Born in 1960, Lebanon (which was considered an idyllic and veritable heaven on earth), Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah grew up in a predominantly Armenian Sub-urb known as Bourj Hammoud, near the capital Beirut. After his primary education, he was moved from his native place to Najaf, nearly 1100 kilometres away, as Najaf is famous for Shia Islamic learning and also a major pilgrimage destination for Shia Muslims in Iraq.Najaf is also home to the Al-Hawza Al-IIlmiya, one of the most prestigious Shia seminaries in the world. Najaf is also an ideal place to study Islamic theory, Jurisprudence and philosophy under prominent scholars. The soil and scent of Najaf made him an ardent follower of Shia Islam. The second major sect within Islam. Nasrallah was impressed with the teachings of his clerics. In fact, his surname Nasrallah literally translates as “victory through God”. But his education was cut short and he was forced to leave Iraq in the late 1970s due to the persecution of Shia clerics by the Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hussein.

Nasrallah had no option but to return to Lebanon to continue his religious studies. During this time Lebanon witnessed a bloody civil war and invasion (between 1975- 1990) and which claimed thousands of lives. In its 15 years of civil war, Lebanon paid a huge price, The Britannica records that Nasrallah’s early life and career took a turn during this period, after the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon in 1975 caused the family to flee south from Beirut, Nasrallah joined Amal, a Lebanese Shiʿi paramilitary group with ties to Iran and Syria.