Sa´adeh’s involvement in journalism from an early age allowed him to articulate his national and political views. This involvement began in 1921 when he joined his father in Brazil and worked with him in editing al-Jaridah and al-MajAllāh. This experience led him later to establish other journals and magazines both at home and abroad through which he published a great deal of his views. 

Prior to establishing his party, Sa´adeh published in al-Jaridah a series of articles on homeland issues: “Hopes of Homeland”, “Patriotism”, “Gouraud and Syria”, “Syrian Unity and Lebanese Fears”, “Syrians and Independence”, “Citizenships” and “The Storm of the Syrian Revolution”.[1]  In these early articles, Sa´adeh disseminated his inter-related thoughts on the freedom and independence of his people, on patriotism and self-sacrifice, on the need for national unity, on the importance of fighting sectarianism fostering religious tolerance, on the danger of Zionism and its intentions, and on the duty of his fellow migrants to help their Syrian brethren in the homeland who are suffering from humiliation, poverty and neglect. Sa´adeh aimed to keep the connection between his fellow expatriates and their homeland and to remind them of their national duties towards their distressed families and countrymen. Many of them were still reeling from the Great War during which time people in large numbers starved to death due to an acute shortage of food supplies. To add insult to injury, the Ottoman military authorities ruthlessly confiscated local crops of wheat and other grains to feed their army.

Sa´adeh tried to awaken the conscience of his fellow migrants and to alert them to their duties. In a moving tone, he asked: “Are we going to deny them [this urgent help] and go on the record for it as selfish and traitors? Is it proper of us to watch out for our homeland's suffering in agony and to stare at it as though we are watching a tragic play on stage?”[2]    

On a different level, Sa´adeh’s short memoirs, composed in the late 1920s, reveal a feeling of alienation and a powerful inner longing for his mother and homeland, particularly his hometown, al-Shweir. In the entry of 2 March 1929, he wrote:

The suffering that those who leave their homeland must endure is not little. I have constant feelings of homesickness, for the valley, the pinewoods, to the fountain. I feel depressed when I remember those precious things. Oh, how I wish to go back to my hometown![3]

Like other famous expatriate littérateurs, such as Amin al-Rihani, Gibran, Nu’aymi and Arida, Sa´adeh longed to be back where he was born and reared: “Where is the homeland? ... My soul craves for that place; my longing is swelling up… There, my mother embraced me; there, I was brought up.”[4]

His affectionate memoirs reflect a deep comprehension, at an early age, of philosophy and philosophical issues. The reality of philosophy as he experienced it taught him that there was life in pain for those who accept it and know how to deal with it and that he who accepts pain, can triumph over selfishness.[5] In sublime words, he wrote: “I refuse to be a selfish person who does nothing but seeks pleasure or cries out when deprived of it.”[6] He added: “I should not be selfish … I should remember the pain of millions of my fellow countrymen first, and then think of myself.”[7] In the same vein, he noted: “I must forget the wounds of my bleeding self so that I could help heal the serious wounds of my nation.”[8] These moving words encapsulate his philosophy of life as a course that demands unlimited benevolence, sacrifice and heroism.

Sa´adeh’s clear inclination towards philosophy is evident in his memoirs through his reflective thoughts on life and mankind and the purpose of human existence. In the entry of 13 May 1929, he posed several philosophical questions:

·       What is the value of life without a principle?

·       What does life mean without an ideal?

·       What is the purpose of human existence?

·       What is fate or destiny?

·       Does life create tremendous difficulties for an unknown reason or does it create them to destroy life by destroying happiness?

·       If human existence ceases to exist, would life come to an end too? 

Sa´adeh concluded that human life is empty and useless without principles. Its real value lies in acclaimed principles or ideals to which man can cling and build his personality and existence.

