Sadr may refer to:

• Gamma Cygni, a star
• Sadr City, a neighbourhood in northeastern Baghdad
• Sadr, a family name originating in Lebanon
• Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the government-in-exile of the Polisario Front
• Ziziphus zizyphus (Jujube), a plant
• Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraqi politician and organizer of the Mahdi Army

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Hujjat al-Islam Muqtada al-Sadr مقتدى الصدر
Born	(1973-08-12) August 12, 1973 (age 38) Baghdad, Iraq
Residence	Najaf, Iraq
Nationality	Iraqi
Political movement	Sadr Movement

Sayyid Muqtadā al-Ṣadr (Arabic: سيد مقتدى الصدر) (born August 12, 1973)^[1] is an Iraqi Islamic political leader.

Along with Ali al-Sistani and Ammar al-Hakim of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Sadr is one of the most influential religious and political figures in the country not holding any official title in the Iraqi government.^[2]

Titles[link]

He is often referred to as Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr. The title Sayyid (approx. "Mr." or "Sir") is generally used among the Shi‘a to denote persons descending directly from the Prophet Muhammad, through his daughter Fatimah's marriage with Ali. Thus a great deal of respect is paid by the Shi'as to the Sayyids throughout Shi'a society. The al-Sadr family has a clear and distinct lineage that can be traced directly to Muhammad.^[3] The lineage is traced through Imam Jafar al-Sadiq and his son Imam Musa al-Kadhim, the sixth and seventh Shi‘a Imams respectively.

Muqtada al-Sadr's formal religious standing is comparatively low, at a mid-ranking Shia religious rank perhaps reflecting his young age, and he does not claim the title of mujtahid (the equivalent of a senior religious scholar) or the authority to issue fatwas (religious edicts). In his youth, he was more pre-occupied with videogames than Islamic studies which earned him the nickname "Mullah Atari." (citation: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2008/04/200861517227277282.html)

However, in early 2008, al-Sadr was reported to be studying to be an ayatollah, which would greatly improve his religious standing.^[4]

Family[link]

Muqtada al-Sadr is the fourth son of a famous Iraqi Shi‘a cleric, the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. He is also the son-in-law of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir As-Sadr.

Muqtada al-Sadr is of Iraqi and Lebanese ancestry. His great-grandfather is Ismail as-Sadr. Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, Muqtada al-Sadr's father, was a respected figure throughout the Shi'a Islamic world. He was murdered, along with two of his sons, allegedly by the government of Saddam Hussein. Muqtada's father-in-law was executed by the Iraqi authorities in 1980. Muqtada is a cousin of the disappeared Musa al-Sadr, the Iranian-Lebanese founder of the popular Amal Movement.^[5]

Positions[link]

Muqtada al-Sadr gained popularity in Iraq following the toppling of the Saddam government by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Al-Sadr has on occasion stated that he wishes to create an "Islamic democracy."

Al-Sadr commands strong support (especially in the Sadr City district in Baghdad, formerly named Saddam City but renamed after the elder al-Sadr). After the fall of the Saddam government in 2003, Muqtada al-Sadr organized thousands of his supporters into a political movement, which includes a military wing known as the Jaysh al-Mahdi or Mahdi Army).^[6] The name refers to the Mahdi, a long-since disappeared Imam who is believed by Shi'a Muslims to be due to reappear when the end of time approaches. This group has periodically engaged in violent conflict with US and other Coalition forces, while the larger Sadrist movement has formed its own religious courts, and organized social services, law enforcement and prisons in areas under its control.^{[citation needed]}

His strongest support comes from the class of dispossessed Shi‘a, like in the Sadr City area of Baghdad. Many Iraqi supporters see in him a symbol of resistance to foreign occupation.^[7]

Occupation of Iraq[link]

2003[link]

Shortly after the US-led coalition ousted Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath regime, al-Sadr voiced opposition to the Coalition Provisional Authority. He subsequently stated that he had more legitimacy than the Coalition-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.^{[citation needed]} He granted his first major Western television interview to Bob Simon of 60 Minutes^[8], in which al-Sadr famously said "Saddam was the little serpent, but America is the big serpent."

2004[link]

In his 2004 sermons and public interviews al-Sadr repeatedly demanded an immediate withdrawal of all US led coalition forces, all foreign troops under United Nations control, and the establishment of a new central Iraqi government, not connected to the Ba'ath party or the Allawi government.

