Religious scholar and jurist. Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad became mujtahid in mid-1970s. He authored many books. The most important are his monumental four-volume encyclopaedia (Mawsua) of the Imam al-Mahdi, massive work on jurisprudence, Ma wara al-fiqh, of which 10 volumes have been published, a book on 'Islam and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' and a volume on fundamental beliefs of Islam (Aqaid). He published his own collection of fatwas in jurisprudence in early 1990s. 'A few weeks before his death and wearing only a funeral shroud (kafan), the Ayatollah urged the worshippers to continue praying the Friday Prayer should he die.' One day while returning home by car, he was shot dead by unknown assailants. Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr was born in Najaf.