Musa al-Sadr

Musa Sadr al-Din al-Sadr was a Lebanese-Iranian <a href="/facts/Shia_cleric/LKKFdTvl">Shia Muslim cleric</a>, <a href="/facts/Politician/JGSyT9DD">politician</a> and revolutionary In Lebanon. He founded and revived many <a href="/facts/Lebanese_Shia_Muslims/RDGAMeTS">Lebanese Shia</a> organizations, including schools, charities, and the <a href="/facts/Amal_Movement/yNfIHl5q">Amal Movement</a>.
Born in the Chaharmardan neighborhood in <a href="/facts/Qom/zqx5U0eP">Qom</a>, <a href="/facts/Iran/24yukge8">Iran</a>, he underwent both <a href="/facts/Seminary/nuSQmQpq">seminary</a> and secular studies in <a href="/facts/Iran/24yukge8">Iran</a>. He belongs to the <a href="/facts/Sadr_(name)/60nelC47">Al-Sadr</a> family from <a href="/facts/Jabal_Amel/nr0uqJtz">Jabal Amel</a> in Lebanon, a branch of the <a href="/facts/Moosavi_(name)/SAu4odlc">Musawi family</a> which traces its roots to <a href="/facts/Musa_al-Kadhim/KhC9y06z">Musa Ibn Jaafar</a>, the seventh <a href="/facts/Shia_Imam/yEI8zlDR">Shia Imam</a>, and ultimately to the <a href="/facts/Islamic_prophet/WPWy6Gdp">Islamic prophet</a> <a href="/facts/Muhammad/5VcA7XrT">Muhammad</a> through his daughter Fatima. Therefore, Musa al-Sadr is often styled with the honorific title <a href="/facts/Sayyid/g5BAtTrk">Sayyid</a>. He left Qom for <a href="/facts/Najaf/nxEhIJs0">Najaf</a> to study theology and returned to Iran after the <a href="/facts/1958_Iraqi_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat/rtju0LJx">1958 Iraqi coup d'état</a>.
Some years later, al-Sadr went to <a href="/facts/Tyre,_Lebanon/RYMPTlJR">Tyre</a>, Lebanon as the emissary of <a href="/facts/Ayatollah/k5cwuBIg">Ayatollahs</a> <a href="/facts/Seyyed_Hossein_Borujerdi/qoE51A7n">Borujerdi</a> and <a href="/facts/Muhsin_al-Hakim/zNukvNyU">Hakim</a>. From Tyre, he published the periodical Maktabi Islam. <a href="/facts/Fouad_Ajami/9j5apJyE">Fouad Ajami</a> called him a "towering figure in modern Shi'i political thought and praxis". He was noted to have given the <a href="/facts/Shia_Islam_in_Lebanon/RDGAMeTS">Shia population of Lebanon</a> "a sense of community".
On 25 August 1978, Sadr and two companions, Sheikh Mohamad Yaacoub and Abbas Bader el-Dine [fr], departed for Libya to meet with government officials at the invitation of <a href="/facts/Muammar_Gaddafi/JFp2s57J">Muammar Gaddafi</a>. The three were last seen on 31 August. They were never heard from again. Many theories exist around the circumstances of al-Sadr's disappearance, none of which has been proven. His whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

Musa al-Sadr open-in-new

Musa al-Sadr