AhlulBayt News Agency: The Life of Martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah: From “Sharshabouk Neighborhood” to Najaf and Qom, to the Secretary Generalship in 1992; through the milestones of the 2000 Liberation and the July 2006 War; culminating in his martyrdom on September 27, 2024, and his funeral on February 23, 2025.
To recount the life of a great leader such as the martyred Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah would require far more than a few lines or pages. That spirit forged of steel, that rare charisma, that flexible, sincere, and ascetic personality, and that model of leadership which transformed the Arab-“Israeli” conflict and left its mark on Lebanon and the region for four decades—all of this would require entire volumes to fully encompass. He was the Arab national hero who commanded the attention of friend and foe alike. With his positions, he shook “Israeli” society, established new deterrence equations, and forced “Israel” to remain constantly on edge (“on a leg and a half”), calculating every step—so much so that they came to call him the “Axis of the Axis.”
Son of the “Belts of Misery”
Sayyed Hassan was born on November 28, 1959, according to his late father [Sayyed] Abdul Karim Nasrallah; official records list his birthdate as August 31, 1960. “We were born in one of the belts of misery, in a poor neighborhood in East Beirut called Sharshabouk, near Karantina, and we lived there for about 15 years,” the Sayyed once recalled in a speech.
Though originally from the southern Lebanese town of Bazouriyeh, Sayyed Nasrallah did not come from a traditional political family. He grew up in a poor household in a small home. His father, then a vegetable vendor, once recounted, “four months before his birth, he dreamed of a light and two men telling me that I would be blessed with two sons and a daughter named Hassan, Hussein, and Zeinab.” He continued, “four months later, we were blessed with a boy. I named him Hassan. After that, we were blessed with Hussein and Zeinab, and the rest of the children.”
The eldest of three brothers and five sisters, Sayyed Hassan attended several public and private schools in Bourj Hammoud, Sin El Fil, and Bazouriyeh. His father described him as “exceptional” and said that “at just three years old, he would wrap his grandmother’s black scarf around his head and ask the neighborhood children to pray behind him.”
Friends from Al-Najah School in Karantina described him as naturally devout. He endured teasing quietly and shyly, but reacted fiercely to any mockery of religion or the Divine.
Growing up in Sharshabouk—a neighborhood of the marginalized from all sects who had fled poverty—left a deep imprint on his character. “While other children would take money from shop drawers to go to the cinema or the beach, he would keep a quarter or half a lira in his pocket for days to give to someone in need,” according to his father.
Imam Musa al-Sadr: The Role Model
From a young age, Sayyed Nasrallah showed a keen interest in religious studies, influenced by Imam Sayyed Musa al-Sadr, founder of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council and the “Movement of the Deprived” [later the Amal Movement]. Inspired by his speeches centered on humanity, faith, homeland, and development that he delivered in churches, mosques, and public spaces, Sayyed Nasrallah began religious lessons alongside his regular schooling. Amazed by him, Sayyed’s teacher called him “a prodigy.”
The Husband and the Grieving Father
In his twenties, Sayyed Hassan married Fatima Yassin from the southern village of Aabbassiyah. They had five children: Mohammad Hadi, Mohammad Jawad, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Mahdi, and Zeinab.
When Sayyed Hassan decided to marry, his father asked Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah during the marriage contract signing how his son could shoulder the responsibility of a wife and children amid displacement and hardship. Sayyed Fadlallah replied: “Your son does not bear the responsibility of a woman alone—your son bears the responsibility of a nation.”
There is no doubt that Sayyed Hassan saw in his wife “support and tranquility,” and he openly declared this several times, acknowledging that his wife deserved credit for raising their children due to his continuous absence from them.
In 1997, his eldest son Hadi was martyred at age 18 during a military operation in the Jabal Al-Rafi region in southern Lebanon. Upon receiving the news, Sayyed Nasrallah stunned observers with his composure. He delivered a eulogy for his son as he would for any fallen resistance fighter, insisting it remain ordinary. He described how Hadi had bid farewell to his mother before departing on his mission, and how he prayed upon hearing the news, thanking God for honoring his family with martyrdom. Despite his grief, he spoke fluently and was keen to ensure that his son's image did not take on greater significance than that of the other martyrs. Those who stood by him receiving condolences recount that he closed his eyes and shed only two tears, then turned to pray. When his son’s body was returned after the famous exchange operation, he secluded himself with him, wrapped in a shroud. He wept, recited verses and prayers for his soul, wiped his son's head, kissed his forehead, and then left.
