Wilayat al-faqih

Wilawat al-faqih, or "Authority of the Jurisprudent", was used by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the basis for the legitimacy of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Formulated in the 1970s by Khomeini, it was opposed, at the time, by Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Koei, the leader of the Iraqi Marji'iyya. It is not a universal concept among Shi'a clerics, and is not accepted by the senior Shi'ite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Certain Iraqi ayatollahs, however, endorsed it, especially Baqir al-Sadr, killed by Saddam in the 1980s, and father of Muqtada al-Sadr.