Muhammad Hussain Naini

Life and Thought

Mirza Muhammad Hussain Naini (1276–1355 AH) was a jurist, usuli scholar and one of the great Shia authorities of Najaf, known as the "renewer of the science of usul." In *Tanbih al-Umma wa Tanzih al-Milla* he wrote the first coherent treatise in Shia political thought defending the principles of constitutionalism, and he became one of the main theorists of constitutionalism among the ulama. Students such as Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei and Allameh Tabatabai were trained in his lectures.