wikishia:Featured Article/2017/23

Martyr Ayatullah al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (Arabic: السید محمد باقر الصدر) (b. 1353/1935 - d. 1400/1980) was a Shi'a faqih (jurisprudent), exegete of the Qur'an, and thinker, and also he was a political activist in Iraq. He studied with Ayatullah al-Khoei and other great scholars in Najaf, and he finished his studies before the age of 20. He then began teaching religious disciplines in the Seminary of Najaf. Some of his best-known students are al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr, al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, al-Sayyid Kazim al-Husayni al-Ha'iri, and Sayyid Mahmud Hashimi Shahrudi. Later in his life, Sadr was a Marja' (religious authority) for some Shi'a followers.

His most significant works include Falsafatuna (Our philosophy), Iqtisaduna (Our economics), and Durus fi 'ilm al-usul (known as Halaqat).

Al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was both a religious and a political authority of Shi'a in Iraq. Hizb Al-Da'wat al-Islamiyya, the political party he established with the help of 'Abd al-Sahib al-Dakhil, boosted its activities among Iraqi Shi'a following the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran.

The most important political activities of al-Sadr include his issuing a Fatwa forbidding the membership of Muslims in the Ba'th party of Iraq (a party affiliated with Saddam Hussein), holding demonstrations in Shi'a cities in southern Iraq and in Baghdad with the help of his sister, Bint al-Huda al-Sadr. He and his sister were arrested by the Ba'th government, and following their imprisonment they were martyred.

The political and social thoughts of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr are very influential in present Iraq as seen in the leadership of former Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki who was also the head of the Al-Da'wa Party and a follower of al-Sadr. Read more...