What Sistani Wants

He refuses a new air conditioner, yet his office is Internet-wired. He wants women to take political office, but not to shake the hands of men outside their families. He is easily the most powerful man in Iraq. Yet he's an Iranian

Feb. 14 issue - It's interesting that most published accounts describe Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani as a tall, slender man, towering over his aides and visitors. Actually he's on the short side, about 5 feet 8, but the error is understandable. The housebound cleric has hardly set foot out of his tiny abode in the slums of Najaf in six years. He never gives speeches, never even presides at Friday prayers at the golden-domed Imam Ali shrine, the holiest place in Shiite Islam, only a few hundred feet from his home. But he does receive visitors, hundreds a day, normally, always seated on a thin cushion on the floor of his barrani, or receiving room, wearing a gray robe that is often threadbare, and a large black turban. He won't be photographed (the few grainy images of him were taken without official permission), and he never gives interviews. He is the very picture of an ascetic Islamic prelate, a picture that would not have looked much different if it had been painted five centuries ago. His visitors invariably leave impressed, often describing the encounter in mystic terms; small wonder they remember him as tall.

This is the image that Sistani has carefully crafted over the years, but there's another side to it. He may live humbly and poor, but he also presides over a multimillion-dollar network of charities and religious foundations from Pakistan to England.

Interesting article.. BTW, how does one become a "Grand Ayatollah?"..are you elected by the other regular ayatollahs...like theCollege of Cardinals..and the 20% tithing..wow..that's a lot of $$$$$ and a big inducement for Sistani to favor the new Iraq. <P.
Pure speculation, but while everyone has said that he refuses to meet with/talk to Americans..wouldn't it be interesting if years later we learn that Sistani had a direct contact lie, at a high level to the US...that we knew in advance what his positions would be?..It's obviously a lot safer for him if the public fiction is maintained that he ignoresus.. I wouldn't be surprised..

It sounds like Sistani understands the difference between a theocracy and a government that is expressing the majority religion of its people.

I think Islam has significant problems in the fact that its ideal is theocracy, and it is a religion that "converts" by the sword rather than by persuasion. These are built-in problems, and are what distinguishes Islam from Christianity (and modern Judaism) on a practical level - and are what holds back Islamic societies.

But I think Sistani is trying to work around this. If he can have a government where certain basic principles that the Islamic population considers important are protected, but which is not governed by clergy nor run on the lines of the "Dark Ages" legal structure outlined in Islam, he might be making a major, major step forward.

How does one become an ayatollah?

"The route to becoming an ayatollah ("sign of God" in Arabic) is quite unlike the path toward becoming, for example, a Catholic bishop. There is no ceremony in which the office is formally bestowed, nor any specific requirements a candidate must fulfill. Rather, clerics who prove their wisdom over years of studying, teaching, writing, and preaching slowly gather the respect of both Shiite elders and everyday practitioners.

A typical ayatollah's career takes him to one of the Shiites' holy cities, like Najaf in Iraq or Qom in Iran. There, he studies at one of the pre-eminent Shiite seminaries, where he is expected to become an expert in theology, jurisprudence, science, and philosophy. After years of distinguished study, he begins delivering lectures of his own, offering unique, insightful interpretations of Islamic texts. He starts to write well-received books on religious topics, and young students seek out his wisdom. Eventually, his fame spreads beyond Islamic academic circles, and many Shiite faithful regard the cleric as a marja' at-taqlid—"a source of emulation." Once the cleric has gathered a critical mass of followers (known as muqallid) and earned the respect of his elderly teachers, he is generally considered an ayatollah.

There are also a small number of grand ayatollahs, such as the Najaf-based Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, widely known as the most learned Shiite cleric in Iraq, if not the world. The process of bestowing the grand ayatollah title upon a cleric is a bit more formal. It is usually agreed upon by a council of Shiite elders, often connected to one of the primary hawzas, or network of Islamic schools. In 1992, for example, Sistani was selected to head the hawza in Najaf, the holiest of Shiite cities. (It is where Ali, the fourth caliph and the person whom Shiites believe was Mohammed's chosen successor, is entombed.) Sistani is renowned for his expertise in ijtihad, the application of Koranic values to contemporary issues; his Web site includes detailed ruminations on the religious correctness of playing the lottery, taking out a mortgage, and engaging in oral sex."

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