Mohammad Saeed Al-Hakim

Who is Mohammad Saeed Al-Hakim?

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Sa'id al-Tabataba'i al-Hakim is an Iraqi Twelver Shi'a marja, one of the five members of the Hawza of Najaf and the second most senior Shia cleric in Iraq after Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

al-Hakim is the son of Ayatollah Muhammad Ali al-Hakim, grandson of Sayyid Ahmad al-Hakim, and grand nephew of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim. His second cousin, Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim leads the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, one of the largest Shia political parties in Iraq.

In 2003, he was targeted in an attempted assassination, when his house in Najaf was bombed. Three people were killed but al-Hakim suffered only minor injuries. He had previously been threatened that he would be killed if he didn't leave Najaf. Originally the Sunni fundamentalist Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad was blamed. However, the bombing has also been attributed to followers of rival shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Hakim is one of the Ulama signatories of the Amman Message, which gives a broad foundation for defining Muslim orthodoxy.