Visiting Bazideraz

Mohammad Hussein Ghadami
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2018-10-31

The anniversary of martyr of testimony Ayatollah Ataollah Ashrafi Esfahani remind me the first years of 1360s and those memorable and epic days; the days we had army headquarters in the Kermanshah. We took the bands of theater and music and etc. to the war zone with the comrades of educational affairs, Jawad Hashemi and Asghar Naghizadeh.

One of those days was when the peak "Bazideraz" had just been released and we were working in cultural affairs in Abuzar garrison, one of the shows was a new one by Jawad, that the commanders were invited to the hall. The seat of Sardar Mohammad Kusari, who later became the commander of the 27th Division of Mohammad Prophet (PBUH), was empty. Jawad came to him, and she appealed him who did not believe in the show to come the salon to her; when he watched the show, he was so impressed and ordered:" it is an affective play; it is also good to be played in other areas."

We were in this garrison that the Basij radio[1] reported that Ayatollah Ashrafi Esfahani was going to visit the region Bazideraz. After hearing the news I went to Kermanshah attended the Ayatollah's Friday prayer. Through the guys at the headquarters, I made sure that Basij Radio's news was correct. I quickly arrived the house of Ayatollah and, in accord with comrades, we got on the car of Friday Imam[2] and headed to the peak Bazideraz.

Ayatollah loved the warriors as his son; with that age and his bad mood traveled to war lines. He hugged the basiji fighters in the bulwarks; he kissed them and lectured and had companionship with them. When he heard that one of militants had been martyred as if a hammer lifted firmly to his heart!

A comrade said: "Ayatollah Ashrafi Esfahani was enamored of war and front. He said that when he went to the front, for a while, his spirit would be strong ... now, in spite of visiting Bazideraz, then we will probably go to the areas of Qasr-e-Shirin and Sarpol-e Zahab and the Gilan-Gharb and Nawsud and etc."

The car was moving fast. Ayatullah was murmuring prayer. The road was within the enemy's eyeshot. The bullets was fallen on the ground and exploded in our surrounding, But he was not worried at all.

I asked the comrade for speaking about Ayatullah before we arrived in target; he said slowly: "he had a very hard education time and living difficultly. The severity of poverty was such that, until Wednesday, the last day of his education, he did not leave any money for food. Ayatullah has educated in a situation that nobody can endure it. It is enough to say that, from the beginning of his education to the end of it, he did not have an own book on the level of jurisprudence and principles; All the books, that were available for him, were endowed ones. He has strange perseverance that he was able to receive Ijtihad degree [3](Theoretical Rank) forty years."

I say to the comrade to speak a little about the time of his arrival in Kermanshah:

• When he came to this area on the order of Imam Khomeini, he was very simple; he did not even have a guard! ... Not only did he not have a comrade, but also sometimes he would have to wait a long time to take a car to go to the mosque. Later for a while, His neighbors accompanied him and brought him to the mosque ... then, the Governor General of Kermanshah provided a second hand car that was mostly ruined, until finally, with regard to the security issues and the assassinations and threats of the characters, a new car and two soldiers were provided for him. After the terrorist incident on Tir 7^th (June 28th) and the martyrdom of 72 people and the assassination of the first alter martyr named Ayatollah Seyyed Asadollah Madani and ... a vehicle was provided for him by the police of Kermanshah. After the assassination of third alter martyr named Ayatullah Mohammad Sadoughi on order the Imam Khomeini assigned him an armored car, and the guardians forced him to ride it.

A few minutes later, the car stopped back of bulwark to refresh ourselves. The commander was worried a lot because the Ayatollah was in danger; the commander appealed him in suspense not to come out of car not to be harmed, and command: "Get rid of Ayatollah quickly from this area, here is insecure. In spite of desire of him, we moved to West Gillan".

Half an hour later, we arrived to the near of Bazideraz, Ayatollah, as he had heard about the Ba'ath forces, insisted on seeing the mountain (Bazideraz). We did not dislike too. The car turned left and moved up the mountain nonstop. The Iraqis had built a road to the peak of mountain to provide ammunition.

 Ayatollah got off. He was so old that was not able to take the cane easily. He was brought here by his desire and love, he wanted to see the extent of released area, but he was not able have to pick up the camera. Watchman took the camera in front of his eyes, when Ayatollah looked at the bloody sky, he said: "Allahu Akbar[4], we owe this victory to God."