In late March 2004, Coalition authorities (759th MP Battalion) in Iraq shut down Sadr's newspaper al-Hawza on charges of inciting violence. Sadr's followers held demonstrations protesting the closure of the newspaper. On April 4, fighting broke out in Najaf, Sadr City and Basra. Sadr's Mahdi Army took over several points and attacked coalition soldiers, killing dozens of foreign soldiers, and taking many casualties of their own in the process.^{[citation needed]} At the same time, Sunni rebels in the cities of Baghdad, Samarra, Ramadi, and, most notably, Fallujah, staged uprisings as well, causing the most serious challenge to coalition control of Iraq up to that time.

During the first siege of Fallujah in late March and April 2004, Muqtada's Sadrists sent aid convoys to the besieged Sunnis there.^[9]

Paul Bremer, then the US administrator in Iraq, declared on April 5, 2004 that al-Sadr was an outlaw and that uprisings by his followers would not be tolerated.^[10]

2005[link]

It is generally frowned upon in Iraq for clerics to actively participate in secular politics, and like the other leading religious figures Muqtada al-Sadr did not run in the 2005 Iraqi elections. It is believed he implicitly backed the National Independent Cadres and Elites party which was closely linked with the Mahdi Army. Many of his supporters, however, backed the far more popular United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) of al-Sistani.

On August 26, 2005, an estimated one-hundred thousand Iraqis marched in support of al-Sadr and his ideals.^[11]

2006[link]

On March 25, 2006 Muqtada al-Sadr was in his home and escaped a mortar attack. This attack was disputed, as the ordnance landed more than 50 meters from his home.

Sadr’s considerable leverage was apparent early in the week of 16 October 2006, when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the release of one of Sadr’s senior aides. The aide had been arrested a day earlier by American troops on suspicion of participating in kidnappings and killings.^[12]

2007[link]

On February 13, several sources in the US government claimed that Muqtada al-Sadr had left Iraq and fled to Iran in anticipation of the coming security crackdown.^[13] US military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell reinforced this account on February 14,^[14] but a member of Iraq's parliament and an aide to al-Sadr have denied the claims.^[13][15]

On March 30, it was reported that Sadr, through clerics speaking on his behalf, "delivered a searing speech ... condemning the American presence in Iraq ... [and] call[ing] for an anti-occupation mass protest on April 9...."^[16] This call to protest was significant in that, since the beginning of the American troop surge (which began on February 14, 2007), Sadr had ordered his "militia to lie low during the new Baghdad security plan so as not to provoke a direct confrontation with the Americans."^[16]

Muqtada al-Sadr urged the Iraqi army and police to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate on pushing American forces out of the country, according to a statement issued Sunday, 8 April 2007.

The statement, stamped with al-Sadr's official seal, was distributed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Sunday 8 April 2007 — a day before a large demonstration there, called for by al-Sadr, to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

"You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your arch-enemy," the statement said.

On April 17, 2007, several ministers loyal to al-Sadr left the Iraqi government. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated that the withdrawal of these ministers had not weakened his government and that he would name technocrats to replace them soon.^[17]

On 25 April 2007, al-Sadr condemned the construction of Azamiyah wall around a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, by calling for demonstrations against the plan as a sign of "the evil will" of American "occupiers"

On 25 May 2007, al-Sadr delivered a sermon to an estimated 6,000 followers in Kufa. Sadr reiterated his condemnation of the United States' occupation of Iraq and demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces, al-Sadr's speech also contained calls for unity between Sunni and Shi'a.^[18] In June 2007, al-Sadr vowed to go ahead with a planned march to the devastated Askariyya shrine in central Iraq, al-Sadr said the march was aimed at bringing Shi'is and Sunnis closer together and breaking down the barriers imposed by the Americans and Sunni religious extremists.