From Bazouriyeh to Najaf
With the outbreak of Lebanon’s civil war in April 1975, Sayyed Nasrallah returned with his family to Bazouriyeh and continued his secondary education. Despite his young age, he was appointed a local organizer for the Amal Movement. At the Tyre mosque, he met Sayyed Mohammad al-Gharawi, whom Imam Sadr had appointed to take his place in the city.
He confided in him his desire to go to the religious seminary in Najaf. He encouraged him, facilitated his path, and entrusted him with a “letter of recommendation” to the religious authority, Sayyid Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, with whom al-Ghrawi shared a strong friendship. And so it was. Sayyed Nasrallah gathered whatever money he could and made his way to Najaf, arriving empty-handed.
In Najaf, another phase of his character development began. There, he met Sayyed Abbas Moussawi, who had a close connection to the religious authority, Sayyed Sadr. Thus began the relationship between Sayyed Nasrallah and Sayyed Moussawi, who became a brother, friend, mentor, and companion in struggle for 16 years until his martyrdom.
Sayyed Moussawi took a special interest in the young Sayyed Nasrallah at the request of Sayyed Sadr. He took it upon himself to teach Sayyed Nasrallah along with a group of students of similar age, with seriousness and discipline. As a result, they were able to accomplish in two years what typically takes seminary students five years to complete.
Joining the First Cells of Hezbollah
In 1978, the Iraqi regime's harassment of seminary students intensified, leading to the expulsion of many. With the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War, the regime began accusing Lebanese students of various affiliations, sometimes claiming they were members of the “Amal Movement,” the Syrian “Ba'ath Party,” or Syrian intelligence, and at other times linking them to the “Dawa Party.” Eventually, the regime expelled them after imprisoning some for months. During this period, Sayyed Nasrallah was able to return to Lebanon safely. However, his joy was overshadowed by the abduction of Sayyed Musa al-Sadr in Libya, at one of the most critical and delicate moments in Lebanon, after the latter had successfully established a national base that could expand on social and demands-based foundations.
The “Israeli” invasion in the same year also had a profound impact on Sayyed Nasrallah's heart and soul. After his return from Najaf, he went to Baalbek, where Sayyed Moussawi established a school based on the same curricula as those in Najaf, to complete what the students had been unable to finish there. Sayyed Nasrallah also became the organizational head of the Beqaa region in the “Amal Movement.”
In 1982, Sayyed Nasrallah, along with a group of leaders and cadres, withdrew from the Amal Movement due to fundamental disagreements with the political leadership of the movement at the time regarding how to confront the political and military developments resulting from the “Israeli” invasion of Lebanon. He then joined the early cells of Hezbollah, which made the liberation of Lebanon from occupation its primary goal.
A “Difficult” Beginning
Sayyed Nasrallah, Sayyed Abbas Moussawi, Sayyed Ibrahim Amin Al-Sayyed, Sheikh Naim Qassem, and others formed the core of Hezbollah, which initially operated in secret and gradually became more visible. However, its first true official announcement came with a martyrdom operation carried out by Ahmad Qasir on November 11, 1982.
Sayyed Nasrallah spoke about the founding of Hezbollah, saying: “The idea was purely Lebanese—that is, it came from the Lebanese themselves, from these brothers—and it received the blessing of Imam Khomeini in Iran, considering that all of them shared a fundamental point: the leadership of Imam Khomeini as the Imam of the Ummah. This provided the religious and legal legitimacy that this new movement needed, especially since it was a movement that would fight—that is, take on the responsibilities of blood, honor, wealth, confrontation, and combat over many years.”
He emphasized: “The early years of Hezbollah’s launch were very difficult. In the beginning, some people said this was a crazy path and that your capabilities were modest. But what the resistance achieved was the result of the availability of will, faith, determination, certainty, and trust.”
