Sayyed Shahabuddin Marashi Najafi was one of the Shia Marjah after Ayatollah Burojerdi. He reached the level of diligence in 27 years. He was one of the students of Sheikh Abdul-Karim Haeri and Akka Zia Al-Iraqi, and benefited from Mr. Ali Al-Qadi, Mr. Ahmed Karbalai, and Mirza Jawad Al-Malki Tabrizi. His political views were in agreement with Imam Khomeini.

Ayatollah Marashi al-Najafi has established a library in Iran and the Islamic world in terms of the number and quality of manuscripts. The foundations of the schools of Marashiya, Shehabism, Mahdiya and Muhanniyyah for school students.

His most important works are: shedding the right, encouraging the apostle, printing the nuns, and prolonging the student. He traveled to various countries to write some of his books and held discussions with scholars of various faiths.

He was buried in his library, according to his will.

Birth
Sayyid Shihab al-Din, born in the Thursday 20 Safar 1315/21 July 1897, in Najaf. Each one of the scholars who recited Adhan and Iqama in his ears (which is recommended for a newborn baby) chose a part of his name; al-Muhaddith al-Nuri chose Muhammad Husayn as name, Mirza Husayn b. Mirza Khalil chose the epithet of Aqa Najafi, al-Sayyid Murtada al-Kashmiri chose the teknonym of Abu al-Ma'ali, and al-Sayyid Isma'il al-Sadr chose the epithet of Shihab al-Din.

Childhood and Education
When Sayyid Shihab al-Din was infant, his mother did not breastfeed him when she was menstruating, one of the first phrases he learned was "he is the opener (of the doors), the knowledgeable". He learned Qur'an and the Arabic literature under his grandmother.

He learned the preliminaries of some of sciences under his father; after that, he went to the school for learning mathematics, geometry, geography, etc. He graduated after 5 years with high grades. He learned some medicine under his father, and Mirza Muhammad 'Ali Mu'ayyid al-Atibba'. He became interested in the exegesis and started to learn Islamic sciences. After learning a variety of sciences, he went to Iran and benefited from other scholars in Rey, Mashhad, Isfahan, and Qom.

Journeys and Debates
He traveled to Samarra in his 21, and lived there for three years. He had meetings and debates with 'Abd al-Salam al-Kurdistani and al-Shaykh Nur al-Din al-Shafi'i. He went to Kadhimiya and Baghdad and met with al-Sayyid Ibrahim al-Rafa'i al-Baghdadi, and then he went to Karbala and gained permission to transmit hadith from 'Abd al-Hadi Mazandarani, and met and debated with Musa Usku'i Tabrizi, and Mirza Muhammad Tabrizi who were the heads of Shaykhiyya.

He traveled to other cities of Iraq and then, in his travel to India met with the Buddhist scholars in Mumbai.

He had a correspondence with al-Shaykh al-Tantawi al-Jawhari, the head of Muslim brotherhood, and presented the Riyad al-salikin fi sharh sahifa al-sajjadiyya to him.

Ayatollah Mar'ashi migrated from Najaf to Iran. In Kermanshah he gained permission to transmit hadith form Shaykh Hadi the son of Shaykh 'Abd al-Karim al-Kirmanshahi, in Hamedan he met with the son of Sayyid Fadil Lari and gained the permission from him and bought a rare manuscript form him, then he went to Tabriz and met with his family. Then he went to Mashhad to ziyara of Imam al-Rida (a), He went to Tehran and benefited from the scholars of Rey for some months, then he entered Qom and by the request of Ayatollah Ha'iri resided there and started to teach. He welcomed Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian philosopher and poet, in his travel to Iran and had discussions with him.

After the demise of Ayatollah al-Sadr, Ayatollah Hujjat, and Ayatollah Khwansari, he became known as one of the first grade Marja's and his manual of Islamic law was published.

Ayatollah Mar'ashi Najafi passed away on Safar 7, 1411 (August 29, 1990) in his 96. He was buried in his library according to his will.