In a statement issued August 29, 2007, Muqtada al-Sadr announced that an order to stand down for six months had been distributed to his loyalists following the deaths of more than 50 Shia Muslim pilgrims during fighting in Karbala the day before. The statement issued by Sadr's office in Najaf said: "I direct the Mahdi army to suspend all its activities for six months until it is restructured in a way that helps honour the principles for which it is formed." The intention behind the ceasefire was thought in part to be to allow al-Sadr reassert control over the movement, which is thought to have splintered. "We call on all Sadrists to observe self-restraint, to help security forces control the situation and arrest the perpetrators and sedition mongers, and urge them to end all forms of armament in the sacred city," said the statement, referring to the August 28 clashes in Karbala. Asked if the unexpected order meant no attacks on American troops, as well as a ban on Shia infighting, a senior al-Sadr aide said: "All kinds of armed actions are to be frozen, without exception." ^[19]

2008[link]

In March 2008 during the Battle of Basra, the Sadr Movement launched a nationwide civil disobedience campaign across Iraq to protest raids and detentions against the Mahdi Army.^[20]

In August 2008, al-Sadr ordered most of his militiamen to disarm but said he will maintain elite fighting units to resist the Americans if a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops is not established. ... "Weapons are to be exclusively in the hands of one group, the resistance group," while another group called Momahidoun is to focus on social, religious and community work, Sadrist cleric Mudhafar al-Moussawi said.^[21]

2009[link]

In response to Israeli attacks on Gaza, al-Sadr called for reprisals against US troops in Iraq: "I call upon the honest Iraqi resistance to carry out revenge operations against the great accomplice of the Zionist enemy."

On May 1, 2009 al-Sadr paid a surprise visit to Ankara where, in his first public appearance for two years, he met with Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for talks which focused on the "political process"^[22] and requested Turkey play a greater role in establishing stability in the Middle East. Spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi confirmed the nature of the talks that had been requested by al-Sadr and stated, "Turkey is a good, old friend. Trusting that, we had no hesitation in traveling here."^[23] After the meeting al-Sadr visited supporters in Istanbul, where al-Obeidi says they may open a representative office.

2010[link]

In a press conference on 6 March 2010 ahead of the Iraqi parliamentary election, 2010, Muqtada al-Sadr called on all Iraqis to participate in the election and support those who seek to expel US troops out of the country. Al-Sadr warned that any interference by the United States will be unacceptable. Al-Sadr, who has thousands of staunch followers across Iraq has consistently opposed the presence of foreign forces and repeatedly called for an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq.^[24][25]

2011[link]

On January 5, 2011, Muqtada al-Sadr returned to the Iraqi city of Najaf, in order to take a more proactive and visible role in the new Iraqi government.^[26] Three days later, thousands of Iraqis turned out in Najaf to hear his first speech since his return, in which he called the US, Israel, and the UK "common enemies" against Iraq. His speech was greeted by the crowd chanting "Yes, yes for Muqtada! Yes, yes for the leader!", whilst waving Iraqi flags and al-Sadr's pictures. Subsequently, he returned to Iran to continue his studies.^[27]

By late 2011, it appeared that the US would largely withdraw from Iraq, a demand that helped make Sadr a popular leader almost immediately following the invasion. Sadr also controlled the largest bloc of parliament, and had reached a sort of détente with prime minister Nouri al Maliki, who needed Sadrist support to retain his post.^[28]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Muqtada al-Sadr

• How Moqtada al-Sadr Won in Basra

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2007)

Muhammad al-Bāqir Imam of Twelver Shi'a Islam
A modern depiction by a Shi'a artist
Rank	5th Twelver/Mustaali Imām 4th Nizārī Imām
Name	Muhammad ibn ‘Alī ibn Husayn
Kunya	Abū Jafar[1][2]
Birth	1st Rajab 57 AH[2] ≈ 676 C.E.
Death	7th Dhu al-Hijjah 114 AH[2] ≈ 733 C.E.
Birthplace	Madīnah[1][2]
Buried	Jannatul Baqī‘,[1][2] Madīnah
Life Duration	57 years Before Imamate: 38 years (57 - 95 AH) - 4 years with his grandfather Imām Husayn - 34 years alongside his father Zayn al-Abidin (Imām Sajjād) after than martyrdom of his grandfather (Imām Husayn) Imamate: 19 years (95 - 114 AH)
Titles	al-Bāqir[1][2] (Arabic for Revealer) Beşinci Ali (Turkish for Fifth Ali)
Spouse(s)	Umm Farwah (Farwah bint Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr) Umm Hakīm bint Usayd ibn al-Mughīrā al-Thaqafī
Father	‘Alī ibn al-Ḥussein ibn ‘Alī (Zayn al-‘Ābidīn)
Mother	Fātimah bint al-Hasan ibn ‘Alī as-Siddīqa[2]
Children	Ja‘far as-Sādiq (Successor), Ibrahīm,[3] ‘Alī,[3] ‘Abdullāh,[3] ‘Ubaydullah,[3] Zaynab,[3] Umm Salamah.[3]
Ali · Hasan · Husayn al-Sajjad · al-Baqir · al-Sadiq al-Kadhim · al-Rida · al-Taqi al-Hadi · al-Askari · al-Mahdi

