Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Shirazi was born in Najaf Al-Ashraf, Iraq, in 1928 AD. He belongs to a distinguished family deeply rooted in Islamic sciences, literature and virtue. The Shirazi family has produced many great scholars and Marjes. His father, the late Grand Ayatollah Mehdi Shirazi, has been a famous and a highly respected scholar and the Marje of his time.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi has written various specialized studies that are considered to be among the most important references in the Islamic sciences of beliefs or doctrine, ethics, politics, economics, sociology, law, human rights, etc. He has enriched the world with his staggering contribution of more than 1200 books, treatise and studies on various branches of learning. His works range from simple introductory books for the young generations to literary and scientific masterpieces. His work on Islamic Jurisprudence (al-Fiqh series) for example constitutes 150 volumes, which run into more than 70,000 pages. Through his original thoughts and ideas he has championed the causes of issues such as the family, human right, freedom of expression, political pluralism, nonviolence, and Shura or consultative system of leadership.
In 1971 he was exiled to Lebanon by the Bathist regime of Iraq. He later stayed in Kuwait until 1979 when he migrated to the holy city of Qum, Iran.
Imam Shirazi has established many Islamic centers, medical and charitable financial services, educational, welfare and social foundations, libraries and Hawzahs, or universities for Islamic Sciences, in different regions of the world. These institutions are found in scores of countries around the globe.
Hundreds of individuals have graduated from his school as scholars, lecturers, authors and intellectuals. He was died in December 2002 in the holy city of Qum.