Sa´adeh’s early articles also deal with the prerequisites and conditions required for the attainment and preservation of national independence. These include:

1) The principles of national unity and self-reliance: Sa´adeh emphasized that “if the Syrians wish to gain their freedom and independence as a living nation, they should be united in the same way as other living nations. The Syrians should rely on action, not words. They should rely on unity, not on division, and finally, they should rely on themselves, not on others. This is the only way to attain freedom and independence.”[9]

2) The principle of self-sacrifice: Sa´adeh exalted this principle in the interest of patriotism and independence. Self-sacrifice is essential for patriotism. Without it patriotism would not exist and without patriotism independence is unattainable. “Patriotism means self-sacrifice. As much as there is self-sacrifice, there would be patriotism. Through self-sacrifice patriotism prevails and through patriotism nations live on and prosper”.[10] He added: “There is no hope for any nation to attain independence and advancement except through patriotism. Independence is impractical without patriotism and advancement is impossible without independence”.[11]

3) The principles of strength, resistance and national struggle: A central theme in Sa´adeh’s early writings is his call for national struggle against occupiers and colonialists. He maintained that “the nation that concedes the right to struggle concedes freedom because freedom is struggle.”[12] The national struggle was viewed by Sa´adeh as a means to achieve political power. He argued that the great and powerful nations were not so at their beginning: “They achieved this through struggle and by overcoming difficulties...”[13] Furthermore, in an article published in 1921, Sa´adeh appealed to his “colonized” and “oppressed” nation. He wrote:

The time has come for the Syrian people to understand that independence will not be realized spontaneously, but depends on the ability of the people to liberate themselves and resist those who want to colonize and oppress them...[14]

In the same article, Sa´adeh wrote on the uselessness of verbal protests to the League of Nations. He did not believe that the latter would be able to bring real independence to peoples, as it represented the interests of the victorious Allied nations. Sa´adeh was probably right on this count. While the people of geographical Syria were dreaming wistfully of independence following World War I, the victorious Allied nations were conspiring at the Paris Peace Conference to partition the country according to their own interests and without any consideration to local desires and expectations. Representatives of these Allied nations were concerned solely with advancing their interests, power, and possessions, and assuming control over strategic areas and local natural resources like oil. The League of Nations did nothing to stop them and actually endorsed the peace treaties drawn up by the Allied powers. This prompted Sa´adeh in later years to raise the question: “...Is it right that progress should cease and the world should freeze at the point desired by powerful states and nations?”[15]

In the same vein, Sa´adeh wrote an article on the Moroccan revolution against the Spaniards. It was an occasion to draw some very important lessons. He argued that “national struggle [al-jihad] is the most effective means of securing national rights and attaining freedom,”[16] adding:

Independence is only achieved through the application of effective procedures and the use of the entire force [of the nation], regardless of how small it is. For force is the basic natural weapon of defence.[17]

Still in the same period, Sa´adeh published a serious of critical articles that provide insight into his intellectual growth, expanding knowledge of philosophy and the social sciences, analytical and evaluation skills, and his craving for excellence. One such article, entitled “Nazarat fi al-Musawat” (Views on Equality), was published in al-Jaridah in 1922.[18] In it, Sa´adeh analyzed May Ziadeh’s new book al-Musawat[19], praising her innovation, style, methodology and ability to “discuss vital topics and analyze realities of civilization” and disagreeing with her on certain points.[20] The article strongly betrays Sa´adeh’s intellectual ability and acquaintance with European thinkers, particularly with Jean Jacque Rousseau (1712 – 1778), the author of The Social Contract and General Will. This acquaintance also reveals itself in another analytical article on the French Revolution entitled: “Freedom and the Mother of Freedom”.[21] This is perhaps one of Sa’adeh’s best articles. It examines aristocracy and the notion of freedom from French and British historical perspectives, discusses French thinkers like Rousseau and Voltaire, and investigates the circumstances that led to the French Revolution. In the thorough analysis that follows, Sa´adeh offers a critique of this revolution, its “great ideas” or “universal” principles (popular sovereignty, self-determination of peoples, and equality of rights), and its accomplishments. Unlike many historians who considered it a revolution of salvage and liberation, he regarded it as “the greatest massacre known in history and the absolute stratagem by which the world has been deceived to this day…”[22]

