Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah (b. 1935) is a leading Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim scholar, and is often called the spiritual leader of Hezbollah.
He was born in the town of Al-Najaf al-Ashraf, and studied first in a traditional school, and then in a modern school established by the journalist Jamiat Muntada Al-Nasher. Fadlallah published a minor periodical, and returned to Lebanon in 1952.
In the following decades, he gave many lectures and engaged in intense scholarship. He wrote dozens of books, founded several religious schools, and established the Mabarrat Association. Through that association he established a public library, a women's cultural center, and a medical clinic.
During the Lebanese civil war, he was forced to leave the country, but he returned when it was deemedsafe. He condemned what he saw as imperialism and Zionism in Lebanon's affairs, and he defended the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic movement in Lebanon. In his sermons, he supported armed resistance to the occupation of Lebanon and Palestine. He hold relatively liberal views on the status of women. He was the target of several assassination attempts, a car bombing in 1985 that killed 80 people and is alleged to have been organized by the CIA.
Today, Fadlallah supports an armed Hezbollah, but condemns terrorist attacks against civilians. In 1998, he spoke at a conferense on Women's rights at the American University of Beirut. He has issued a fatwa forbidding and Muslim from aiding the United States in its occupation of any Muslim country.
See also
External links
- The Oracle of Hizbullah: Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, detailed profile by Martin Kramer