Bashir al-Najafi

Grand Ayatollah Basheer al-Najafi آية الله بشير النجفي
Religion	Usuli Twelver Shi`a Islam
Personal
Born	1942 (age 74–75) Jalandhar, British India
Senior posting
Based in	Najaf, Iraq
Title	Grand Ayatollah
Religious career
Post	Grand Ayatollah
Website	Official Website

Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Basheer Hussain Najafi (Arabic: آية الله بشير النجفي‎‎) (born 1942) is one of the five Grand Ayatollahs in Iraq. He was born in Jalandhar, a city in then British India. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, his family moved to Pakistan and settled in the city of Gujranwala, Punjab. In Gujranwala he had his initial education in religion. He was then able to move to Iraq for studies in the early 1960s. He is one of many individuals from South Asia and one of the few Pakistanis to have ever been elevated to the highest rank of Grand Ayatollah in Shia Islam. He was one year senior to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Al Najafi could be a possible successor to Ali al-Sistani, who has undergone two heart bypass surgeries in London in less than five years, upon the latter's death.

Al Najafi was attacked on 6 January 1999 by a group of armed men, reportedly members of Fedayeen Saddam, while he and members of his seminary were performing religious duties. The attack, which included use of a hand grenade, resulted in the death of three persons and injury to a number of members of the seminary, including the Grand Ayatollah.

He is from a family of religious background, born in Jalinder a city in British India. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, his family migrated to the city of Lahore in Pakistan.

...
Wikipedia