Musa al-Sadr |
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| Full name | Musa al-Sadr (موسی الصدر) |
|---|---|
| Born | April 15, 1928 [1] Qom, Iran |
| Died | August 28, 1998 (aged 70) Tripoli, Libya |
| Era | Twentieth century |
| Region | Iranian-Lebanese scholar |
| School | Usuli Twelver Shia Islam |
| Main interests | philosophy, shia |
For the Twelver Shī‘ah Imām, see Mūsá al-Kāżim
Mūsá aṣ-Ṣadr (15 April 1928 – 28 August 1978) (Persian: امام موسى صدر, Arabic: السيد موسى الصدر), also Musā-ye Sader and Moussa Sadr), was an Iranian-Lebanese philosopher and Shī‘ah religious leader who disappeared in August 1978. According to the former Libyan envoy to the Arab League, al-Sadr was executed in Libya in 1978 by Muammar Gaddafi.[2] The new government of Libya, that took over Gaddafi's government in a civil war, revealed that he died 20 years after in 1998 in a prison in Tripoli.[3]
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Mūsá aṣ-Ṣadr was born in Qom, Iran on 15 April 1928 to the prominent Lebanese aṣ-Ṣadr family of theologians. His father was Ayatollah Sadr al-Din Sadr, originally from Tyre. Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was his first cousin.
Mūsá aṣ-Ṣadr attended his primary school in his hometown and then moved to the Iranian capital Tehran where he got in 1956 a degree in Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) and Political Sciences from Tehran University. Then he moved back to Qom to study Theology and Islamic philosophy under ‘Allāmah Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabā'ī. He then edited a magazine called Maktab-e Eslām in Qom. Eventually he left Qom for Najaf to study theology under Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim and Abul Qasim Khui.
The aṣ-Ṣadr family was originally from Lebanon, and in 1960 Mūsá aṣ-Ṣadr accepted an invitation to become the leading Shi'i figure in the city of Tyre. Aṣ-Ṣadr, who became known as Imām Mūsá, quickly became one of the most prominent advocates for the Shī‘ah population of Lebanon, a group that was both economically and politically disadvantaged. He is said to have:
worked tirelessly to improve the lot of his community - to give them a voice, to protect them from the ravages of war and intercommunal strife...[4]
Aṣ-Ṣadr was widely seen as a moderate, demanding that the Maronite Christians relinquish some of their power but pursuing ecumenism and peaceful relations between the groups. He was an opponent of Israel but did also criticize the PLO for endangering Lebanese civilians with their attacks.
In 1969, Imām Mūsá was appointed as the first head of the Supreme Islamic Shi'ite Council (SISC), (in Arabic المجلس الإسلامي الشيعي الأعلى) an entity meant to give the Shī‘ah more say in government. For the next four years, he engaged the leadership of the Syrian ‘Alawīs in an attempt to unify their political power with that of the Twelver Shī‘ah. Though controversial, recognition of the ‘Alawī as Shī‘ah coreligionists came in July 1973 when he and the ‘Alawī religious leadership successfully appointed an ‘Alawī as an official mufti to the Twelver community.[5]
In 1974 he founded the Movement of the Disinherited (in Arabic حركة المحرومين) to press for better economic and social conditions for the Shī‘ah. He established a number of schools and medical clinics throughout southern Lebanon, many of which are still in operation today. Aṣ-Ṣadr attempted to prevent the descent into violence that eventually led to the Lebanese Civil War, but was ineffective. In the war, he at first aligned himself with the Lebanese National Movement, and the Movement of the Disinherited developed an armed wing known as Afwāj al-Muqāwamat al-Lubnāniyyah (in Arabic أفواج المقاومة اللبنانية), better known as Amal (in Arabic أمل). However, in 1976 he withdrew his support after the Syrian invasion on the side of the Lebanese Front.
