Exiling Hujjat al-Islam Wal-Muslimeen Mohammad Mahdi Roshan to Zabul

Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2024-11-21

“Mr. Sabah”, a city police officer, was seen in Kamaliyeh Seminary. He came to me and took me back to prison. I was sure that I would be exiled. At night, they put me in one of the solitary cells of my imprisonment. It was 12 p.m. when I was informed of arresting Hujjat al-Islam Wal-Muslimeen Seyyed Fakhruddin Rahimi. Exile was definite. I slept relaxingly. The next morning, they led me to the prison office, where I visited martyr Rahimi. It should be saying that SAVAK was fully aware of the contact and friendship between martyr Rahimi and me, and this can be clearly seen in the available documents, including this document:

“An extremist cleric (Mohammed Mahdi Roshani) visited the house of Seyyed Fakhruddin Rahimi, chaplain of Alavi mosque in Khorramabad, and handed over some of the leaflets, related to Ruhollah Khomeini and extremist clerics from the city of Qom, which some of them have been distributed in the morning of the same day in some parts of city of Khorramabad.”

According to the order of the Provincial Security Commission, Hujjat al-Islam Wal-Muslimeen Rahimi were exiled to “Iranshahr” and I was exiled to “Zabul”; each of us was sentenced to three years of forced residence (exile).

To see and sign, the order was brought to the prison by a person in plain clothes. After reading the verdict, both of us made an appeal in the margins of the verdict. While signing the exile order, Rahimi said, “Exile and prison are a legacy that has been inherited from our pure ancestors.” Each of us was sent to the exile place by a Station Paykan [(the first Iranian-made car produced by Iran Khodro)] and two gendarme guards. The driver of the car I was in was known as “Karimrish [(in Persian rish means beard)]” in Khorramabad. The two gendarmes who took me were called “Saki” and “Vashani” and they expressed their displeasure that they had been assigned to deport us. I saw nothing but love from them on the way. Rahimi was in a bad condition. The gendarmes who took him harassed him. When we stopped for food and prayer, they even bothered me, let alone that genteel.

The day before the arrest, I thought I might get in trouble, so I took all the money I had at home which was 135 Tomans. I told the family that there is a possibility that I will be arrested and I made the necessary orders. Before leaving, I asked the security officers to go home to bring money, but they said sharply, “You don't have the right to go and call the house!” They also told the gendarmes that you are not allowed to stop on the way.

On the way, we noticed that “Eftekhari”, deputy of SAVAK followed or escorted us in a Buick car to the Durood junction lest we stop. In Yazd, I bought a Peshtemal and a few packs of filter-based Homa cigarettes. They costed thirty-five tomans. The gendarmes slept in turn in the path.

In “Kerman”, Hojjat al-Islam Rahimi wrote two prayers in my small notebook:

In the name of God Almighty

The following zikr that was stated by Ayatollah Araki (May his glory lasts) is written in Kerman, “Seventy times, every Friday evening: Oh Muhammad, Oh Ali, Oh Fatima, Oh Sahib al-Zaman, understand us and do not destroy us.”

And a zikr by the great Marja’a, seven times on Friday evenings, “O God, bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad and remove from us the inevitable affliction from the sky, for You are capable of all things.”

It was penned on Friday, May 12, 1978.

On the way to being exiled.

Please pray for me, Fakhr

We left each other in Iranshahr and Zahedan. We promised each other victory. A part of night had been passed. The gendarmes discussed that Zabul is close and said if we arrive at night, we cannot hand them over, so we spent the night in a coffee house near Zabul. We entered Zabul early in the morning.

According to the available documents, mercenary elements of the Pahlavi government had made a double effort to continuously checked us and report about our exile, and this was nothing but their fear of the movement of the revolutionary forces. The report and document left behind in SAVAK documents show their desperate efforts.

Source: Teimuri, Ramazan (2014). Bright Days: Biography and Memories of Hujjat al-Islam Wal-Muslimeen Hajj Sheikh Mohammad Mahdi Roshan. Tehran, Sooreh Mehr, Pp. 83-87.