Al-Sadr - Retiring or Repositioning?

But “the legacy of the Sadr family,” which is mainly linked to the personalities of Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr and Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr is to engage actively in political and public affairs.

The basic intellectual principle that governs what Sadr followers call the “vocal hawza” is that the religious authority should play a key role in guiding the public life of the people, and that its role is not limited to doctrinal and theological issues. So this legacy may push Sadr to continue engaging politics rather than retiring, unless he is trying to make the legacy remain just that, a legacy, and not a political intellectual vision with a social dimension.

More likely, Sadr wanted to free himself from the negatives of his political bloc, many of whose members have been accused of deviating from the Sadr family approach. So Sadr may be repositioning himself as a spiritual and moral leader, not just the head of a political bloc.

Of course, such a move could harm the chances of the Ahrar bloc in the upcoming elections, because most voters support the bloc due to its association with Sadr. Therefore, Sadr’s declaration that he doesn’t support any political bloc and that he “stands with everyone at the same distance,” is tantamount to denying the bloc its main electoral advantage.

That may “cleanse” Sadr’s reputation and his social standing but will likely reshuffle the electoral deck, because most calculations indicate that the upcoming elections and their results will be significantly affected by the competition between Sadr and Maliki.

There aren’t many indicators about the future of the Ahrar bloc, whose many members hastened to withdraw from parliament and government after Sadr’s first declaration to resign. Sadr abandoning the bloc is expected to cause more confusion in its ranks and cause it to lose a lot of its electoral chances.

However, this confusion is not going to affect the Ahrar bloc’s participation in the upcoming election, as announced by Dhi’a al-Asadi, the bloc’s secretary-general, after his meeting with Sadr. The bloc started a process of reformation by forming a new leading committee and replacing the head of its parliamentary bloc by another lawmaker.