Wahid Azal has spoken in an interview about a favorable fatwa issued by Iran’s Grand Ayatollah on the use of psychoactive plants in Muslim culture. Azal is a scholar and Islamic Sufi mystic founder of the Fatimiya order who has incorporated into their religious practice the ayahuasca. In March 2014, Grand Ayatollah Rohani formally issued a fatwa (a legal pronouncement of Islam emitted by a religious law specialist) determining that the use of psychoactive substances is lawful (halal) and, therefore, its use is permitted for Shiite Muslims, under the supervision of qualified experts, and that these botanicals do not damage the mind. This decree of Ayatollah Rohani is historic: no religious establishment has ever regarded this issue favorably: the equivalent in a Western context would be that the Vatican made a similar declaration on ayahuasca for Catholics.Wahid Azal will speak at the session on the religious use of ayahuasca at AYA2014 about the history of the use of Haoma in the Persian world, the current uses and the current implications of the new law.

The World Ayahuasca Conference 2014 

++ Ayahuasca and the Godhead: An Interview with Wahid Azal of the Fatimiya Sufi Order