Abbas Al-Moussawi
The Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Abbas Al-Moussawi assumed the position in 1991, but his tenure did not last more than nine months, as Israel assassinated him hours after he gave a moving speech in the town of "Jibshit" in southern Lebanon on the anniversary of the martyrdom of one of the party's members. Seyyed Abbas Mousavi was a Lebanese Shiite cleric and one of the founders and the second secretary general of Hezbollah in Lebanon. He gained a lot of fame for his jihadist ideas and campaigns against the Zionist regime. He was influenced by the thoughts of Seyyed Mohammad Baqer Sadr and Imam Khomeini (RA) and came to Iran in 1358 to meet Imam (RA).Abbas Al-Moussawi was born in 1952 in the Shiyah district in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and spent his childhood in a conservative family. He studied Islamic sciences in the city of Najaf in Iraq at the hands of Imam Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, and there he met some of his colleagues who wanted to follow the path of armed resistance to the Israeli presence in Lebanon, such as Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
It was the custom of Sayyed Musa al-Sadr to come to Shiyah to visit one of the gentlemen from the al-Moussawi family, who was a relative of Sayyed Abbas’s father. Sayyed Abbas sent with his father to Sayyed Musa that he wanted to meet him and learn from him. Sayyed Musa gave him an appointment in Tyre, and after the procedures followed, he entered the world of seeking religious knowledge. Al-Moussawi became deeply acquainted with Musa al-Sadr, which led to him being clearly influenced by him, especially in terms of the political message, the preaching movement, social activity, understanding and dealing with people, and openness to others. Al-MoussawiMusa was impressed by Al-Moussawi, which prompted him to give him special attention, because he was able to attract Musa’s attention by transcending his personal concerns to take on concerns related to the general situation.
Al-Moussawi saw that it was necessary to go to Najaf al-Ashraf and learn about all aspects of knowledge there, so al-Sadr wrote to his brother-in-law and cousin, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr , recommending Al-Moussawi to him. So Al-Moussawi immigrated to Najaf in 1969 when he was seventeen years old. Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's scholarly status was well-known in the religious seminary , and he was a unique model for Sayyid Abbas al-Musawi. In terms of study, the subject of preaching and the necessity of taking the initiative in it was one of the most important subjects that Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr recommended. Sayyid Abbas, along with a group of his brothers, students of religious sciences, held a weekly symposium in which some of them spoke and others asked questions and raised problems.
In 1973, Sayyid Abbas al-Moussawi married his cousin Suham (Umm Yasser), and they traveled together to Najaf al-Ashraf . Mrs. Umm Yasser was one of Sayyid Abbas’s students, and she played a fundamental role in his mobilization and awareness project.
On Sayyid al-Moussawi's first visit to Lebanon in 1973, he actually began his missionary work, starting from his town of Nabi Sheet, where the town's youth would gather to listen to lectures by Sayyid, who was not yet twenty-one years old at the time. He was helped by his distinctive oratory skills, which were further enhanced by the coherent ideas that Sayyid was able to acquire within a few years.
After four years of study in Najaf, he returned to Lebanon in 1977. The Baathist authorities had decided to launch a campaign against the religious seminary . When he made the decision, Abbas had come to Lebanon to preach, as was his custom in the month of Muharram , and he learned about the arrests and realized that his name was at the top of the authorities’ wanted list. Although the financial means were not available to make any move in the field of building a religious seminary , the martyred Sayyid sought to secure a temporary center. A two-room apartment was initially rented for two months, then the seminary began to move from one place to another in the city of Baalbek, until it settled for a long time in the building adjacent to the Imam Ali (PBUH) Mosque in the city and was named the Seminary of the Awaited Imam (may Allah hasten his reappearance).
He participated in the founding of the “Assembly of Muslim Scholars” in the Bekaa in 1979. The Islamic Revolution led by Imam Khomeini had created a great current in the midst of the Islamic nation, and Abbas saw early on in the revolution the correct principle, the solid foundation, and the wise leader. The Baalbek seminary became a platform for conveying the call of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, especially later when the imposed war began . The public interaction with the revolution was clear, and the seminary of the awaited Imam (may Allah hasten his reappearance) became the meeting place for those who loved the Imam and his revolution.
