Lebanon's leading Islamic Scholar Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah passed away on Sunday 4th July 2010 in a Beirut hospital after a long illness. Here is a brief biography of this eminent Alim whose sad demise has plunged the Islamic world in to deep mourning.

Birth and Childhood

Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlullah was born in Iraq’s holy city of Al-Najaf on November 16, 1935 /1354H. He was raised and educated by his father who greatly influenced the life and thought of his son.

His father Sayyed Abdul Ra`ouf Fadlullah: Born in 1325H/, went to Najaf and studied with Mirza Fatah` Ash-Shahid, Sayyed Abul Hassan Al-Asfahani, and Sayyed Abdul Hadi Al-Shirazi. He became a prominent scholar and a widely sought and appreciated teacher. He stayed with his brother, Sayyed Muhammad Sa’id and went to the south of Lebanon when the latter died. There he continued his studies and became a religious authority capable of issuing religious decrees (Fatwas). He was known for his piety asceticism and good morals. He had a great influence on his son who benefited a lot from him until he died.

Education:

Sayyed Fadlullah went first to a traditional school (Kuttab) to learn the Quran and the basic skills of reading and writing. Then he went to a modern school where he stayed for two years and studied in the third and fourth elementary classes. Sayyed Fadlallah began Islamic theology studies at a very young age. He also used to take great interest in the whole cultural and literary scene, which he followed up by reading Lebanese, Egyptian and Iraqi magazines and newspapers.

Sayyed Fadlullah also studied the Arabic language, logic and Jurisprudence, and some philosophy. He did not need another teacher until he studied the second part of the course known as Kifayat al Usul which he studied with an Iranian teacher called Sheikh Mujtaba Al-Linkarani. He attended the Bahth Al-Khariji (External Research) in which the teacher does not restrict himself to a certain book but gives more or less free lectures.

Teachers

Sayyed Fadlullah attended the Bahth Al-Khariji of some of the greatest scholars and religious authorities of that time including: Sayyed Abulkassim Al Khou’i, Sayyed Mohsen AL-Hakim, Sayyed Mahmoud Shah`roudi, Sheikh Hussein Hilli, Mullah Sadra Al-Qafkazy who was known as Sheikh Sadra Al-Badkoubi.

Academic and literary Activities

When Sayyed Fadlullah was only ten or eleven years old, he joined hands with some friends in publishing a hand written magazine they called Al-Adab. He then took part in editing the Al-Adab magazine (1380H) that was published by Jammat Al- Ulama (Scholars’ Group) at Najaf. He used to write the second editorial called “Kalimatuna” (Our Message) and these articles were then compiled in a book called, “Our issues in the light of Islam”. The first ”Our Message” editorial was written by Martyr Sayyed Mohammed Baqir As-Sadr.

Back to Lebanon

After 21 years of studying under the prominent teachers of the Najaf religious university, Sayyed Fadlullah concluded his studies in 1966/1385 H and returned to Lebanon. He had already visited Lebanon in 1952 where he recited a poem mourning the death of Sayyed Muhsin Al-Amin.

In 1966 he received a invitation from a group of believers who had established a society called ”Usrat Ataakhi” (The family of Fraternity) to come and live with them in the area of Nabaa’a in Eastern Beirut. Sayyed Fadlullah agreed, especially as the conditions at Najaf impelled him to leave.

In Naba’a, he began organizing cultural seminars and delivering religious speeches that discussed social issues as well.

Nevertheless, his main concern was to continue to develop his academic work. Thus he founded a religious school called” The Islamic Sharia Institute” in which several students enrolled and later became prominent religious scholars including Martyr Sheikh Ragib Harb., one of the main founders of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon. He also established a public library, a women’s cultural center and a medical clinic.

When the Lebanese civil war erupted in 1975, he was forced to leave the Naba’a neighborhood. He moved to the Southern suburb of Beirut where he gave priority to teaching and educating the people. He used the Mosque as his center for holding daily prayers giving lessons in Quran interpretation, as well as religious and moral speeches. He even opened a religious school in the Sayyeda Zeinab (daughter of Imam Ali and sister of Imam Hussein pbut) neighborhood in Damascus, where he used to teach regularly.

Resistance:
Sayyed Fadlullah was a staunch fighter against arrogance and for the cause of freedom. He supported the international liberation movements and devoted his efforts to guide and back the international Islamic movements.

