A maverick among the shiite scholars. Ayatulla Fadlullah received criticism from almost everyone, from west because of his support for Hizbullah from his fellow shiites who considered him trying to appease the sunnis and from traditionalist for his relatively liberal views on women issues.
But he did stand his ground. He issues fatwa that woman can hitback if beaten by her husband and against honour killings.
He challenged many of traditional shiite views about historical events. However he was also viewed to be inspired by his staunch views on Arab nationalism.
However, one will probably not see someone among shiite scholar ranks to break away from traditional views like he did for a long time.
I have been his follower in many issues. A great aalim and a type of scholar that the Muslim world needs so much specially in current times. Here is an excerpt from one of his speeches;
May he rest in peace. Allahuma salle ala Muhammad wa Aalay Muhammad.
He is also courageous and famous for rejecting the "incident of the door" and having very moderate views about the 2 great shaykhs i.e Abu Bakr and Umar
^About the "incident of the door" his view was that the incident is recorded in the books of history but the details as to who-did-what are sketchy & inconsistent. Therefore we should not dwelve on the details of this topic as it is a highly sensitive one and causes discord between the Muslims.
Hes not that controversial, hes a well respected aalim, and a mujtahid, his veiws differ in that they are more liberal, that might have caused criticism, but he has a huge following amongst the shias population, esp. the youngsters.