As Hezbollah’s leadership structures began to emerge publicly in the mid-1980s, Sayyed Nasrallah moved from the Beqaa to Beirut, where he was entrusted with political responsibilities, which soon evolved into executive and organizational leadership.
At that time, Sayyed Nasrallah announced that he wanted to continue his studies in Qom, Iran, which led many to speculate that he was absent either because he held opposing views or because he wanted to distance himself from internal organizational disputes within the party. Others described it as a “preparatory period” at the regional level, aimed at enabling him to build strong relationships, especially with Tehran and Damascus.
In 1990, Sayyed Nasrallah decided to return to Lebanon. At that time, major events were shaking the region and Lebanon, including Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and the implementation of the Taif Agreement, which created an authority unwilling to compromise on the resistance and allowed Damascus a greater role in Lebanon after the ousting of General Michel Aoun. Sayyed Nasrallah saw in this a significant opportunity to support the resistance.
Secretary General… and the Katyusha
In 1992, following the assassination of Secretary General Sayyed Abbas al-Mousawi, Hezbollah’s Shura Council unanimously appointed Sayyed Nasrallah as Secretary General. He was 32 years old.
Here, Sayyed Nasrallah—who wept for his teacher, companion in struggle, and vowed to continue the path after his martyrdom—said that after al-Musawi’s assassination, “Israel” sought to continue its psychological war by bombing towns and villages to drive out their inhabitants. In other words, they aimed to create a leadership vacuum and empty the ground-level base. This prompted an extraordinary response from Hezbollah—the first decision he made as Secretary General—which was the deployment of the Katyusha rockets. Dozens of families in the south returned to their villages despite the intensity of the “Israeli” bombardment, while dozens of “Israeli” families fled to shelters in fear of the resistance’s missiles.
The “Master of the Resistance” Weakens “Israel”
During his tenure as Secretary General, Sayyed Nasrallah earned the title “Master of the Resistance and Liberation,” as the resistance engaged in a number of heroic wars and confrontations with the occupying army. The most notable were the July 1993 “Operation Accountability” and “Grapes of Wrath” in April 1996, which culminated in the “April Understanding,” a major turning point that allowed the resistance to achieve the historic accomplishment of liberating most of Lebanese territory in May 2000. This was followed by the historic and strategic victory in the July 2006 war and later the recent Gaza Support War.
It is noted of Sayyed Nasrallah that he managed, with strategic intelligence, a psychological and intelligence war that shook the myth of the “invincible ‘Israeli’ army.” In this context, the villages of southern Lebanon witnessed dozens of confrontations in which the resistance lured “Israeli” soldiers and misled their commanders.
After the liberation in 2000, Sayyed Nasrallah delivered a resounding speech from Bint Jbeil, saying: “Your land can be reclaimed by your own will, through the path of Izz al-Din al-Qassam, through the blood of Fathi Shaqaqi and Yahya Ayyash—you can reclaim your land without this Zionist granting you a street here or a village there.” Sayyed Nasrallah thus became the first Arab leader to humiliate the “Israeli” enemy and compel its withdrawal without any conditions, proving to the whole world that “this ‘Israel’, which possesses nuclear weapons and the strongest air force in the region, is, by God, weaker than a spider’s web.”
After the victory in July 2006, he became an Arab and nationalist hero, with every tongue repeating his famous statement that marked a turning point in the confrontation with the enemy: “The ‘Israeli’ warship that attacked our infrastructure, our homes, and our civilians—look at it burn and sink, taking with it dozens of ‘Israeli’ Zionist soldiers.'"
In 2008, Hezbollah secured the release of Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Kuntar—an achievement Sayyed Nasrallah regarded as equal in importance to land liberation.
Under his leadership, the resistance was able, by 2022, to establish a balance of deterrence with the enemy, after Lebanese land and airspace had previously been violated at will. By that time, no “Israeli” dared to carry out an attack or operation in Lebanon.
