(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - This is according to Hojat-ol-Islam Sadeq Nablusi Lebanese researcher and scholar speaking in a TV program titled "Social and Political Aspects of Imam Musa Sadr’s Character”. Also taking part in the program, which was organized in Beirut by the International Quran News Agency (IQNA), was Muhammad Namr Zaqmut who heads the Palestinian Islamic Council in Lebanon.
Nablusi said Imam Musa Sadr’s character was not limited to a special time or place. "He was an influential figure whose influence reached Lebanon and other Islamic and Arab countries. He managed to take effective steps to promote pure Muhammadan Islam.”
He said at the time when Sadr was in Lebanon, deep political and military developments were happening in the region and the conditions of the time required a brave man who was capable of taking Lebanon out of those circumstances.
Asked how Imam Musa Sadr managed to implement his ideas in Lebanon, Nablusi said Sadr had a powerful, firm and reliable character. "He tried to address people at different levels, which required mastery over different intellectual and religious sciences as well as various lines of thoughts. In addition, he had a firm belief foundation and all of his political, intellectual and cultural stances were based on this foundation.”
He added that Sadr was well acquainted with Western thought, but he would present his political thoughts in Lebanon and across the Arab world relying on religious teachings and based on Islamic beliefs.
Stressing Imam Musa Sadr’s role in promoting unity among Islamic schools of thought as well as followers of different faiths, Nablusi noted that religious proximity was always a priority for Sadr and that was the reason why he would travel from one country to another and took part in various conferences and forums. "Sadr played a major part in establishing unity and solidarity in Lebanon and creating a civilization free from any prejudices and biases.”
He said Sadr issued Fatwas aimed at strengthening Shia-Sunni unity including one calling for similar Adhan (call to prayer). "Sadr believed that unity was the only right approach for the Islamic Ummah to take.
Son of Allameh Nablusi also pointed to the establishment of the Amal movement and said Sadr created the movement to confront the Zionist regime.
"Sadr called on Islamic countries to prevent an Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon but when he received no response, he set up a popular resistance movement to stand against the Zionist enemy.
Later in the TV program, Muhammad Namr Zaqmut expressed hope for the safe return of Imam Musa Sadr to Lebanon.
He said Sadr, relying on wisdom and religious teachings, struggled on the path of God to serve God’s people.
Zaqmut who was Sadr’s companion before his disappearance in Libya in 1978, described Sadr as an imam of peace and a divine scholar of religious sciences.
"Sadr would always take this Hadith by Imam Ali (AS) as a principle: People are of two kinds, your brother in faith, or your brother in humanity.”
Zaqmut added that by promoting unity among different religions and schools of thought in Lebanon, Sadr did away with discord and age-long enmity between different groups of people in the country.
"Imam Musa Sadr sought to realize Islamic unity first among the Lebanese and then among Arabs and all the Islamic Ummah,” he went on to say.
The TV program was organized by IQNA in cooperation with the Iranian Cultural Center in Beirut and the Imam Musa Sadr Cultural -Research Institute.
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