Khamenei.ir - The Supreme Leader of the Islamic revolution�Imam Khamenei� issued a message, expressing condolences for the passing of the great faqih, the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, Ayatollah Hashemi-Shahroudi. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi-- passed away last night, December 24, 2018. The following is the full text of the message:


In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful,

"To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return" {Quran; 2:156}

I received, with sorrow and grief, the news of the passing away of the great faqih, the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, Ayatollah Haj Sayyed Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi (May God grant him paradise). This heartbreaking loss, after about a year of fighting with a hard and painful disease, distressed all those who understand his status in wisdom and knowledge, and his valuable services to the Islamic establishment and to the seminaries� fiqh, principle, and law bodies.

He was a great scholar in the seminary of Qom and a loyal official with the most important organizations of the Islamic Republic, an influential member of the Guardian Council, and a successful leader in the Expediency Discernment Council, and he left important scholarly works and blessings.

Additionally, he was the brother of three martyrs, as well as a great friend, disciple and companion of the prominent and imminent martyr, Sayyed Mohammad Baqer Al-Sadr.

On the passing of this prominent scholar, I would like to express condolences to his honored family, his respectable wife and children and his relatives, as well as the Qom Seminary and his pupils, colleagues and enthusiasts. I ask Allah the Exalted to bestow divine forgiveness and blessings on him and elevate his ranks [in the Heavens] to the highest.

Sayyid Ali Khamenei

December 25, 2018