Quotations related to Muhammad al-Bāqir at Wikiquote

Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Bāqir (Arabic: محمد ابن علي الباقر ‎) (676-733 AD or 1 Rajab 57 AH – 7 Dhu al-Hijjah 114 AH)^[2] was the Fifth Imām to the Twelver Shi‘a and Fourth Imām to the Ismā‘īlī Shī‘a. His father was the previous Imām, ‘Alī ibn Ḥusayn, and his mother was Fatimah bint al-Hasan. He is revered by Shi'a Muslims for his religious leadership and highly respected by Sunni Muslims for his knowledge and Islamic scholarship as a leading jurist of Madinah, the City of the Prophet.

Birth[link]

Muhammad al-Baqir

Muhammad al-Baqir was born on the 1st of the month of Rajab, 57th Hijra, in the city of Medina.

Because of his resemblance to his great-grandfather he was named Muhammad, because of it that he analyzed the knowledge and made manifest its secrets he became known with the title of al-Baqir.

He was the first Imam whose lineage ascended and reached the Islamic prophet Muhammad both from the paternal and maternal sides.

His life history can be divided into two parts:

• the period before his Imamate, led in Medina, that is nearly 35 years and was the peaceful part of his life

• the Period of Imamate, which stretched up to 20 years and is counted as the duration of his propagation and dissemination of Islamic knowledge and wisdom.

Prophecy of Birth[link]

^[4] Shia historians allege a hadith, that one of the companions of Muhammad, Jabir ibn Abd-Allah Ansari was in the presence of Muhammad. He asked Muhammad about the names of descendants from his daughter Hazrat Fatimah and Ali. Muhammad told him,

“O Jabir, you will have a long life, and although you will go blind, but you will meet the 5th in line of my descendants whose name will be my name, who will walk like me and who will be the 5th Imam of the time. When you will meet him, give my salaams (peace greetings) to him”.

As predicted by Muhammad Jabir ibn Abd-Allah Ansari had a long life and became blind in his old age. But he devoutly waited for the time when he would meet the 5th Imam. Each morning he would come out from his house, sit by the road side and wait for the sound of the footsteps to recognise the 5th Imam. One such day while he was waiting in the street of Madina, he heard someone walking towards him, the sound of footsteps reminded him of the way Muhammad used to walk. Jabir stood up, stopped the man and asked his name. He replied,”Muhammad”, Jabir asked, whose son?, he replied “Ali ibn Hussain”. Jabir immediately recognised the man he was talking to was the 5th Imam. He embraced him and told him the message from Muhammad and that Muhammad sent his greetings to him. Imam took him to his home, asked his friends to gather as many people as they can. When they all assembled in his house, the Imam asked Jabir to tell the whole story again. Jabir narrated the story to the companions, they all attested in unison of the Imamat of the Fifth Imam and also the names of the other Seven Imams in his line up to the Twelfth Imam.

Expertise[link]

Imam Muhammed al-Baqir was awarded the title Baqir al-'Ulum "Revealer of Knowledge" because of his ample religious and judicial knowledge and his enthusiasm to teach others. Imam Muhammad al-Baqir’s son, Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq, was his student and benefited from his knowledge. He founded the precursor of Shī‘ah jurisprudence.^[5] Many historians like Yakubi asserts that the Imam split open knowledge, that He scrutinized it and examined the depths of it so that it can be spread to all people truly and correctly. In his life of respectable and scholarly retirement at Madina, the Imam was frequently called upon to explain particular teachings in regard to Imamat. A synopsis of his teaching in the Ma’athirul-Baqir is given in Cannon Sell’s Ithna Ashariya, an interesting part of which may well be quoted, as it shows the emphasis at this early period on the intellectual and spiritual character of the Imamat.

While in Medinah Imam Muhammed al-Baqir continued with the progress of the schools of theology opened up on his advice and with the support of the companions of Ahlulbayt. It is noted by many historians that until the death of The 5th Imam there were 25000 students in these schools learning Fiqh, Theology and Islamic science. It was at this time that 400 books of Hadith were compiled by the students of these school under the guidance of Imam Muhammed al-Baqir.

