A long record of preaching and service

Longtime leader of the Islamic movement in Lebanon, Mohammad Hussain Fadlullah was born in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf in 1935 to a prominent Lebanese family of clerics and politicians.

He was raised and educated by his father, who greatly influenced his life and thoughts.

He went first to a traditional school (kutaab) to learn the Quran and the basic skills of reading and writing. He was then taught by the greatest Shiite religious authorities of the time.

Fadlullah also took part, along with the late Iraqi scholar Mohammad Baqir As Sadr, in founding the Dawa Islamic Party in Iraq as a first step towards an Islamic movement in the Shiite sphere.

After 21 years of studying under prominent teachers of the Najaf religious university, he concluded his studies and in 1966 he received a invitation from a group of Lebanese who had established a fraternity society to come and live with them in the area of Naba'a in east Beirut.

In Naba'a he began his work by organising cultural seminars and then founding a religious school called the Islamic Sharia Institute.

Then when the Lebanese civil war forced him to leave the area, he moved to the southern suburbs of Beirut, where he started to give priority to teaching.

He used the mosque as his centre for holding daily prayers giving lessons in Quranic interpretation, as well as religious and moral speeches, especially on religious occasions such as Ashura.

He also established orphanages and schools for the children of war victims, the poor as well as the handicapped. Thus, the Mabarrat Association was born, and it soon became one of the greatest pioneers and models in this field in Lebanon.

During the 1980s, when he was accused of leading Islamic groups in Lebanon, he was a victim of repeated assassination attempts, the bloodiest of which was the one carried out purportedly by the CIA.

A car packed with explosives was detonated when Fadlullah was leaving the mosque in Bir Al Abed, in the southern suburb of Beirut, killing 80 and wounding 200. He has written more than 50 books on religion, jurisprudence, philosophy and literature.