Sayyid Mehboob Mehdi Abidi al-Najafi
Sayyid Mehboob Mehdi Abidi al-Najafi is the son of Hujjatul Islam Sayyid Abul Hashim Abidi and was born in Nauganwa Sadat, India, into a renowned family of scholars and community leaders. He grew up in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq, and had his primary education there at Madrasat al-Sadiq under the tutelage of several scholars such as Ayatullah Shaykh Hasan al-Jawahiri and Ayatullah Sayyid Kazim al-Shubbar. His family became the target of the ruthless regime of Saddam and had to leave the holy city of Najaf and migrate to Delhi, India. He went to the Islamic seminary Jamia Nazimia in Lucknow, India, to pursue his studies under the tutelage of Hujjatul Islam His Excellency Sayyid Muhammad Ayyub Naqavi, Hujjatul Islam His Excellency Sayyid Muhammad Shakir Naqvi, Hujjatul Islam His Excellency Sayyid Muhammad Ghafir Jawrasi, and completed his sutuh (intermediate) studies under Hujjatul Islam Shaykh Muhammad Husain Najafi and other teachers and obtained his master’s degree in Islamic studies.
Later he continued his advanced studies and dars khariij under the tutelage of Ayatullah Shaykh Baqir al-Irawani and Ayatullah Sayyid Mohammad al-Shahroodi (Qom). He also completed a full series of bahth al-kharij on fiqh and usul taught by Ayatullah Shaykh Ishaq al-Fayyadh (Najaf) online.
He is a renowned orator, author, and translator of several books. He has been the editor-in-chief of a prestigious Urdu magazine, Al-Ghadir for many years in Delhi, India. He is fluent in Urdu, Arabic, Farsi, and English and provides his services to the community in all these languages and travels to many cities within the U.S. and abroad to deliver lectures on various religious topics. His most popular weekly program is the Quran Commentary Class, an exegesis on the noble Quran, which he has been conducting for approximately seventeen years. While promoting interfaith dialogue, he conducts and attends programs organized for and by people of other faiths.
He is closely associated with youth and devoted to organizing them as a vibrant Shia youth community across America with a strong social, religious, and academic foundation.
He is the founder and co-founder of many centers and organizations such as a fulltime Islamic school, Hadi School of Excellence, and the International Baqee Organization. He oversees many other community projects like IEC Husaini weekend School and Guidance TV.
Currently, he is serving as a resident Scholar in Chicago at one of the oldest and prestigious Shia centers of the United States, Islamic Education Center (Husaini). This center falls under the guidance of the supreme religious authority, His Eminence Ayatullah al-Sayyid Ali Al-Husseini al-Sistani (may Allah prolong his life) who appointed Sayyid Mehboob Mehdi Abidi as its custodian (chief trustee) to run and manage it on his behalf. Sayyid Abidi is a member of Consultative Committee of the Council of Shia Muslim Scholars of North America, and he is a board member of Imam Mahdi Association of Marjaeya (I.M.A.M.).