In Chase and Escape (4)

Rereading the book "Consistent with Freedom", the Memories of Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Jafari in five episodes

Bazargan' unpublished declaration on Shariati
Episode IV: The Shariati Story

Armen and Avanesian: Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Jafari has devoted a separate chapter of his book, Abreast with Freedom, to Shariati and says Bazargan considered Shariati as his son, having repeatedly heard from him that "Bazargan is our last hope". In the chapter, he unfolds the disputes of Martyr Motahari and Bazargan with Shariati. One of the cases in which Jafari had an essential role is when Motahari and Bazargan decided to jointly issue a statement after Shariati's death in denial of rampant rumors. Motahari prepared the original text of the statement and Bazargan expressed his views in its introduction. The part "Because Shariati had little information about Islamic teachings…" opened Pandora's Box. Bazargan did not agree with the statement and later Dr Sahabi cautioned him against it. After the piece was released, Habibollah Peyman, Mir Hussein Mousavi, Fereidoun Sahabi, Mohammad Bastenegar and Jafari proceeded to Bazargan's to see "What kind of writing is it?" Bazargan admitted the criticisms and asked Motahari not to publish the statement and he agreed. Bazargan prepared a second piece and gave it to Jafari for publication. But Jafari denied doing so because Bazargan had explained in the writing that "When we said Dr Shariati has little information about Islamic teachings we did not mean it in general terms; rather, we said it exclusively so far as Dr Shariati was not a specialist in Islamic fiqh, philosophy and jurisprudential principles". Jafari reckoned that the text failed to "fully resolve misunderstandings" and never had the work published. Moreover, he relates the story of Mesbah Yazdi's strife with Shariati he had heard from martyr Shahcheraghi in 1983. At Haghani seminary, Mesbah Yazdi had told students that Shariati was a denier of seal of prophecy (ÎÇÊã?Ê Khatamiyyat) and that he (Shariati) had interpreted revelations as if they were still the case. Consequently, the students dissented what Mesbah had told them and went to Dr Beheshti. A while later, Beheshti overruled Mesbah's accounts saying that "What Mr. Mesbah says cannot be construed from Shariati's words. On the contrary, Shariati is a believer of seal of prophecy."
Seyyed Ghasem Yahusseini (book's author) has asked Jafari two questions about the contradictions between his statements and those of Ehsan Naraghi on Shariati. Jafari's response to both queries was: "Dr Ehsan Naraghi is telling lies." Naraghi had told Yahusseini that there was no credible evidence showing that Shariati was a student of Gerovic, Russian-French sociologist; also Gerovic had said to Naraghi, he claimed, that he knew no one named Shariati. Jafari says it is a lie concocted Naraghi. "Shariati attended Gerovic's free courses," he argued. "No lecturer is supposed to know all his students." The second issue according to Jafari is the motion proposed by Naraghi in a meeting with Shariati in the prison about conducting a course on TV about criticizing Marxism. Naraghi says he was not in Iran at that time but Jafari says: "The SAVAK documents have it that General Moghadam, head of the Administration III of SAVAK, had commanded Chief General Bahrami, head of the SAVAK in Mash'had, to order Shariati to contact Dr Ehsan Naraghi in line with SAVAK programs." Also, Jafari has asked Shariati's wife about the letter of Shariati to SAVAK concerning Shah's land reforms; in response Jafari was told that Shariati did write the letter to free himself from SAVAK harassments and let him mind his business for a while. Jafari noted Behzad Nabavi's analysis that it was normal among opposition activists to write a sidetracking letter in the form of an agreement or a commitment to SAVAK to set free themselves and keep on their campaign.

Translated by: Abbas Hajihashemi

Source: Mehrnameh Monthly, No. 5