An ayatollah must also have published a juristic book, known as a risalah amaliyah—a manual or treatise of practical religious rulings arranged according to topics dealing with ritual purity, worship, social issues, business, and political affairs.
The risalah contains an ayatollah's fatwas on different topics, according to his knowledge of the most authentic Islamic sources and their application to current life.
As of the 19th century, the Shia ulama taught believers to turn to "a source of taqlid" (marja' at-taqlid) "for advice and guidance and as a model to be imitated.
"[12][13] Abbas Djavadi gives examples of how a muqallid would imitate their marja': Imagine you are a Shi'ite Muslim facing a long intercontinental flight and you aren't sure how to arrange your prayers or ablutions.
[15] Exempted from the requirement to follow a marja' are mujtahid, i.e. someone who has completed advanced training (dars kharij) in the hawza and has acquired the license to engage in ijtihad (ʾijāz al-ʾijtihād) from one or several ayatollahs.
The most prominent among them are Hossein Vahid Khorasani, Ali Khamenei, Mousa Shubairi Zanjani, Sayyid Sadeq Rohani, Naser Makarem Shirazi, Sadiq Hussaini Shirazi, Hossein Noori Hamedani and Abdollah Javadi-Amoli in Qom; Ali Sistani, Muhammad al-Fayadh, Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim and Bashir al-Najafi in Najaf.
[2] According to Mohamad Bazzi, this was a bid "to displace" Ali Sistani, the true Marja al-taqlid al-mutlaq, "and his allies in Najaf", but it "failed" because Khamenei "had modest religious credentials (he was only elevated to the rank of ayatollah after Khomeini's death, so he could assume the post of supreme leader).
Baqer Moin explains that unlike the Catholic pope or Christian bishops, he is not chosen by an electoral college, or by any other formal procedure.
It is incumbent on every believer or `imitator` to make his or her own choice of marja'-e taqlid on the ground that he is the most learned mojtahed of his time and a man of great moral probity.
[4] However, according to Robert Gleave, the institution of the marja˓ did not emerged until the nineteenth century,[note 2] with the first universally recognized marja˓, "the influential mujtahid Murtadha al-Ansari (d.
Only one of four (Mohammad Al-Musawi) replied and would only say, "from the time of the Prophet (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams, Muslims who lived in places far away from them, were ordered to refer in religious matters to the scholar in their area".