Al-Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi al-Hakim

This article is about Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi al-Hakim. For another figure named Hakim, see Hakim (disambiguation).

Al-Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi al-Hakim

Personal Information
Lineage	Tabataba'i Sadat
Well-Known Relatives	Al-Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim (father)
Birth	1935
Place of Birth	Najaf
Residence	Najaf, Dubai, London
Death	Jumada I 29, 1408/January 19, 1988
Burial Place	Qom, Iran

Al-Sayyid Muḥammad Mahdī al-Ḥakīm (Arabic: السید محمدمهدي الحكیم, b. 1935- d. 1988) was an Iraqi scholar, and the third son of al-Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim. He was a co-founder of Islamic al-Da'wa Party.

Birth and Education

Sayyid Mahdi al-Hakim was born in 1935 in Najaf. His father was Ayatollah Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim. His lineage goes back to Tabataba'i sadat and Imam al-Hasan al-Mujtaba (a).

He studied preliminary courses of seminary with Shaykh Muhammad Taqi al-Faqih, intermediary courses of jurisprudence and principles of jurisprudence with Sayyid Muhammad and Sayyid Ahmad al-Hakim, advanced courses of jurisprudence and principles of jurisprudence with Ayatollah al-Khoei, al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, and al-Shaykh Husayn al-Hilli.

Cultural and Political Activities

Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi al-Hakim co-founded the Islamic al-Da'wa Party together with other figures such as Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr.

In 1963, he was sent to Baghdad as a representative of his father. He collaborated in the establishment of seminaries of Imam al-Jawad (a) in Baghdad and Kadhimiya as well as Usul al-Din College. He also taught in the latter college. Moreover, he co-founded, and counted as a central member of, the Society of Scholars in Najaf.

Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi al-Hakim played a significant role in the Islamic Movement of Iraq in the 1960s and countered anti-religious acts of the governments of the time. Thus, in 1969, the ruling Ba'ath party accused him of secret connections to foreign countries and attempts at the subversion of the government, as well as cooperation with Kurds in the fight against the government of the time. The ruling party tried to arrest him. However, Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi left Iraq and went to Saudi Arabia. From there he went to Jordan, Iran, Pakistan, and finally in 1971, he went to Dubai.

Activities in Dubai

• Delivering sermons after daily prayers and explaining central aspects of the religion, such as beliefs, history, and Quranic rulings

• Foundation of Imam 'Ali Mosque

• Foundation of a mosque in the Qasas region

• Expansion of Sharjah Mosque

• Establishment of Ja'fariyya endowments

• Foundation of Imam al-Sadiq School for children

• Foundation of Ahl al-Bayt Institute for the service of believers. The institute had a charity fund in order to solve economic predicaments of impoverished people.

Activities in London

In 1980, Hakim had a short sojourn in Damascus, and from there, he went to London. In 1982, he founded the Movement of Iraqi Islamic Groups (Harakat al-Afwaj al-Islamiyya al-'Iraqiyya) in London, in order to coordinate different anti-Ba'athi opposition groups in Europe.

Moreover, he played significant roles in the foundation of World Islamic Society of Ahl al-Bayt (Rabita Ahl al-Bayt al-Islamiyya al-'Alamiyya), Center for Ahl al-Bayt, Committee for Supporting Iraqi Refugees, and the Organization of Human Rights in Iraq.

World Islamic Society of Ahl al-Bayt held its first conference in 1983 in London, where Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi al-Hakim was selected as its general secretary. The society consisted of different Islamic societies in different areas of the world.

Martyrdom

In January of 1988, the National-Islamic Front in Sudan invited Sayyid Mahdi al-Hakim to attend a conference that was held for a second time in Khartoum, Sudan. Iraqi Ba'this who learned about the invitation and sought to assassinate him, finally martyred him on Jumada I 29, 1408/January 19, 1988. His corpse was moved to Tehran and then to Qom, where he was buried in Balasar Mosque in the Shrine of Fatima al-Ma'suma (a).