Al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr: Difference between revisions

'''Al-Sayyid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad Ṣādiq al-Ṣadr''' (Arabic: {{ia|السید محمد بن محمدصادق الصدر}}) (b. [[1362]]/1943 - d. [[1419]]/1999) was a [[Shiite]] authority in [[Iraq]] in the 14th/20th century. He was an opponent of [[Saddam]]'s government.

He studied Islamic disciplines with [[Imam Khomeini]] and [[al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr]]. He was planning to form an Islamic government in Iraq. His works are mostly concerned with [[fiqh]] and [[usul al-fiqh]] (principles of Jurisprudence). His well-known works includes: ''[[Mawsu'at al-Imam al-Mahdi (a) (book)|Mawsu'at al-Imam al-Mahdi (a)]]'', ''Minnat al-mannan'', ''Ma wara' al-fiqh'', and ''Fiqh al-akhlaq''.

Al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr was from the Sadr family whose lineage goes back to [[al-Sayyid Sadr al-Din al-Sadr]], and through him, to [[Imam Musa al-Kazim (a)]]. Prominent figures of this family include al-Sayyid Sadr al-Din al-Sadr, [[Imam Musa al-Sadr]], [[al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr]], and [['Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din al-'Amili]].

Al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr married the daughter of his father's brother, and they had 2 daughters and 4 sons. All of his sons were clergymen, and 3 of his sons were al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's sons in laws. Two of his sons, Mustafa and Mu'ammal, were martyred together with their father in 1377/1999. [[Muqtada al-Sadr]], the leader of [[Jaysh al-Mahdi]] in Iraq, and Murtada are his two other sons.

Al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr began his studies with his grandfather, al-Shaykh Muhammad Rida Al Yasin and his father. He wore the formal dressing of Shiite clergies at the age of 11. He studied the preliminaries with his father, and then with Sayyid Talib Rufa'i and Shaykh Hasan al-Tard al-'Amili. He studied the rest of the preliminaries with [[al-Sayyid Muhammad Taqi al-Hakim]] and [[al-Shaykh Muhammad Taqi Irawani]].

He attended the College of Fiqh at the age of 14, and in addition to Islamic disciplines, he studied English, sociology, psychology, and history. In 1379/1959, he started to learn fiqh. He studied philosophy with al-Shaykh [[Muhammad Rida al-Muzaffar]], [[usul al-fiqh]] and [[comparative fiqh]] with al-Sayyid Muhammad Taqi al-Hakim, and fiqh with Shaykh Muhammad Taqi Irawani. Sayyid Muhammad Sadr also studied general fiqh with [[Shaykh Mahdi Muzaffar]], English with Sayyid 'Abd al-Wahhab Karbala'i, psychology with Dr. Hatam Ka'bi, and history with Dr. Fadil Husayn. He was graduated from the College of Fiqh at the age of 19.

He studied advanced courses of fiqh and usul al-fiqh with teachers of the Shiite seminary school of [[Najaf]], such as Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Sadr and [[Shaykh Sadra Badkubi'i]]. He also studied [[dars kharij|kharij]] courses of fiqh and usul al-fiqh with [[Ayatollah Khoei]], [[Imam Khomeini]], al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, and [[al-Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim]]. He wrote down the lectures of his teachers.

Here are some scholars who gave permissions of transmission of hadiths to Sayyid Muhammad:

He received a [[Permission of Ijtihad]] from al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr at the age of 34 in 1369/1949.

Al-Sadr was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned by the Ba'ath government of Iraq. He was first imprisoned in 1972. In 1974, he was imprisoned for the second time together with 150 students of al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and members of [[Hizb al-Da'wa al-Islamiyya]] (Islamic Da'wa Party). In 1991, after [[al-Intifada al-Sha'baniyya]], he was imprisoned because of his cultural activities and speeches against the Ba'ath government together with 106 other people. However, after the events of 1991, the Ba'ath government of Iraq introduced him as the official authority of Iraqi Shi'as and appointed him as the administrator of the Shiite [[Seminary of Najaf]]. When he accepted the Shiite authority, he was criticized by many people who accused him of having relations with the Ba'ath government. Some others maintain that he turned the military movement of [[al-Intifada]] into a reformist movement in Iraq, which was encouraged by [[al-Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadl Allah]] and welcomed by Saddam's regime.

Most of al-Sadr's writings and lecture notes are concerned with [[fiqh]] and [[usul al-fiqh]]. He has an eclectic approach to fiqh. On the one hand, his fiqh is traditional, and on the other hand, it is directed at the needs of contemporary human beings. Al-Sadr has written work regarding [[demonstrative fiqh]] as well as fatwas, and has written commentaries on his own earlier work in fiqh.

Some of al-Sadr's works are notes from his teachers' lectures concerning fiqh and usul al-fiqh or notes written by his students from his own lectures or works written by himself. Some of his works are his lecture notes edited by researchers of "Mu'assisa al-Muntazar li Ihya' Athar Al al-Sadr" in [[Qom]]. Here are some of his works:

* ''Minnat al-mannan'': a five-volume exegesis of the 30th [[juz']] of the [[Qur'an]] beginning from [[Sura al-Nas]]. It consists in notes from lectures of al-Sadr concerning the exegesis given on Thursdays, Fridays, and other holidays. According to the author, the exegesis is written for intellectuals, academicians, and scholars of Islamic seminaries.

* ''Ma wara' al-fiqh'': in this collection, al-Sadr has provided whatever a [[faqih]] needs in what is "beyond fiqh" (ma wara' al-faqih) in 15 volumes.

* ''Fiqh al-akhlaq'': in this work, al-Sadr discussed the relation between fiqh and ethics in two volumes. He sought to show that life based on shari'a is not detached from moral life; a Muslim is obliged to observe moral obligations and prohibitions.

[[Noor Computer Research Center of Islamic Sciences]] has provided a software version of the works of al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr under "The Heritage of Ayatollah al-'Uzma al-Sayyid al-Shahid Muhammad al-Sadr" at the request of Mu'assisa al-Muntazar li Ihya' Turath Al al-Sadr (al-Muntazar Institute for the Revival of the Heritage of al-Sadr Family). The software contains the full texts of 62 books in 98 volumes by al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr in Arabic, Persian, and English regarding the exegesis of the Qur'an and Quranic sciences, ethics, principles of beliefs, [[Mahdawiyya]], history, rulings of shari'a, [[usul al-fiqh]], [[fiqh]], law, family, poetry, and physics. It also contains audio files of al-Sadr's lectures and speeches.