Ayatollah Dr. Mohaghegh Damad had two separate courses of education. He first attended the Fayzieh School at Qum, Iran, where he received   his traditional Islamic education in Arabic language and literature, Qur’an and hadith, Islamic philosophy, theology and jurisprudence. On this background he achieved the status of Mujtahid (Ayatollah) in 1970.

Parallel to his traditional studies he pursued a modern academic education, first at Tehran University. There he made his B.A. in Islamic Philosophy (1969) and his M.A. in Islamic Jurisprudence (1980). After that he went to Belgium, where he made his Ph.D. in Law (Doctorat en Droit) at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve in 1996.