Biography
Early Life
Born in Bahrain in 1961; trained as an engineer in London before moving to Iran in 1980 to pursue religious studies in Qom.
Shaykh Muhammad al-Sanad is a Bahraini-born Twelver Shi'a scholar and marja', born in 1961 in Bahrain. He originally trained as an engineer in London before relocating to Iran in 1980 to pursue traditional religious education in the seminary of Qom, studying under leading scholars including Ayatollahs Mohammad Rouhani, Jawad Tabrizi, Hossein Vahid Khorasani, and Mirza Hashim Amoli.
He was arrested by Bahraini authorities in 2005 after calling on the United Nations to pressure the Bahraini government over a referendum on the country's system of government, and his Bahraini citizenship was subsequently revoked.
In 2010 he relocated to Najaf, Iraq, becoming one of the leading figures of its seminary and proclaiming his marja'iyyah there. He is regarded as one of the emerging religious authorities associated with the Najaf seminary in the years following.
