Rank
The title is currently granted to top Shia mujtahid, after completing sat'h and kharij studies in the hawza. By then the mujtahid would be able to issue his own edicts from the sources of Islamic religious laws: the Qur'an, the Sunnah, ijmāʻ, and 'aql ("intellect", rather than the Sunnī principle of qiyas). Most of the time this is attested by an issued certificate from his teachers. The ayatollah can then teach in hawzas (shia temples) according to his speciality, can act as a reference for their religious questions, and act as a judge. There is an important difference from Shi'a ayatollahs and "saints" in other religions and Sunni Islam: ayatollahs are not regarded as enlightened by God Himself, but by the Word of God.
Read more about this topic: Ayatollah
Famous quotes containing the word rank:
“But he thought of his sisters, proud and cold,
And his mother, vain of her rank and gold.”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“West of this place, down in the neighbor bottom,
The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream
Left on your right hand brings you to the place.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I have not loved the world, nor the world me;
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To its idolatries a patient knee.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)