The Iranian Grand Ayatollah. Muhammad Rouhani returned to Qum following the invasion of Iran by Iraq in 1980. He was one of a small group of senior clerics who stood firm in their view that Islam dictates a separation between politics and religion, and that the role of the religious establishment is to protect the poor and the needy against the excesses of the state. He, however, failed to get his view accepted by the Iranian government. Seyyed Muhammad Rouhani was born in Qum and studied theology from the age of 17 in Najaf, Iraq, with the Grand Ayatollah Abul Qassim al-Khoei, a renowned teacher of Islamic Law.