In early June 1982, Israeli forces began invading Lebanon , and everything collapsed before them. The Palestinian fighting organizations no longer existed on the scene. In that case, Imam Khomeini decided to help Lebanon, and sent groups of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon to repel the aggression. An agreement was reached between Mr. Abbas and a group of scholars and the leadership of the Guard to prepare the atmosphere at the level of military preparation. This opened the door of jihad wide open to the sons of the nation, who saw the scholars of Islam at the forefront of the march. Large numbers from outside the Bekaa region, specifically from the south , the suburbs and Beirut - where the occupation was - flocked to the training camps.
In 1982, he participated in the founding of Hezbollah. It was not possible to rely on an existing organization, because all existing organizations - in the view of Sayyed and the other founders - had been subjected to tests that they could not pass successfully, in addition to the fact that the proposals that Hezbollah should carry, other leaders could not carry, and these founders suffered greatly in the beginning and worked in harsh conditions where the atmosphere was not conducive to the establishment of a new organization.
This group of brothers, along with the martyred Sayyed, were able to define the identity of this new organization. It is an organization fighting the Israeli enemy , and not a political party in the conventional sense, which makes military and combat work in the interest of political work. Rather, the interim goal is to expel this enemy from the areas it took through aggression, occupation, and usurpation, regardless of the political gains.
He was famous for his advocacy activity among the Shiites in the south. He focused his sermons on the guardianship of the jurist and the necessity of eliminating the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, which he called "the Israeli cancerous gland in the side of the greater homeland." He was famous for saying, "A position is a weapon... and a handshake is an admission."
In 1985, he assumed the position of head of Hezbollah’s Shura Council in the south, and continued to hold this position until he was elected Secretary-General of the party, succeeding Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli in 1991. He had always been one of the main members of the Shura Council; he participates in making decisions and implementing them. In addition, he was entrusted with the culture and media file, and for a long time he also remained concerned with the scholars’ file.
His health was not good. He was always complaining of stomach pains, in addition to a state of fatigue and exhaustion that he tried to hide, but those who were close to him knew it well. He was often advised to rest, so he would smile and say, God willing, if the opportunity arose.
In May 1991, the martyr Sayyed was elected Secretary General of Hezbollah , inaugurating a new phase in the party’s journey , which was to serve the people alongside the continuation of the resistance work. His famous phrase, “We will serve you with our eyelashes,” was an incentive for all the working institutions to strive to be in contact with the people’s issues. This went hand in hand with the resistance work, implementing his saying, “We will resist hunger and deprivation as we resist occupation.”
His tenure as Secretary-General did not last more than nine months. His term was marked by the party’s intellectual and advocacy activity and the strengthening of its relations with Iran, Syria, and the Shiites in Pakistan , Afghanistan, and Kashmir, which he visited. He was able to unify his forces and develop strategies for confronting Israel, especially in South Lebanon.
Sheikh Abbas al-Moussawi was assassinated on February 16, 1992, when Israeli helicopters bombed his motorcade, hours after he gave a speech commemorating the martyrdom of Sheikh Ragheb Harb, one of the founders of Hezbollah who was martyred by Israeli occupation bullets in the town of Jibshit in southern Lebanon. He was driving his car with his family. His private convoy targeted Israeli planes with guided missiles in southern Lebanon, which led to his death, his wife and his child. The helicopters’ bombardment was so barbaric that his body was completely burned, leaving only some charred parts of his body.
The funeral processions set off from the southern suburbs to the Bekaa, in a grand procession estimated by Reuters to be twenty kilometers long. Just as the suburbs were crowded with mourners, so was the Bekaa, where more than 750,000 people flocked to the city of Baalbek from all regions.
The assassination of Al-Moussawi was a strong blow to the party, but Hassan Nasrallah took over.
The martyred Sayyid was very keen on adhering to duty and avoiding sin. He was one of the people of worship, voluntary prayers, night prayers , and constant visits to the holy shrine of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him). Anyone who knew the martyred Sayyed would see himself before a man who was a great example of high morals. He would never lose his temper, neither through a conversation with someone nor because of an insult someone had done to him, no matter how great the insult. He (may Allah be pleased with him) always stressed in his gatherings the necessity of implementing Imam Khomeini’s fatwa to eliminate Israel from existence.
"I forbid myself to remain within the framework of talking from behind the pulpits. I say that the resistance must be preserved, because the resistance is not preserved by words and pulpits. The resistance is preserved when our people offer their blood for the sake of God, when we offer our souls and skulls for the sake of God. Then the jihadist state is preserved, and the values ??of the Islamic resistance are preserved."
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