Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah condoles Fadlallah’s family
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah sent a cable of condolences on Sunday to the family of top Shiite cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah who died in a Beirut hospital earlier Sunday.
In his cable, the Amir prayed to the Almighty Allah to have mercy on the soul of the deceased.
HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah sent similar cables.
Meanwhile, Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker Jassem Mohammed Al-Khorafi also sent a cable of condolences to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih condoling him on the demise of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
Al-Khorafi expressed in his cable his heartfelt sorrow on the news, asking Allah Almighty to have mercy on the soul of the deceased.
The Kuwaiti Speaker also sent similar cable to the family of Fadlallah.
Several Kuwaiti MPs, mostly Shiites, expressed their condolences to the entire Islamic and Arab world on the death of Fadlallah.
MPs Yousuf Al-Zalzalah, Adnan AbdulSamad, Dr Maasouma Al-Mubarak, Saleh Ashour, Hussein Al-Qallaf, Adnan Al-Mutawwa, Faisal Al-Duwaisan and Hassan Jowhar issued a joint statement Sunday, expressing their sorrow over the death of Fadlallah, who was an outstanding religious scholar and had a great personality. He spent his life pushing for Islamic unity and religious tolerance.
Fadlallah was born in Najaf, Iraq in 1935, and then moved to Lebanon in 1966. He has been suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure for years but it is not known what caused the sudden internal bleeding Friday.
After his arrival in Lebanon 44 years ago, Fadlallah founded the Islamic Law Institute and was then named the Grand Ayatollah. His fatwas were compiled in ‘The Concept of Sharia’, a book consisting of three volumes.
Fadlallah had disagreements with a number of other Shiite clerics to the extent that some have rejected his points of reference and accused him of misleading the people. He has also survived a number of assassination attempts.
Fadlallah, who was 74, had a wide following beyond Lebanon’s Shi’ites, extending to Central Asia and the Gulf.
He had been too frail to deliver his regular Friday prayers sermon for several weeks. He was taken to hospital on Friday suffering from internal bleeding.
Fadlallah was a supporter of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the spiritual leader and mentor of the Shi’ite guerrilla group Hezbollah when it was formed after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, though he later distanced himself from its ties with Iran.
He survived several assassination attempts, including a 1985 car bomb which killed 80 people in southern Beirut. US news reports said the attack was carried out by a US-trained Lebanese intelligence unit after attacks on US targets in Lebanon.
He distanced himself from the abduction of Westerners by Islamic militant groups in Lebanon during the 1980s, saying he was against kidnappings, and repeatedly called for their release.
Hezbollah’s al-Manar television interrupted its programmes to broadcast recitations from the Quran and showed a picture of the white-bearded, black-turbanned cleric.