HOLY CITY OF MEDINA, Saudi Arabia: Top religious figures from Saudi Arabia and other countries participated in the funeral of Saudi Arabia's prominent Shia scholar and leader Sheikh Mohammed Ali al-Amri who passed away on Monday January 24 and was buried in the Jannatul Baqi cemetery on Friday Jan. 28.

According to the informed sources, hundreds of thousands of Shias and non-Shias attended the ceremony.

Sheikh Al Amri, died at the age 100, was the first Shia figure in Medina called the Shia Scholar Father among Arab people; he was born in Medina in 1911 and went to Najaf when he was 16.

Sheikh Al Amari studied in the seminary and utilized the knowledge of Islamic scholars such as Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mozaffar, Ayatollah Mohammad Hossein Mozaffar, Ayatollah Mohammad Javad Moghniye, Ayatollah Seyyed Moslem Hilli, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Al-Sadeq, Seyyed Baqer Ash- Shakhs, Sheikh Mohammad Taqi Faqih, Ayatollah Naeini, and Ayatollah Seyyed Abul Hasan Esfahani.

After studying in Najaf, he returned to Medina in 1950 and started teaching in this city.

This Shia scholar like other scholars was not safe from Saudi authorities and spent 45 years in their prisons.

Suffering from Hepatic lesions, Sheikh Al Amari went to coma last Monday and was transferred to the ICU section of the National Medina hospital.