Political Engagement
Under Sayyed Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah engaged extensively in domestic political life. In 1992, it participated in the first parliamentary elections held after the Lebanese Civil War and achieved a significant victory, sending 12 of its members to parliament and forming the “Loyalty to the Resistance” bloc. During this period, the party also opened up to various religious and political authorities within the country, marking a qualitative political shift in its trajectory.
After the assassination of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005, Lebanon faced a severe internal crisis that brought it close to civil war. Yet, Sayyed Nasrallah, with political acumen, his gentle manner, and logical reasoning, was able to defuse the anger of Hariri’s supporters and quell a sectarian tension that could have dragged Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon into disastrous conflict. He also managed to deflect the political accusations against Hezbollah for Hariri’s assassination without causing a political rift with Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
In May 2008, Sayyed Nasrallah made a difficult decision, one he would not have taken had it not been for the deaths of his supporters in security incidents. His famous statement was: “We will no longer be killed in the streets; we will not accept being fired upon by anyone.” At the same time, the party decided to confront what it considered a violation of the pro-resistance ministerial statement, following two cabinet decisions to seize the telecommunications network of Hezbollah’s Signal Corps and to dismiss the head of Beirut International Airport’s security apparatus, General Wafik Shuqair. This led to the May 7 events, which exposed Sayyed Nasrallah and Hezbollah to sharp and widespread criticism.
In 2009, Hezbollah issued a political document marking a profound shift in its ideology. The party called for reform of Lebanon’s political system and the abolition of political sectarianism, without abandoning the concept of the Guardianship of the Jurist [Wilayat Al-Faqih]. In a press interview, Sayyed Nasrallah expressed Hezbollah’s acceptance of the principle of the finality of the state and its embrace of that principle.
Thus, between 1985 and 2009, Sayyed Nasrallah’s influence was evident in Hezbollah’s performance both inside Lebanon and beyond, as he balanced the protection of Lebanon and its stability with a broader regional role. After the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon in 2005, the party participated in the government, making it a key political pillar in the country.
Supporting Damascus and Fighting Extremism
With his insight and depth of vision, Sayyed Hassan foresaw that the fall of Syria to the Takfiris would mean the collapse of the entire region and a defeat before the US-“Israeli” project, and consequently the loss of the Palestinian cause. Based on this, he made the decisive decision in May 2013 to have Hezbollah participate in the fighting alongside the Syrian army against the terrorists.
This decision also represented a proactive measure aimed at preventing these fighters from taking control of the Lebanese-Syrian border. This led to the Battle of the Outskirts [Jaroud Battle] in August 2017, in which Sayyed Nasrallah achieved a new victory despite facing criticism.
Palestine As the Compass… and the Final Chapter
Sayyed Nasrallah has always regarded Palestine as “the foremost cause in the world,” seeing it as a symbol of steadfastness and a mirror of Arab honor. He made the Palestinian cause central to his political discourse, repeatedly emphasizing that the objectives of the resistance in Gaza are to revive the Palestinian cause and uphold the rights of the Palestinian people. He understood that there can be no peace in the world without the liberation of Palestine.
Since the outbreak of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah became involved in the fighting the following day by shelling occupation positions in the Shebaa Farms as a message of solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. The Lebanese-Palestinian border witnessed attacks by Hezbollah and Palestinian factions, while the occupiers carried out aggressive airstrikes. After weeks of military confrontations, Sayyed Nasrallah appeared in his first speech on November 3, 2023, affirming that the Lebanese front opened by Hezbollah is a “front of support and solidarity,” and that aiding Gaza is a moral, humanitarian, and religious duty.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s earthly life ended, as he had long wished, in martyrdom “on the road to Al-Quds” on September 27, 2024, following “Israeli” airstrikes on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Until his final moments, he refused to step back from what he considered his duty in supporting Gaza.
Yet even in martyrdom, he remains present in his cultural, religious, social, and political legacy—and in a long history of resistance. Crowds continue to chant: “At your service, O Nasrallah” and “Humiliation is far from us.”
There is no doubt that the legacy of “Hussain of Our Time” will endure and leave a deep mark on future generations, just as it has etched itself into the hearts and minds of those who lived through it. As he once said: “Death, in our creed, is not annihilation, not the end of something; rather, it is the beginning of a true life.”
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