With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah, Shiite Cleric, Dies at 75

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the top Shiite cleric in Lebanon, whose writings and preachings inspired the Dawa Party of Iraq and a generation of militants, including the founders of Hezbollah, died Sunday morning in Beirut. He was 75.

Ayatollah Fadlallah suffered a liver hemorrhage at Bahman Hospital, run by Al Mabarrat Charity Association, which he founded, his adviser Hani Adbdallah said. Hezbollah called for three days of mourning, while clerics and political figures from Iran, Iraq, the Persian Gulf states, Lebanon and around the Middle East issued condolences.

“Today we lost a merciful father and a wise guide,” the Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a statement.

Ayatollah Fadlallah was one of the most learned and influential Shiite “spiritual references,” or marjas. All Shiites must choose a marja, whose teachings they follow and to whom they give alms. Ayatollah Fadlallah was a marja to Shiites across the Islamic world, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, as well as in Arab nations....
Read entire article at NYT