Thousands of mourners gathered on Sunday for the burial ceremony of Mohammed Saeed Al Hakim, one of Iraq’s most senior and influential Shiite clerics.
The crowd carried the coffin to the shrine of Imam Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet Mohammed, to be buried.
Al Hakim died on Friday at 85 after a heart attack, his family said.
His office announced that he died of a sudden medical condition but did not specify what it was.
He is survived by a wife and eight children.
On Saturday, his coffin was carried to Karbala's Imam Hussein Shrine for blessings before it was taken back to the cleric's hometown of Najaf on Sunday.
Al Hakim held the highest theological title among Shiite clerics – Ayatollah Al Uzma, which means Grand or Supreme Ayatollah.
He was seen as the top contender to succeed Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, who is in his early nineties.
Iraq’s president and prime minister and other politicians issued statements eulogising Al Hakim.
The US Embassy in Baghdad tweeted its condolences, describing him as “a symbol of peace, love, and harmony across the region”.
“He had fatwas [religious opinion] calling for the unity and coherence of the Iraqi society, emphasising the brotherhood among the people of the same country and contributing to building a new country that has something of a peaceful coexistence,” said Saeed Ali Al Haidari, a resident of Najaf.
"Mohammed Saeed Al Hakim is known for his stance that calls for harmony between all religions in great Iraq, he has a clear position on that. The proof of that is that most countries in the Islamic world mourned his death today,” said Assad Aziz Hussein, a Karbala resident.
Who is Mohammed Saeed Al Hakim?
The Najaf-born cleric is a member of the well-known and highly respected Hakim family of Shiite scholars.
His maternal grandfather is Mohsen Al Tabatabai Al Hakim, a scholar and one of the most prominent thinkers of Shiite Islam.
His father is Muhammad Ali Al Hakim, one of the most respected clerics in Najaf.
His second cousin, Sayyed Ammar Al Hakim leads the Al Hikma, or National Wisdom Movement, one of the largest Shiite political parties in Iraq.
The late cleric began studying Islamic jurisprudence and religious doctrine early in life and some of the most prominent clerics were among his teachers.
He soon turned to teaching, and became one of the leading Shiite scholars in Najaf – a Shiite holy city and centre of Islamic learning.
Al Hakim became one of four Grand Ayatollahs who teach at the Hawza, the religious seminary of Najaf.
He has written many books and publications, some of which were translated into several languages.
Like most Shiite religious leaders in the holy city, he was put under house arrest during the last days of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s rule, before the US invasion of Iraq.
He was targeted in an attempted assassination in 2003, when his house in Najaf was bombed. Three of Al Hakim’s bodyguards were killed, and members of his family were injured.
Al Hakim came away from the blast with minimal injuries. Relatives blamed terrorists for the bomb, which was hidden in a gas cylinder.
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WTA: 1. Naomi Osaka (JPN) 7,030 pts ( 3); 2. Petra Kvitova (CZE) 6,290 ( 4); 3. Simona Halep (ROM) 5,582 (-2); 4. Sloane Stephens (USA) 5,307 ( 1); 5. Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 5,100 ( 3); 6. Angelique Kerber (GER) 4,965 (-4); 7. Elina Svitolina (UKR) 4,940; 8. Kiki Bertens (NED) 4,430 ( 1); 9. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 3,566 (-6); 10. Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 3,485 ( 1)
Can NRIs vote in the election?
Indians residing overseas cannot cast their ballot abroad
Non-resident Indians or NRIs can vote only by going to a polling booth in their home constituency
There are about 3.1 million NRIs living overseas
Indians have urged political parties to extend the right to vote to citizens residing overseas
A committee of the Election Commission of India approved of proxy voting for non-resident Indians
Proxy voting means that a person can authorise someone residing in the same polling booth area to cast a vote on his behalf.
This option is currently available for the armed forces, police and government officials posted outside India
A bill was passed in the lower house of India’s parliament or the Lok Sabha to extend proxy voting to non-resident Indians
However, this did not come before the upper house or Rajya Sabha and has lapsed
The issue of NRI voting draws a huge amount of interest in India and overseas
Over the past few months, Indians have received messages on mobile phones and on social media claiming that NRIs can cast their votes online
The Election Commission of India then clarified that NRIs could not vote online
The Election Commission lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police asking it to clamp down on the people spreading misinformation
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final second leg:
Juventus 1 Ajax 2
Ajax advance 3-2 on aggregate
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 2 (Mahrez 04', Ake 84')
Leicester City 5 (Vardy 37' pen, 54', 58' pen, Maddison 77', Tielemans 88' pen)
Man of the match: Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