During the Umayyad rulers[link]

Despite his aversion to politics, the Umayyad rulers harassed Muhammad al-Baqir for fear of his popularity and influence. This was the time when the early discussions and differences in the community surrounded the question of who has the right to rule.^[6] The actions of his brother and other kinsmen made them distrust him. Numerous Shia individuals and delegations from Kufa traveled to Medina under the cover of the Hajj ritual to attend al-Baqir's teaching and to ask him specific questions. ^[7]

Martyrdom[link]

Muhammad al-Baqir was poisoned by the order of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik^{[2] [8]} on 7 Dhu al-Hijjah 114 at the age of 57 years. His body was buried beside the graves of other Imams in the graveyard of Jannatul Baqee'.^{[1][2] [4]} The more the Ummayad Government learnt about The Imam’s prestige and popularity, the more intolerable his existence became. At last they resorted to the same soundless weapon, poison which used to be applied by the cunning monarchs quite often to eliminate their opponents or suspects. A saddle was presented to the Imam in which poison was applied most skilfully. When he mounted on it the poison effected his whole body. After few days in pain the Imam expired on 7th of Dhu al-Hijjah 114 Hijri.

According to his Will he was shrouded in three pieces of cloth. These included a Yamani sheet which he used to put on Friday prayers and a shirt which he always wore. He was laid to rest underneath the same dome in Jannatul Baqee where Imam Hasan ibn Ali and Imam Zayn al-Abidin were buried.

[edit] Some Sayings of the Imam^[5]

"Our followers are of three kinds, one who follows us but depends on others, one who is like a glass involved in his own reflections, but the best are those who are like gold, the more they suffer the more they shine".

”I admonish you regarding five things; if you are wronged, do not commit wrong doing to others, if you are betrayed, do not betray anyone, if you are called a liar, do not be furious, if you are praised, do not be jubilant, if you are criticised do not fret and think of what is said in criticism, if you find in yourself what is criticised about you, then you are falling down in the eyes of God; when you are furious about the truth, it is much greater calamity then your falling down in the eyes of the people. And if you are opposite of what is said (in criticism) about you, then it is a merit you acquired without having to tire yourself in obtaining it”.

Timeline[link]

See also[link]

• Mashhad-e Ardehal

External links[link]

• AL-BAQER by Wilferd Madelung, an article in Encyclopædia Iranica
• The Fifth Imam

References[link]

For the Twelver Shī‘ah Imām, see Mūsá al-Kāżim

Mūsá aṣ-Ṣadr (15 April 1928 – disappeared on 31 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.

Biography[link]

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.

Activities in Lebanon[link]

Mūsá aṣ-Ṣadr with Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s

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...^[2]

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.^[3]

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.

Disappearance[link]

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.^[4] Aṣ-Ṣadr's disappearance continues to be a major dispute between Lebanon and Libya.^[5] 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.^[6][7][8]

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.^[9] On August 27, 2008, Gaddafi was indicted by the government of Lebanon for al-Sadr's disappearance.^[10] Following the fall of the Gaddafi regime, Lebanon and Iran appealed to the Libyan rebels to investigate the fate of Moussa al-Sadr.^[11]

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.^[12] 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.^[13] 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.^[14][15] 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.^[16]Saif al-Islam Gaddafi also confirmed the death of al-Sadr.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[17][18][19]

Legacy[link]

This article or section reads like an editorial or opinion piece and may require cleanup. Please improve this article by rewriting this article or section in an encyclopedic style to make it neutral in tone. Please see WP:No original research and WP:NOTOPINION for further details. (October 2011)

al-Sadr in a poster in Beirut, Lebanon

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."^[20] It is said a tribute to his popularity is that it is popular in parts of Lebanon to mimic his Persian accent.^[20] 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.

Aṣ-Ṣadr is most famous for his political role, but he was also a philosopher. As Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr said,

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.

See also[link]

• Modern Islamic philosophy
• Ismail as-Sadr
• Haydar al-Sadr
• Sadr al-Din al-Sadr
• Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr
• Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr
• Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr
• List of Shi'a Muslim scholars of Islam

References[link]

External links[link]

• Imam Moussa Al-Sadr Online News
• Imam Moussa as-Sadr Website
• Imam Sadr Foundation
• Haghshenas, Seyyed Ali, "social and political structure of Lebanon and its influence on appearance of Amal Movement, " Iran, Tehran.2009