Ayatullah al-Uzma al-Hajj as-Shaykh Mirza Jawad Maliki at-Tabrizi was born in 1926 in the city of Tabriz, Iran. After finishing his secular studies, and reaching the age of eighteen, he entered a theological school in his hometown. In the year 1948, he migrated to Qum, Iran and finished other lessons at the intermediate level. In Qum he reached the Kharij level where he attended the lectures of the late Ayatullah al-Hujjat, and Ayatullah al-'Uzma al-Hajj as-Sayyid Muhammad Hussein Burujerdi.

Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi (Persian: ناصر مکارم شیرازی‎, born 25 February 1927 in Shiraz, Iran) is an Iranian Shia marja' and religious leader.

Grand Ayatullah Husayn Wahid Khorasani (آية الله العظمى حسين وحيد الخراساني‎) is one of the most senior Twelver Shia Marja' living in Iran. He is the current head of Qom Seminary in Qom. He was born in Nishapur, Iran on 1 January 1921. He moved to Najaf, Iraq in 1949 and studied in Ayatollah Khoei Seminary and moved back to Iran in 1972. Currently, he resides in Qom and is considered to be a source of emulation.

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Husseini Sistani (born 4 August 1930), commonly known as Ayatollah Sistani, is one of the most powerful and influential Twelver Shia Marja in Iraq and the head of many of the hawzahs (seminaries) in Najaf.

Ayatullah Ali Akbar Faydh, famously known as Ayatollah Mishkini, was born in 1921 in one of the villages in the precincts of the city of Mishkin. He studied the preliminary stages of Islamic studies under the guidance of his father in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq following which he returned to his hometown. After his father’s death, he left for Ardabil where he studied Islamic sciences in addition to Arabic grammar and morphology while in Ardabil.