A third example of Sa´adeh’s literary criticism is the article entitled “The Statue Committee Insults the Feelings of the Christian and Islamic Worlds”.[23] It is a personal critique of a decision of the Syrian-Brazilian Committee that had chosen from among many entries a poem by Elias Farhat as an epigram to be inscribed on a statue presented by the Syrian community to Brazil on its hundredth anniversary of independence.[24] With warm literary style, deep imagination and historical knowledge, coloured with national patriotic sentiments, Sa´adeh posited himself as a defender of Syria’s ancient artifacts and glories, such as the precious ruins of Ba´albak and Tadmor, the great historical monuments of Lebanon, and the graves of Saladdin and Jesus Christ, which the committee wanted to uproot them and sacrifice them to Brazil. He criticized the Committee for “wanting to get rid of every remnant and monument to the glory of Syria to grant them all to Brazil.”[25] He regarded Farhat’s poetic sacrifice of the precious ruins of Syria as an insult not only to Muslims and Christians but also to the souls of those giants who built these glories and immortalized the name of Syria in history.[26] With his intellectual qualities and comprehensive knowledge of the national history of Syria, Sa´adeh succeeded in demonstrating that Farhat’s poem was humiliating to Syria’s past glory. His article resulted in the overturn of the committee’s decision.

Sa´adeh’s analytical and literary skills are also revealed in his articles on the disgraces of dancing and dancing clubs and on the status of singing among Syrians.[27]  From his article on singing, one can certainly infer not only his obsession and fascination with lofty arts but also his philosophical inclination towards sublimation and spiritualism. Thus, art is the language of the inner soul in times of loneliness and silence. Its function is to beautify life:

Lofty singing – like other arts – is a memorable art that beautifies life in a world full of distress and woe. It is an art that raises the artist to immortality. Singing is part of every soul that has tasted the sweetness of love and the bitterness of great hurdles. It is the art with which Paul Jawhar [an expatriate Syrian singer] raised souls to the status of Gods.[28]

In the same article on singing, Sa´adeh compared singing in Syria and artistic singing in the advanced nations in general. He urged Syrian artists and performers to keep away from dreary singing that arouses sensuous desires and appealed to them to advance their singing by learning and benefiting from the [Western] developed nations and their inspiring art. Inspiring, lofty art strives for spiritual fulfilment:

In every gesture, movement, tone, word and sound there is an expression of sublime feeling, tender emotions and spiritual meditations that would raise souls to the higher, minute, ethereal world where the souls would be cleansed of earthly stains and immersed in pure love.[29]

Another window into Sa´adeh’s analytical skills is a lecture delivered at a function organized by Al-΄Urwah al-Wuthqa at the American University of Beirut in 1934. Entitled “Basic Principles in National Education”, in it Sa´adeh appealed to his nation to discard racial and religious thoughts, which impede its progress, in favour of the lofty ideals in life through proper national education.

In 1925, Sa´adeh published in al-Majallāh an analytical essay entitled “Edab Allugha” (Rules of language)[30], contesting a suggestion by Tuwfiq Qurban to introduce foreign sounds to the Arabic language to facilitate communication between nations.  With expertise in translation and linguistics[31], Sa´adeh was able to demonstrate the fallacy, impracticality and futility of this suggestion. He was deeply concerned about the encroachment of foreign pronunciations because they are not needed and they may cause confusion in the mind of any learner.  Thus, he rejected the incorporation of new foreign letters in the Arabic language and offered instead a practical solution that argued for a standard manual that translators can refer to when translating foreign names or other lingos. Such a manual would prevent different translations of the same name by different translators.