In this context, he took part along with Martyr Sayyed Muhammad Baqir As-Sadr in founding the Islamic Movement in Iraq as a first step towards an Islamic movement in the Shiite sphere. Then, in the late seventies, he announced his support to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic movement in Lebanon with all the means possible to ensure its success: speaking, writing, and defending its major arguments at every opportunity.

In his sermons, he strictly called for armed resistance to the Israeli occupations of Lebanon and Palestine, along with opposition to the existence of Israel. The media described him as the spiritual guide of the resistance. Before long he became the target of several assassination plots executed by local regional and international intelligence services.

Attempt of Assassination:
On March 8, 1985, a car bomb equivalent to 200 kg of explosives went off at a few meters from his house in the Bir El-Abed neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburb. 80 people were martyred and 256 were wounded, most of them were children and women. The blast destroyed a 7-story apartment building, a cinema. The attack was timed to go off as worshippers were leaving Friday Prayers. "Sayyed Fadlullah escaped injury, as a woman had stopped him at the mosque seeking a few answers to some religion-related questions.
Sayyed Fadlullah accused the US, the Zionist regime oand its internal allies of being behind the explosion.

Social Activities

In addition to academic and religious activities, Sayyed Fadlullah concentrated on social activities.

His Mabarrat Association was born, and it soon became one of the greatest pioneers and models in this field. The association which began its activities by building orphanages expanded and began to build social and medical centers as well as mosques.

The Mabarrat has now nine orphanages, two medical centers nine schools, one Vocational School, eight Islamic centers and other Media and Information centers.

Sayyed Fadlullah… A True Supporter Of Resistance And Unity

Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohamad Hussein Fadlullah was not only a Muslim reference and authority but rather one of the most prominent contemporary religious authorities in the Islamic World.

His great experience in teaching jurisprudence as well as his constant monitoring of the latest trends and literature of the major Islamic schools of thought enabled him to launch his own school and to be followed by thousands of Muslim believers in Lebanon and the region.

But Sayyed Fadlullah was not only remarkable for his religious position and status. His eminence was in fact a remarkable intellectual who was described as the spiritual leader of the Resistance in Lebanon and the region.

The Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestinian cause, the US hegemony, patriotism and the State were always raised by Sayyed Fadlullah whether in his Friday sermons, lectures, writings, or speeches.

Sayyed Fadlullah issued different “fatwa”s calling to fight the Zionist regime and boycott American goods and ban normalizing of relations, and was a “true supporter” of Islamic unity all over his life.

Jihad Related To Concept Of Self-Defense

For Sayyed Fadlullah, the concept of Resistance is related to the principle of Jihad in Islam. His eminence believes that Jihad in Islam is the fighting movement that aims at preventing the enemy from forcing its hegemony over the land and the people by means of violence that confiscates freedom, kills the people, usurps the wealths and prevents the people's rights in self-determination. Therefore, Jihad is confronting violence by means of violence and force by force, which makes it defensive at times and preventive at others.

In the light of this, Sayyed Fadlullah concludes that Jihad is no different than any human and civilized concept of self-defense. It expresses the innate human nature of self-defense, or preventing the others from building the ability for a sudden aggression. Islam meets in this with all human values of all civilizations, his eminence says.

However, Sayyed Fadlullah stresses that calling for Jihad is not a legalization of violence and force in different communities. His eminence believes that using force against the others in any other case is an illegal aggression, even if they are of different religion, race or other such differences. Indeed, Jihad in Islam is not using violence against the unbeliever, but against the fighting aggressor.

As a conclusion, Sayyed Fadlullah says that bombers who kill innocent people or those who explode car bombs, killing innocent women, children, elderly, and youth undermine the image of Islam and Muslims and give others a wrong idea about this tolerant religion and its followers.

Islamic Resistance Liberated Lebanon

According to Sayyed Fadlullah, if we read the history of the resistance, we see that the Islamic resistance was the only movement that played a decisive role in liberating Lebanon in 2000 and achieving victory in 2006.

In light of this, Sayyed Fadlullah couldn’t understand accusations of non-patriotism against the Resistance. In the face of these accusations, many question marks were raised: How could one be patriotic? Are those who liberated the homeland and sacrificed their best men unpatriotic? Who are the patriots then? Are they those who were - during and before the civil war - collaborating with Israel, at a time when Israeli leaders including (former Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon, were visiting Lebanon to prepare for an invasion and crush the Palestinian resistance in this small country?

