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Martyr of Islam: Shaheed Al-Sadr |
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Monday, 09 April 2007 |
On April 8, 1980, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was executed. His execution aroused no criticism from the West against the Iraqi regime however, because Sadr had openly supported the Ayatollah Khomeini's led revolution in Iran and because the West was distracted by the turbulence in Iran that followed the revolution. Governments both in the West and in the region were concerned that the Iranian revolution would be "exported," and they set about eliminating that threat. When Ayatollah Khomeini called upon Muslims in Iraq to follow the example of the Iranian people and rise up against the corrupt secular Ba'thist socialist regime, they interpreted it as the first step in the spread of Islamic radicalism that would eventually lead to the destablization of the whole region.
The Shi'a religious establishment in the al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya (religious academy) was divided between traditional scholars who advocated indifference or aloofness from politics and activists who advocated involvement. The latter organized themselves into the Jama'at al-Ulama' in Najaf to counter anti-religious trends in society. Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was at that time a young scholar and was not considered an official member of the Jama'at al-Ulama' which was made up mainly of elders and well-known mujtahids. He was able, however, to exert influence on the group through his father-in-law Shaykh Murtaza Al Yasiyn, who was acting president of the group, and through his older brother, Isma'il al-Sadr, a mujtahid who held a senior position in the Jama'at.
By 1960, Sadr was one of the leading mujtahids in the religious school of Najaf with a distinguished reputation in jurisprudence (fiqh and usul al-fiqh). Sadr's passion for reform was now directed toward the hawza itself. First it was necessary to modernize its curriculum: for the past century and a half, Najaf's hawza had emphasized only fiqh and usul al-fiqh because that was what Najaf was noted for; other Islamic studies were considered minor or unimportant, and the hawza's teachers paid little attention to them. Sadr was also uneasy over the irregular attendance of the students and their neglect of their studies. He felt that students must complete their courses with distinction before they could claim to be religious scholars ('alim) and proposed a new textbook on the grounds that the old ones were not written for students. A textbook, according to Sadr, must take into consideration the student's ability to comprehend the subject only gradually from its basic concepts to its most recent developments. Sadr's plan embraced not only the use of textbooks of the sort used in modern academic institutions, but the establishment of Western-style universities that would hold the student responsible for completing certain courses and passing regular examinations.
Multimedia
Audio: Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr - Movements in Iraq and Lebanon by Dr.
Hamid Algar
Video: Shaheed Al-Iraq - Four-part Documentary on the Life of Shaheed Al-Sadr
Video: Baqir Al-Sadr Minna Salaama - Eulogy
Articles & Scholarly Publications
Biography of Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr by T.M Aziz
Belief in God, the Exalted by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr
Speech on the Love of Allah by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr
A Discussion Concerning the Mahdi (a) by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr
Thematic Approach to Qur'anic Exegesis by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr
A Study in the Philosophy of Islamic Rites by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr
Norms of History in the Qur'an by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr
Our Philosophy by
Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr - Full Length Text
The Emergence
of Shi'ism and the Shi'ites by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr - Full
Length Text
The Revealer, The
Messenger, The Message by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr - Full Length
Text
Trends of History
in Qur'an by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr - Full Length Text
Logical Foundations of Induction by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr - Full
Length Text
A Short History of 'Ilmul
Usul by Shaheed Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr - Full Length Text
An
Islamic Perspective of Political Economy: The Views of (late) Muhammad Baqir
al-Sadr by T.M Aziz
Al-Sadr's Quest for the Marja'iyya by T.M Aziz
A Meeting with Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr by Tijani Al-Samawi
Publications by Sayyeda Bint Al-Huda
Encounter at the Hospital by Bint Al-Huda
Friendly Letters by Bint Al-Huda
In
Search of Truth by Bint Al-Huda
Virtue
Prevails by Bint Al-Huda
Two
Women and a Man by Bint Al-Huda
Short
Stories by Bint Al-Huda
Comments posted are the sole opinion of the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of AIM. |
