Moqtada al-Sadr’s Religious Training

In February 2007 Moqtada al-Sadr fled Iraq for neighboring Iran. At first, his movement denied that he had left, but eventually they said that he had gone to Iran for religious training. Who he studied under seems to be under contention, but all of the figures named believe in Khomeini’s clerical rule, and have tied Sadr closer to Tehran.

Reports said that Sadr had gone to Iran in 2007 to study in Qom, one of the centers of Shiite religious studies. Sadr supposedly was going for weekly classes there to become a mujtahid, a learned scholar. If he attained that rank he would have the power to issue religious decrees. Many believed that Sadr was striving to become an ayatollah, which would give him greater religious and political standing when he returned to Iraq.

Ayatollah Haeri (Al-Shahed)

The Sadr Trend initially claimed that Moqtada was studying under Ayatollah Kadhem al-Hussein al-Haeri. Haeri is an Iraqi born cleric that lives in Qom. He was a follower of Sadr’s uncle Ayatollah Baqir al-Sadr. After Sadr’s father, Ayatollah Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, was killed by Saddam Hussein in 1999, many in the Sadr movement argued that Haeri should be his successor. He became Moqtada’s spiritual leader, and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in April 2003, Haeri appointed Sadr his representative in Iraq. That meant Sadr could collect religious taxes from Haeri, which became the main source of funds for the movement in 2003. The two had a falling out in 2004, but patched up their relationship when Sadr came to Iran in 2007. 

Ayatollah Shahroudi (Reuters)

Besides Ayatollah Haeri, several other prominent clerics in Iran have been tied to Sadr’s training there. The Associated Press mentioned Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the former head of Iran’s judiciary. Shahroudi was born in Najaf, Iraq where he attended religious studies, including classes given by Ayatollah Baqir al-Sadr and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Shahroudi was a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council in Iraq, before returning to Iran to help establish the Islamic state after the 1979 Iranian revolution. He later ascended to be the chief justice, but after the disputed 2009 Iranian elections, Shahroudi went back to full time teaching in Qom. The Washington Post recently reported that Sadr spent more time in Tehran under Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazidi. Yazidi, an ultra conservative, is the spiritual adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and is a member of the Assembly of Experts, which can elect and remove the country’s supreme leader. A senior Sadrist in Najaf also claimed that Sadr was studying under a cleric close to Iran’s  Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

All of the mentors mentioned for Sadr are followers of Ayatollah Khomeini’s version of clerical rule, many of them are close to the hardliners in Iran, and have followed Iran’s foreign policy towards Iraq. Ayatollah Haeri for example, came out against Sadr’s April 2004 uprising, opposed Iraq signing the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the U.S., and came out for Maliki’s second term in office after the March 2010 elections, all of which mirrored Iran’s stance. Yazidi on the other hand is an adviser to President Ahmadenijad. Shahroudi has been called a moderate conservative in Iran, and seemed to be dissatisfied with the 2009 elections there, but he was a student of Ayatollah Khomeini, and took part in the Iranian Revolution.

While in Qom, Sadr was inculcated in Khomeini’s theology, which is different than the Shiism prevalent in Najaf. Both schools believe that ayatollahs should play a leading role in society and politics. Khomeini however advocated the direct supervision of the government by clerics. Sadr has now transferred his studies to Najaf. If he hopes to become an ayatollah and join the religious hierarchy there, the marjaiya, he would traditionally have to gain the support of powerful clerics. On the other hand, he could try to force his way in rather than integrate into the establishment. With a militia and his movement’s new political standing after the March 2010 elections Sadr could be a serious threat to the marjaiya in the coming years. If he were successful that would also be a coup for Tehran because Sadr has grown closer to its leadership, and it sees Najaf, as a rival. Sadr has to make the right decisions for this to happen however, and that has always been a problem for him. 

SOURCES

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