Therefore, allegations that the Shiites are unpatriotic are groundless, Sayyed Fadlullah emphasizes. According to him, the Shiites in Lebanon believe and adhere to their Lebanese identity and give priority to Lebanon's interests; they even offered their victory over Israel to Lebanon as a whole and to the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Sectarian Regime Created Chasm Between Islamic sects

As a caller for unity in general and Islamic unity in particular, Sayyed Fadlullah was of course against political sectarianism.

His eminence believes that Lebanon's sectarian regime created a chasm between the sects, through which international powers attempted to infiltrate. Moreover, the turmoil in Lebanon was a result of a political sectarian situation, coupled with a number of complications and troubles between certain sides. As a result, each sect sought the support of a certain foreign state to prevail over other sects.

Yet, Sayyed Fadlullah says that the Shiite Muslims were the only sect that did not allow any foreign state to penetrate to the Lebanese domestic arena. They were open to all sects. The experiences of Sayyed Moussa al-Sadr give the best evidence of this openness. He was open to all sects and founded the "Movement of the Deprived" which embraced people from all sects. For this reason, the Shiite sect, contrary to all sects, did not maintain any foreign affiliation with any state to achieve its own interests.

We Do All Want A Strong, Capable And Wise State

For those speaking about the statehood, Sayyed Fadlullah always had the appropriate answer: we do all want a strong, capable and wise state that protects its people, but the friends of the state and the friends of those in charge of the state, abstained from providing it with necessary weapons to face any future aggression by Israel, which continues to threaten to annihilate Lebanon from top to bottom.

According to Sayyed Fadlullah, establishing a just and strong state in Lebanon ought to be based on a number of rules whose features would crystallize once a comprehensive and transparent internal dialogue is initiated, especially over Zionist threats to Lebanon. Moreover, practical and realistic bases should be set to face this dangerous strategic threat. Such a transparent dialogue would produce the required elements of confidence that were missing at earlier stages.

Yet, according to his eminence, the concept of the state should be clarified: a true state should set a legitimate, legal, and rational limit for the movement of foreign ambassadors in Lebanon, in order to prevent them from interfering in internal affairs, causing damage to coexistence, and turning the parties against one another. Moreover, it would put an end to the direct tutelage that has been lately practiced by the American embassy, by making US Ambassadors follow the regular diplomatic rules and channels, rejecting their interference, as well as that of other ambassadors, in the Lebanese internal affairs. This, Sayyed Fadlalluh adds, actually represents the primary basis on which we can establish the state, resulting in a true independence for the country and releasing it from the claws of the American tutelage and the like.

American Policy Is Evil With No Good On It

Sayyed Fadlullah’s rejection to the US ambassador’s conduct is not strange not only given the US flagrant interference in the Lebanese affairs but given his own views of the US policy in the region.

According to Sayyed Fadlullah, America, in its policy that aspires to impose hegemony on the world is evil with no good in it. This is explained by the US absolute support for the Israeli enemy in its wars against Muslims from Lebanon to Palestine.

In Iraq, the US policy also speaks for itself: part of the American war against Iraq serves Israeli interests for it prevents any power in the region with the ability to compete with Israel from building its strength. Iraq with its economic, human and scientific potential was prepared to assume this position, but the policies of the Iraqi dictator gave the Americans the chance they need to destroy all these potentials, Sayyed Fadlullah explains. Moreover, the US wants to put its hands, on the Iraqi oil as an advanced step towards taking control of all the oil and the resources of the world. It also seeks to circumvent and besiege any potential rival to its influence such as the European Union on Japan.

All American And Israeli Goods Should Be Boycotted

Because America, that kills scores of Palestinians daily but with Israeli hands, will never think of the interests of the Iraqis, Arabs, or Muslims, Sayyed Fadlullah was famous for his call to boycott US and Israeli products.

According to his eminence, all American and Israeli goods and products should be boycotted in a way that undermines American and Israeli interests as a means of deterrence to their war against Muslims and Islam that is being waged under the pretense of fighting terrorism. This boycott should become an overwhelming trend that makes these two states feel that their economies are in a real and present danger.

Sayyed Fadlullah’s School… An Eternal One

This report was an attempt to sum up Sayyed Fadlullah’s main views regarding the resistance, the US and Israeli threats and Lebanon.

In brief, it can be understood that Sayyed Fadlullah alongside his followers launched a school of beliefs and thoughts, a school that would always be committed to the main causes of Islam, from Jihad to Resistance, and face all foreign threats against the region.

With such views and such words, Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohamad Hussein Fadlullah will remain a great man in the eyes of all those who had the chance to know him, and his views will continue to circulate from one generation to another…

Courtesy Al Manar TV