Ayatollah Mohammad Jamil Hammoud al-Amili

Early Life

Born in 1959 in Jabal Amil, Lebanon, the eldest of seven children; his family relocated to Beirut for work, and he grew up in poverty, working during school holidays before entering religious study in 1975 amid the Lebanese Civil War.

Ayatollah Mohammad Jamil Hammoud al-Amili is a Lebanese Twelver Shi'a marja', born in 1959 in Jabal Amil, Lebanon. His family, the eldest of four sons and three daughters, later settled in Beirut to find work, where he grew up in poverty and worked during school holidays. He began his religious education in 1975, studying in Lebanon under Shaykh Muhammad Hasan al-Qubaysi and Shaykh Husayn Ma'touq, and later under scholars including Allameh Muhammad Jawad Mughniyyah, Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei (in Damascus), and Allameh al-Sayyid Ahmad al-Wahidi. He continued his studies in the Qom seminary under Sayyid Ahmad al-Madadi, Shaykh Mustafa al-Harandi, and Ayatollah Muhammad al-Gharawi, and pursued advanced coursework under scholars such as Shahab al-Din al-Mar'ashi al-Najafi, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, and Abdollah Javadi Amoli. He is regarded as one of the most prominent Lebanese Shi'a marjas after the passing of Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, known for positions emphasizing strict adherence to core jurisprudential principles and for rejecting absolute taqlid, a stance that has drawn accusations of Akhbari-like tendencies from some Usuli scholars, though he identifies himself as an Usuli.