In other articles Sa´adeh analyzed contemporary national and global issues and expressed his views on the policies of many countries. In addition to addressing the national cause and the independence of Syria, he discussed the phenomena of imperialism and colonization and their effects on nations. Interestingly, he detected, at such an early stage, a definite alliance between imperialism and Zionism. Thus, a link is established between colonialist fragmentation in the Sykes-Picot agreement and the Judaization of Palestine through the Balfour Declaration. The latter is described “as an unlawful political promise binding Britain to the Jews. It has no judicial value whatsoever: it in no way binds either Syria or the people of its southern part [Palestine]”.[32] But the rejection in the articles extends to all forms of imperialism and colonialism (cultural, economic and political). In turn, it poses national independence in a comprehensive perspective. Furthermore, Sa´adeh strongly criticized the attitude of the United States of America towards the French mandate in Syria. In a fiery article entitled “the fall of the United States off the ethical world of humanity” he argued that the powerless nations expected the USA to be the only Western country to lead the way in embracing new and fair policy vis-à-vis the phenomenon of colonization. Instead, the USA was the first nation to slap President Wilson on his face and to discredit his principles by endorsing France’s tutelage over Syria. The Syrians, Sa´adeh argued, expressed their repulsion at the idea of a French mandate in the US Commission (the King-Crane Commission) that was sent to Syria and subsequently submitted a report to President Wilson. The USA insulted the national feeling of the Syrians and disregarded their wishes and aspirations as spelled out in that report. In doing so, Sa´adeh concluded, it lost the respect, trust and friendship of Syrians.  Sa´adeh also wrote on matters like the United League, the politics of certain European countries and Bolshevik Russia, Japan and its expansion in the Far East, the elections in the United States and Britain, the Zionist movement and its advancement, the revolutions of Chile, Cyprus and the East (including Egypt, Morocco, China, India and Syria). 

In regard to the Zionist movement, Sa´adeh published in 1925 in al-MajAllāh an enlightening article in which he warned his people from the danger posed by Zionism.[33] He defined the motive force of Zionism as being “the ideas of a group that wants to create an Israelite nation from the Jews of the world that are diverse in their tendencies, inclinations and so contrasting in their ethics and customs”.[34] To Sa´adeh, this is no more than a destructive effort, an “unnatural” endeavour, and a mere ruse, part of the conspiracy to capture Palestine, evict its inhabitants and establish an exclusively Jewish state in Syria. Predicting the potential danger of Zionism, he wrote:

Despite that the Zionist movement is not rotating around a natural axis, yet, this movement has been able to make significant progress. Its actions are proceeding according to an accurate, systematic plan. If no other systematic, counter plan stands in its face, it will eventually succeed.[35]

Sa´adeh then warned “... we are in a situation where in one of two basic consequences is incumbent: Life or death; whatever the outcome, we are the ones to answer for the consequence.”[36] The warning is followed by an urgent appeal to the Syrian community in Brazil to take action against Zionism: “Is it not sheer cowardice and dereliction”, he wrote, “that a handful of Jews could meet to conspire to rob the thousands of Syrians living there having any organized society to examine such a shameful conspiracy and foil the efforts of the Zionists?”[37] Sa´adeh ridiculed the Syrian community for relying on a few individuals “who do not have at hand the resources needed to do anything effective” against Zionism.[38] Taking the issue one step further, he called for the formation of a political movement with a systematic counter-plan to Zionism of its own.

In short, Sa´adeh’s early writings in al-Mahjar were characterized by insightful analysis of diverse issues, both national and philosophical. They reveal a strong capacity for self-reflection, a disposition to challenge hidden assumptions and perceive matters differently, a sincere commitment, a strong concern for the freedom and independence of his people and a deep love for the homeland. Generally speaking, his articulated thoughts in his early articles formed the core of his principles as elaborated later in his work The Ten Lectures and other writings. Dr Rabi’a Abifadel describes this stage of Sa´adeh’s life as follows:

Sa´adeh’s early writings abroad were characterized by the diversity of their subjects and style. He was frank and deliberate in political criticism and analysis, but sensitive in discussions of poetry, arts and issues of the homeland. In this regard, he utilized touching poetic images and warm suggestive language. But there is no doubt that his writings during this period – the first expatriate stage of his life – determined the future course of his thoughts, commitments and aspirations.[39]