Sayyid Haidar Alawi

Biography of Sayyid Haidar Alawi

First: Birth and Upbringing

Sayyid Haidar Alawi, son of Sayyid Agha Husayn, was born on 5 May 1983 in the village of Sarqaril, in Gizab District, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.

Second: Seminary Studies in Afghanistan

He began his seminary studies in 1379 SH, receiving his first lessons in the Malistan area from Ustad Muhammadi; he then studied in the Pashi area under Ustad Karimi, and in the Almitu area under Ustad Tawassuli.

After that he moved to the school of Ayatollah Wahidi in the Hutqul area of Anguri, Jaghori, where he studied under Ustad Akbari, and then continued his studies in the city of Ghazni under Ustad Asghari, head of the Ghazni Council of Scholars.

In 1383 SH he moved to the capital, Kabul, and joined the seminary (hawza) of Jami'at al-Islam, under the supervision of the religious authority (marja') Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Ishaq al-Muhaqqiq al-Kabuli (may God have mercy on him), and benefited from the classes of a number of teachers, among them Ustad Tawassuli, Ayatollah Muwahhidi Daykundi and Ayatollah Husayn-Dad Sharifi.

In 1385 SH he obtained a certificate equivalent to the high-school diploma from the Presidency of Islamic Education of the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education.

He then joined the Specialized Center for Jurisprudence and Ijtihad, under the supervision of Grand Ayatollah al-Muhaqqiq al-Kabuli (may God have mercy on him), where he studied for five years and completed the advanced seminary texts, including al-Rasa'il, al-Makasib and Kifayat al-Usul, under a number of teachers, among them Ayatollah Arifi, Ustad Rezaei and Ustad Irfani.

Third: Studies at the Islamic Seminary of Najaf al-Ashraf

He emigrated to Najaf al-Ashraf to continue his seminary studies, and in 2016 he passed the examinations in Kifayat al-Usul and al-Makasib at the Islamic Seminary of Najaf al-Ashraf and formally enrolled in it.

Since then he has attended the advanced courses (bahth al-kharij) in jurisprudence and its principles (fiqh and usul). For four years he benefited from the classes of the religious authority Grand Ayatollah Shaykh Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad (may God have mercy on him), and for a period he also attended the advanced jurisprudence course of the religious authority Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Sa'id al-Hakim (may his soul be sanctified).

Since 2020 he has continued to attend the advanced courses in jurisprudence and its principles given by Ayatollah Shaykh Muhammad Baqir al-Irawani.

He also studied for two years at the Nur al-Basa'ir Institute in the fields of the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), biography (sira) and history, doctrine, and religions and schools of thought.

After completing this course, he took part, together with a group of seminary scholars, in a scholarly trip to Qom, Mashhad and Tehran, which included visits to a number of academic and research centers and libraries and meetings with a group of scholars, teachers and learned men.

Fourth: Academic Courses and Research Activities

Alongside his seminary studies, Sayyid Haidar Alawi has taken part in a number of specialized academic and skills courses in research and scholarly investigation, writing scholarly reports, teaching methods, preaching (tabligh) and public speaking, doctrine and history, the science of hadith narrators (ilm al-rijal), and familiarity with modern tools and artificial intelligence technologies.

He received certificates of participation and of appreciation in a number of these courses, and benefited from the lectures of a group of teachers, among them:

- Dr. Shaykh Hasan al-Darbandi.

- Dr. Shaykh Muhsin-Zadeh.

- Shaykh Muhammad al-Shabib al-Nasiri.

- Sayyid Zayn al-Abidin al-Ghurayfi.

- Shaykh Muhammad Rida al-Sa'idi.

He took first place in the specialized course on writing scholarly reports known as the “Course of the Scholars’ Report” (Dawrat Taqrir al-Fudala’).

He continues to write reports (taqrirat) on jurisprudence and its principles, to review the reports of students of religious sciences, and to answer questions about the method of writing a scholarly seminary report.

Fifth: Works and Scholarly Research

Sayyid Haidar Alawi has prepared some fifty reports, studies and scholarly writings in the fields of jurisprudence, its principles, and Islamic teachings.

Among his most notable works are:

1. The Factors Giving Rise to Conflict between Narrations.

2. Stable and Unstable Conflict (al-ta'arud al-mustaqirr wa ghayr al-mustaqirr).

3. The Guardian’s Permission for the Marriage of a Virgin Girl.

4. Oaths (yamin) and Their Rulings.

5. Vows (nadhr) and Their Rulings.

6. The Waiting Period (‘idda) and Its Rulings.

7. Hire and Lease (ijara) and Its Rulings.

8. Arguing from the Verse of the Report (Ayat al-Naba’) to Establish the Authority of the Single-Narrator Report (khabar al-wahid).

9. The Binding Force (munajjiziyya) of Summary Knowledge (al-‘ilm al-ijmali).

10. Conflict of Evidences and the Reversal of Relation (inqilab al-nisba).

11. Applying the Principle of Exemption (asalat al-bara’a) in Doubts about the Ruling Itself (al-shubuhat al-hukmiyya).

12. Steps on the Path of Seeking Religious Knowledge (in Persian).

13. The Role of the Quran in Human Life.

14. Peace from the Perspective of the Holy Quran.

These works deal with jurisprudential, legal-theoretical, Quranic and educational subjects, and fall within the scope of his scholarly and research interests.

Sixth: Outreach, Cultural and Media Activities

Sayyid Haidar Alawi began his outreach (tabligh) activity in the earliest stages of his seminary studies and has continued it alongside his studies and scholarly research.

He has taken part in the outreach programs of the Islamic Seminary and in activities connected with the Holy Alawi Shrine, especially in religious guidance and in answering questions on religious law, both in person and through social media.

He also manages specialized groups on WhatsApp and Telegram for answering the religious questions of men and of women, as well as mixed groups, where answers to questions on religious law are given according to the fatwas of the sources of emulation (maraji’ al-taqlid).

He likewise manages the Facebook and Instagram pages of the Religious and Cultural Center of Lady Fatima al-Zahra (peace be upon her).

These pages are devoted to spreading religious, cultural and educational knowledge, including teaching the rulings of religious law, setting out the virtues of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), explaining hadiths and narrations, and publishing ethical topics, religious designs, and visual and video content.

These activities form part of a commitment to spreading the teachings of the Holy Quran and the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) and to strengthening religious and cultural awareness among all sections of society.