In August 1978, al-Sadr and two companions Sheikh Muhammad Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine departed for Libya to meet with government officials. The three were never heard from again. It is widely believed that the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi ordered aṣ-Ṣadr's killing, but differing motivations exist. Libya has consistently denied responsibility, claiming that aṣ-Ṣadr and his companions left Libya for Italy. Sadr's son claimed that he remains secretly in jail in Libya but did not provide proof.[6] Aṣ-Ṣadr's disappearance continues to be a major dispute between Lebanon and Libya.[7] Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri claimed that the Libyan regime, and particularly the Libyan leader, were responsible for the disappearance of Imam Musa Sadr, London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-run pan-Arab daily reported on 27 August 2006.[8][9][10]
According to Iranian General Mansour Qadar, the head of Syrian security, Rifaat al-Assad, told the Iranian ambassador to Syria that Gaddafi was planning to kill aṣ-Ṣadr.[11] On August 27, 2008, Gaddafi was indicted by the government of Lebanon for al-Sadr's disappearance.[12] Following the fall of the Gaddafi regime, Lebanon and Iran appealed to the Libyan rebels to investigate the fate of Moussa al-Sadr.[13]
In an interview political analyst Roula Talj said that the son of Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, told her that Imam Mousa Sadr and his aides, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin, never left Libya.[14] According to representative of Libya’s National Transitional Council in Cairo, Muammar Gaddafi martyred Imam Mousa Sadr after discussion about Shia beliefs. Imam Mousa Sadr accused Gaddafi of unawareness about Islamic teachings and about the Islamic branches of Shia and Sunni, following which Gaddafi got enraged and ordered the murder of Imam Mousa Sadr and his accompanying delegation.[15] According to other sources the murder of Moussa al-Sadr was done by Muammar Gaddafi, they claim, at request of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The Shias and the Palestinians at that time were involved in armed clashes in Southern Lebanon.[16][17] According to a former member of the Libyan intelligence, Sadr was beaten to death for daring to challenge Gaddafi at his house on matters of theology.[18]Saif al-Islam Gaddafi also confirmed the death of al-Sadr. In an interview with Al Aan TV Ahmed Ramadan an influential figure in Qaddafi regime and an eye witness of the meeting between al-Sadr and Qaddafi, mentioned that the meeting lasted for two and a half hours and ended up with Qaddafi saying "take him". Ramadan also named three officials who he believes were responsible for the death of Al Sadr.[19][20][21]
On December 27, 2011, Lebanon newspaper The Daily Star reported that Imam Mousa Sadr had been secretly imprisoned under the Gaddafi regime until his death in 1998, at which time his body was kept in the morgue at the central prison in Tripoli and subsequently disposed of during the early days of the Libyan rebellion. It is alleged his body was removed from the morgue to "cover up the crime" of his twenty year imprisonment. [22]
Imam Musa aṣ-Ṣadr has always been an inspirational and spiritual leader to the Shī‘ah Lebanese and all oppressed people of Lebanon. His status only increased after his disappearance on 31 August. He became in the eyes of many a martyr and "vanished imam."[23] It is said a tribute to his popularity is that it is popular in parts of Lebanon to mimic his Persian accent.[23] The Amal Party remains an important Shī‘ah organization and looks to aṣ-Ṣadr as its founder.
In February 1982, a Kuwait Airways flight, KU561 from Kuwait to Libya via Beirut on the return was hijacked on the ground at Beirut airport in Beirut in Lebanon by Hamza akl Hamieh demanding news and release of Imam Musa al Sadr, who had disappeared in Libya in 1978.
He is most famous for his political role, but he was also a philosopher. As Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr said,
| “ | His great political influence and fame was enough for people to not consider his philosophical attitude, although he was a well-trained follower of long living intellectual tradition of Islamic Philosophy. | ” |
One of his famous writings is a long introduction for the Arabic translation of Henry Corbin's History of Islamic Philosophy.
Mūsá aṣ-Ṣadr's niece is married to Mohammad Khatami, former President of Iran.