Do you remember Abdi Media’s question regarding continuing taqlid of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the duty of followers to refer to the most learned marja, similar to what happened after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini?

For now, it has been announced that Sheikh Hossein Nouri Hamedani has issued a fatwa permitting the followers of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to pay their religious dues to the third Leader of the Islamic Republic.

In response to a question from a number of followers of the second Leader, who remained on their previous taqlid with his permission, Nouri Hamedani issued a ruling permitting the payment of religious dues to the third Leader and described him as a fully qualified jurist.

Text of the response:

“Peace be upon you.
Considering that religious dues are ultimately spent toward strengthening the seminaries and managing the affairs of religious students, and given the existing recognition of him as a fully qualified jurist, God willing, the payment of religious dues by the followers of the martyred Leader to His Eminence will discharge their religious obligation.”

Postscript:
The official declaration of the marja‘iyyat of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei by the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom — although he had already been answering religious inquiries — took place five years after he became Leader, in 1994, and only after the death of Ayatollah Araki.

Now it remains to be seen whether a similar process will occur regarding Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, or whether leadership and religious authority will be combined from the very beginning.

And if such a unity does not take shape, whom will the seminary establishment and the clerical members of the Assembly of Experts introduce as the marja‘ (or leading maraji‘)?