Prominent Iraqi Shia cleric Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim passes away

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Shia Marja Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim has passed away after a sudden cardiac arrest, officials in the city of Najaf announced on Friday. He was 87.

Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim was a contemporary Shia Marja and one of the most prominent religious figures in Najaf. His father was Ayatollah Muhammad Ali al-Hakim.

He was a student of and nephew to the late Marja Muhsin al-Hakim, the author of a famous fatwa that prohibited Shias from fighting Kurds because of shared religious values. Kurds are majority Muslim, largely Sunnis.

The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein detained Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim in 1983 and imprisoned him until 1991. The influential Marja has dozens of fatwas and books on religious jurisprudence.