Sayyid Ali al-Hakim (born 1964) is an Iraqi high-ranking Shiite Ayatollah based in Najaf, Iraq.
[1] In addition to his studies in secular schools, he joined the Islamic seminary at an early age in 1976.
[citation needed] He has visited the Hakim Foundation in the United States, which is run by family member Ammar Al-Hakim.
[3] During his early studies in the Islamic seminary, Al-Hakim faced harassment and intimidation from Ba'ath party police and security forces.
In 1980, Al-Hakim fled Iraq to Kuwait, and later Iran, to continue his seminary studies without facing repression by Saddam Hussein's government.