolutionary Council and as deputy to Supreme Leader Khomeini.

Khomeini began "to transfer some of his power" to Montazeri, in 1980.

By 1983 "all government offices hung a small picture" of Montazeri next to that of Khomeini.

In 1984, Montazeri became a grand ayatollah.

Montazeri initially rejected Khomeini's proposal to make him his successor, insisting that the choice of successor be left to the democratically elected Assembly of Experts.

Later, Montazeri relented, and following a session of the Assembly of Experts in November 1985, he was officially appointed Khomeini's successor as Supreme Leader.

Some observers believe Khomeini chose him for this role solely because of his support for Khomeini's principle of theocratic rule by Islamic jurists.

Khomeini's proposed form of administration called for the most learned, or one of the most learned, Islamic jurists to "rule", and of all those who might be considered a leading Islamic jurist, only Montazeri supported theocracy.

In Montazeri's opinion, however the jurist would not act as an absolute ruler, instead, he would act as an advisor and consultant.

"Montazeri fell short of the theological requirements of the supreme Faqih. He could not claim descent from the Prophet nor did he possess all the credentials of a revered scholar of Islamic law. His religious followers were few. And he lacked the all-important charisma. His selection had happened for one reason—he was the only one among the candidates for Faqih who totally endorsed Khomeini's vision of Islamic government."

In addition, traditionalists did not approve Montazeri's designation as successor due to several reasons, including his problematic persona in Shiite seminaries during the reign of the Shah and his support for Ali Shariati’s and for Nematollah Salehi Najaf Abadi's works.

Montazeri's leadership qualifications were further hurt by not being a seyyed, or descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, traditionally wearing the black turban in Shiite Islam, like Khomeini and Khomeini's successor Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the early years of the revolution, he was not as popular as he was in the last two decades of his life.

He was once the designated successor to the revolution's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, but they had a falling-out in 1989 over government policies that Montazeri claimed infringed on people's freedom and denied them their rights, especially after the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners.

Montazeri spent his later years in Qom and remained politically influential in Iran, but was placed in house arrest in 1997 for questioning "the unaccountable rule exercised by the supreme leader", Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Khomeini in his stead.

He was known as the most knowledgeable senior Islamic scholar in Iran and a grand marja (religious authority) of Shia Islam.

Ayatollah Montazeri was said to be one of Khamenei's teachers.

For more than two decades, Hussein-Ali Montazeri was one of the main critics of the Islamic Republic's domestic and foreign policy.

He had also been an active advocate of Baháʼí rights, civil rights and women's rights in Iran.

Montazeri was a prolific writer of books and articles.

He was a staunch proponent of an Islamic state, and he argued that post-revolutionary Iran was not being ruled as an Islamic state.