Fadlallah, Sheik Mohamed Hussein (1936–)

A Shiite Muslim scholar, Sheik Mohamed Hussein Fadlallah is said to be the religious adviser of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political party also known as Party of God. In his impassioned speeches, Fadlallah has called for Lebanon to be organized as a theocratic Islamic state.

Fadlallah was born in 1936 in Najaf, the Iraqi city holy to Shiite Muslims where his father, a religious leader from southern Lebanon, was studying. Fadlallah grew up in Iraq, and reportedly speaks with a slight Iraqi accent.

While a student in Najaf, Fadlallah helped one of his professors, Mohammed Bakr al-Sadr, to found the underground Dawa Party, which was later banned by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Fadlallah moved to Beirut in 1966, after he had finished his studies. He soon married Noureddin Noureddin, daughter of a prominent Lebanese Islamic scholar. They are said to have ...