Musa al-Sadr
Musa Sadr al-Din al-Sadr (Arabic: موسى صدر الدين الصدر; 4 June 1928 – disappeared 31 August 1978) was an Iranian-Lebanese Shia Muslim cleric and politician. In Lebanon, he founded and revived many Lebanese Shia organizations, including schools, charities, and the Amal Movement.[4]
Moussa al-Sadr
Office established
Office established
4 June 1928[1]
Qom, Imperial State of Persia
(present-day Iran[2])
Unknown
Unknown
Parvin Khalili
- Sadr al-Din al-Sadr (father)
Ismail as-Sadr (grandfather)
Haydar al-Sadr (uncle)
Muhammad al-Sadr (cousin)
Sadeq Tabatabaei (nephew)
Zohreh Sadeghi (niece)
- السید المغیب
- The Sayyid
Born in the Chaharmardan neighborhood in Qom, Iran, he underwent both seminary and secular studies in Iran. He belongs to the Sadr family from Jabal Amel in Lebanon, a branch of the Musawi family which traces its roots to Musa Ibn Jaafar, the seventh Shia Imam, and ultimately to the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima. Therefore, Musa al-Sadr is often styled with the honorific title Sayyid. He left Qom for Najaf to study theology and returned to Iran after the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état.
Some years later, Sadr went to Tyre, Lebanon as the emissary of Ayatollahs Borujerdi and Hakim. From Tyre, he published the periodical, Maktabi Islam.[5] Fouad Ajami called him a "towering figure in modern Shi'i political thought and praxis".[6] He gave the Shia population of Lebanon "a sense of community".[7]
On 25 August 1978, Sadr and two companions, Sheikh Mohamad Yaacoub and Abaass Bader el Dine, departed for Libya to meet with government officials at the invitation of Muammar Gaddafi. The three were last seen on 31 August. They were never heard from again. Many theories exist around the circumstances of Sadr's disappearance, none of which have been proven. His whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
In Iraq[edit]
Following the death of his father in 1953, he left Qom for Najaf to study theology under Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim and Abul Qasim Khui.[7] There he had teachers such as: Ayatollah Hakim, Shaykh Morteza al Yasin, Ayatollah Abulqasim Khu'i, Shaykh Hossein Hilli, Shaykh Sadra Badkubahi, and others, some of whom became Marja after Ayatollah Borujerdi's death. Musa al-Sadr became a mujtahid in Najaf. In 1955 he traveled to Lebanon where he met Abd al-Hossein Sharafeddin. He had met him previously in 1936 when his family had hosted Abd al-Husayn in Iran. The same year he left Iran and returned to Najaf and, in the autumn of 1956, he married the daughter of Ayatollah Azizollah Khalili.[4]
Return to Iran[edit]
After the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état and the overthrow of the monarchy in Iraq, Sadr returned to Iran. There, he accepted the request of Ali Davani, who was sent by Ayatollah Shariatmadari, and became an editor of Darsha'i az maktab-e Islam, also known as Maktab-e Eslam, a journal published by the Hawza of Qom and endorsed by Ayatollah Broujerdi.[9] He began contributing with the third issue, focusing on Islamic economics, "a novel subject at the time". His articles in this field were then published as a book. He soon became the journal's "de facto editor-in-chief". He left the journal in December 1959 along with some of its original founders.[4]
Musa Sadr also took part in devising a new scheme for Hawza called the "Preliminary plan for reforming the Hawza" (Persian: طرح مقدّماتی اصلاح حوزه, romanized: ţarḩe moqaddamātīye eşlāḩe ḩowzeh), which was then withdrawn, in cooperation with Mohammad Beheshti. In 1959, Sadr founded a private high school which provided an alternative to the state educational system for "observant parents".[4]
Disappearance[edit]
On 25 August 1978, al-Sadr and two companions, Sheikh Muhammad Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine (fr), departed for Libya to meet with government officials[3][38] at the invitation of Muammar Gaddafi. The three were last seen on 31 August.[3] They were never heard from again.[3][12]
It is widely believed, at least by Lebanese Shia Muslims, that Gaddafi ordered al-Sadr's killing,[34] but differing motivations exist. Libya has consistently denied responsibility, claiming that Sadr and his companions left Libya for Italy.[39] However, supporters of the missing cleric pointed out that al-Sadr's baggage was found in a Tripoli hotel and there was no evidence of his arrival in Rome.[39] Airlines could not confirm that al-Sadr had ever flown to Italy from Libya.[39]
Al-Sadr's son claimed that he remains secretly in jail in Libya but did not provide proof.[40] Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri claimed that the Libyan regime, and particularly the Libyan leader, was responsible for the disappearance of Imam Musa al-Sadr, as London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-run pan-Arab daily, reported on 27 August 2006.[41][42][43]
According to Iranian General Mansour Qadar, the head of Syrian security, Rifaat al-Assad, told the Iranian ambassador to Syria that Gaddafi planned to kill al-Sadr.[13] On 27 August 2008, Gaddafi was indicted by the government of Lebanon for al-Sadr's disappearance.[44] Following the fall of the Gaddafi regime, Lebanon and Iran appealed to the Libyan rebels to investigate the fate of Musa al-Sadr.[45]
Political analyst Roula Talj has said that Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, told her that al-Sadr and his aides, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin(fr), never left Libya. According to a representative of Libya's National Transitional Council in Cairo, Gaddafi murdered al-Sadr after discussions about Shia beliefs. Sadr accused him of being unaware of Islamic teachings and of the Islamic branches of Shia and Sunni. According to other sources, Gaddafi had al-Sadr and his companions murdered at the request of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. At the time, the Shias and the Palestinians were involved in armed clashes in Southern Lebanon.[46][47] Other sources alleged Gaddafi eliminated Sadr at the request of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who regarded Sadr as a potential rival.[48] Gaddafi later supported Khomeini in the Iran-Iraq War.[49]
According to a former member of the Libyan intelligence, al-Sadr was beaten to death for daring to challenge Gaddafi at his house on matters of theology.[50] In an interview with Al Aan TV, Ahmed Ramadan, an influential figure in the Gaddafi regime and an eyewitness to the meeting between al-Sadr and Gaddafi, claimed that the meeting lasted for two and a half hours and ended with Gaddafi saying "take him". Ramadan also named three officials who he believes were responsible for the death of al-Sadr.[51][52][53]
In 2011, Abdel Monem al-Houni claimed that Sadr's body was sent to Sabha in Gaddafi's private jet and buried there. The plane was flown by Houni's cousin, Najieddine Yazigi, who was later murdered to preserve the secret.[48][54][55]
In 2021, Muqtada al-Sadr, the cousin of Musa al-Sadr and leader of the Sadrist Movement in Iraq, announced that a committee has been formed to investigate the fate of Musa al-Sadr.[56]
Works[edit]
Al-Sadr wrote a long introduction to Henry Corbin's History of Islamic Philosophy.[58]
Al-Sadr's paper Islam, Humanity and Human Values was published by Ahlul Bayt World Assembly.[59]
Unity of the Islamic Schools of Thought According to Imam Musa Sadr includes a biography and an English adaptation of one of his books, Imam Musa Sadr: surush-e wahdat, Majma’ Jahani-ye Taqrib-e Madhahib-e Islami, 2004.[60]