Imam Moussa
Al-Sadr |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
-
-
Sayyed Moussa Al-Sadr was born on the 15th day of May 1928 in Iran. He attended
his primary school in his hometown (Qum) and then moved to the Iranian capital
Tehran where he got in 1956 a degree in Islamic Jurisprudence. He returned
to the city of Qum where he started to give religious lectures in the various
religious institutes of the city. He also published a magazine called "Maktabi
Islam".
-
In 1960, he came to Lebanon to hold the position of the Islamic Shiite religious
leader in the southern city of Tyre following the death of Sayyed Abdelhussein
Sharafeddine. He began to be interested, in addition to the religious field,
in the social and living conditions of the Islamic Shiite sect. In 1969 the
Higher Islamic Shiite Council was founded and Sayyed as-Sadr was elected
as its president for a duration of 6 years, and he became to be known as
Imam. In the beginning of 1975 he was reelected for a period that was to
end when he became 65 (i.e. on March 15, 1993).
-
Imam Moussa Al-Sadr founded many social institutions, vocational schools,
health clinics and illiteracy obliteration centers. His activity gains an
important national dimension as he warned of the dangers of Israeli aggressions
against South Lebanon - whose majority happens to be Islamic Shiites. However,
as the Imam took care that his struggle should not acquire a restricted sectarian
outlook, he established in 1971 a committee that included all the Southern
Lebanese spiritual leaders (both Muslims and Christians) to follow-up the
political and social activities. On the 18th of March 1974, and following
a series of demonstrations he led to protest against the government’s
negligence of the rural areas, the Imam founded the "Movement of the Deprived"
that adopted the slogan of "continuous struggle until there are no deprived
people left in Lebanon. During the civil war he founded the Amal Movement
the "Brigades of the Lebanese Resistance", the military wing of the movement
of the Deprived" which fought alongside the Lebanese National Movement and
the Palestinian Resistance against the projects of partition and settling
the Palestinians in Lebanon.
-
Imam Al-Sadr was distinguished among all of his contemporary spiritual and
political leaders for his openness especially towards Christians. He co-founded
the Social Movement with the Catholic archbishop Grigoire Haddad (1960),
participated in the Islamic-Christian dialogue in 1962, and lectured in a
Capuchin Christian church during the Easter fast (1964). He mastered many
languages and was a prominent intellectual. Imam Al-Sadr played an all-important
role in the Lebanese political life. On August 31, 1978, he mysteriously
disappeared with two of his companions Sheik Mohammad Yakoob and Journalist
Abbas Badr Aldein during an official visit to Libya.
-
|
|
|
|
|
