Sentences with ayatollah
a·ya·tol·lah
A a - From the ranks of ayatollahs, who will already have their own followings among the theological students, five or six are chosen to become the Grand Ayatollahs who act as models to be imitated.
- Out of respect for his father and not wanting to increase the younger cleric's allure, the ayatollahs and other Shiite political groups have mostly remained silent in public about the situation.
- The Iranians are a god-fearing people and believe in an afterlife, and this is certainly true of the mullahs and ayatollahs who comprise their government.
- All the top imams and ayatollahs decided to meet on such religious questions to settle some urgent details of dogma.
- Because we see, of course, in Iran, the ayatollahs have been in control now since the fall of the shah.
- The same applies to Protestant and Orthodox Christian leaders, the Dalai Lama, the Muslim ayatollahs, Jewish rabbinical councils, and all other modern-day religious patriarchs.
- Najaf is the seat of the Shi'ite's ayatollahs, or spiritual leaders.
- More broadly, the Shiites can use this provision to place their ayatollahs over the elected parliament, as in Iran, because they alone are authorized to determine the ‘rules’ of Islam.
- Three of Najaf's four grand ayatollahs are from Iran.
- His father was a well-known ayatollah - the top rank in the Shi'ite clerical hierarchy.
- Eventually, a new dictator, perhaps a Shiite ayatollah, takes control and forms a passionately anti-American government.
- The ayatollah wields considerable influence among Shiites, who make up more than 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people.
- The chief ayatollah of the Shiite Muslims in Iraq says he wants direct democratic elections to take place.