Sayed Mohammad Mahdi Al-Modarressi comes from a family of scholars which includes supreme religious jurists, or Grand Ayatollahs, such as Grand Ayatollah S. Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi, one of Iraq’s leading faith leaders of its majority Shi’a population.
Under his father’s supervision, Sayed Al-Modarressi followed a solid traditional curriculum in the Hawza, studying classical works on various disciplines of Islamic jurisprudence as well as the instrumental faculties commonly taught at religious learning institutions. A graduate of the acclaimed al Qa’em Theological Research Institute near the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque in Damascus, Sayed Modarressi reached the level of Sotouh al Ulya (Upper Foundations). His classical curriculum embodied a methodology which crystallizes the middle way of Islam; respect for the differences between jurists, and a spiritual education drawn from the Qur’an and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad and his Household; the Ahlulbayt.
