Warning for avoiding superstitions
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan
2023-07-26
On the night of the same day that the Shah had escaped, a number of my friends came to me to make a decision about the rally that was going to be held the next day. Different people were present in the meeting and it was decided that no logos or signs of any group, party or organization would be shown in the rally. Of course, our main concern was the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization on whose behalf several students had also participated in the meeting. At that time, the students of Shiraz Medical School studied their first and second year in Jahorm and then went to Shiraz to continue their studies. Among these students, there were people who were inclined towards the Mujahedin organization, although some of the faithful and religious people of our meetings had also been inclined towards them, which my concern was mostly because of them.
Then, in this meeting, the route of the rally was determined; from Imam Square to the Qiblah Du'a Mosque [Jahrom] was determined. At that time, Imam Square was like a desert. It was just a dirt square. Ferdowsi Street, which was later renamed to Shahid Rajaee Street, also led to this square.
Finally, the demonstration was held the next day. On the day of the demonstration, when we left Imam Square, we had not yet reached the intersection of "Siyadat" when we saw the logo of the Mujahedin Organization raised. It was a placard with the logo of the Mujahedin Organization. Now I pretended that I didn't know and came and said: "Who raised this hammer and sickle flag?!" Isn't it supposed that no arm should be raised?!" I meant the hammer and sickle flag, the logo of the Tudeh Party supporters and the communist countries, when suddenly one of the same students, who was in the meeting last night, said: "No, sir! This flag is not hammer and sickle; This is the logo of the People's Mujahedeen Organization. It has olives, it has wheat ears, which is different from the flag of hammer and sickle".
I knew that the hammer and sickle flag is related to the Tudeh Party and the symbol of the Soviet flag, but because of their eclectic belief, they accepted the basis of Marx's economic theories, presented it under the title of Islamic economy, and added olives and wheat to their flag.
In short, the crowd moved in groups and each of them chanted slogans. Along with these factions, I was also arranging their queues and controlling their slogans. In this way, we were coming forward in groups to let everyone know that we were not going to do this; this is a completely popular rally and does not belong to any group.
As we were moving, the guys affiliated with the Mujahedin did not sit still, they were making plans so that they could take advantage of the rally. There was a high school on Manoochehri Street named "Shahnaz". They had come sooner than the crowd and planned to stop the demonstrators when they reached the high school, so that one of them would speak and change Shahnaz's name to "Raf'at Afraz", who was a member of the Mujahedin organization and was killed during the Shah's reign. My friends gathered around me and said: "Don't come with the crowd so we can quickly take you to the Imam Mosque. You have to give a speech there; because they (members of the Mujahedin) have decided to take over the microphone and pulpit and give a speech themselves. There is no worry. We will also provide you with the means of escape, in the same alley behind the mosque. We will prepare clothes and equipment for you under the pulpit so that as soon as the speech is over, we can let you escape so that you don't fall into the hands of the regime forces."
In short, we went to the Imam Mosque and before the people got there, I took the microphone so that when the crowd arrived, I would start speaking. Two issues were very important to us: one is that the night before, it was spread among all the people that "the picture of the Imam is on the moon; get up and look." Anyone who looked with any imagination would see what was instilled in them. Everyone said yes, the Imam's photo is on the moon. First of all, I wanted to explain to people that we should not accept anyone who says anything; because this issue is a conspiracy of the enemies of the revolution. In this way, they want to pretend that those who claim to have made a revolution are superstitions. Anyway, I asked the people to be very alert and not to be deceived by the plots of the enemies. The second thing was an explanation of issues related to the country's situation after the Shah fled...
At any rate, on that day in the Imam Mosque, I started my speech with parts of Dua' Eftetah of the holy month of Ramadan and then I explained "Qasem al-Jabbareen" or the destroyer of the oppressors in full. As I was speaking, they suddenly gave me a note saying: "Prolong the speech and pray at the end so that the people will disperse and they will not be able to use the pulpit." Again in the middle of my speech, this time Mr. Salimi came down the pulpit and gave me a note that said: "If you allow me, I would like to thank you for changing the name of Shahnaz School to Raf'at Afraz (who was his niece)." I pointed at him and said no. He accepted my words and said nothing.
I spoke for an hour and twenty minutes and among other things I talked about the Shah's escape:
"We witnessed once before that the Shah escaped and that was on 25th of Mordad 1342 (August 16, 1963), when he escaped with his private plane. At that time, no one expected him to come back; but due to the negligence of the people and the leader of the movement at that time, they brought the Shah again and the people endured many sufferings and tortures. Because if we go back further, to the beginning of the first constitutional movement, which was formed under the leadership of the clergy, we see that the second principle of the constitutional law was that the official religion of Iran was Twelver Shia, and no law against Islamic law should be approved; but we saw what happened as a result of the influence of the foreigners. During Mossadegh's time, the people chanted the slogan of nationalism and the movement was a national one. Even though the late Ayatollah Kashani wanted to take over religious power and end the movement in favor of religion, they were able to sideline him with conspiracies and dissolve the parliament with a referendum. And the power fell into the hands of the national leader and the national leader also suffered his fate in this way... History repeats itself. Why don't people learn from the constitution that we were supposed to have a legitimate constitution, but what happened to legitimate constitution was that Mohammad Ali Shah bombarded the parliament and Reza Khan came out of that constitution... His son also became worse than himself. But we must note that this time, the escape of the Shah is different from the escape of the other time. This time, the leader of the movement, the leader of the revolution, is the one who is the people's Marja' or source of emulation. He has a place in the hearts of the people and they cannot say that since he is a national leader we are working for him. He is working for Islam. Iran has become the cradle of the revolution and from this point of view, Iran has gained more value for us now; because it is the cradle of the revolution; It is also the cradle of the Islamic revolution. The enemy is abusing this situation to such an extent that last night everyone was calling each other to get up, there is a picture of Imam on the moon. For some common people, this may appear as an illusion that yes, our revolution is so holy and important that God has put the picture of our leader on the moon for the whole world to see, but note that the Satan is much more skilled than we think. Note that they want to reflect to the world that these Iranian people who have revolted and say that we have made an Islamic revolution and our leader is the Imam, they are so superstitious that all the people of the world know that we sent a traveler to the moon and the moon is spherical like here. Then the people of Iran are so superstitious that they come and say something like this; but you should note that this revolution is different from the constitutional revolution and the revolution of the national movement. This time, with the conditions we have and the leadership we have, you can be sure that firstly, the revolution will win, and secondly, you should take care that they don't surprise us like they did last time and to return the Shah to power again.br sure that he won't come back anymore; but they are thinking of returning him to power again. If you are alert, if you follow the clergy, they can no longer do this. Do you know why the legitimate constitution turned into an autocratic constitution, and petty tyranny and then the imperial government came out of it? because the clergy was removed from the political scene; when they were able to do such a thing, they excluded the clergy from the political scene from the very beginning. Here, this revolution is a clergy revolution, and everywhere, the clergy is at the head of this revolution. If all of us are purely obedient to the clergy and obey our leader and role model, you can be sure that no one can harm our revolution..."
Also, in my speech, I criticized the fact that they distributed so many posters and threw the Imam's picture among the crowd (to the extent that each person had two or three pictures of the Imam in his hand), and I said: "Note that one of the holy principles of our religion is justice. Justice means that nothing should go to extremes; for example, putting all these pictures of the Imam in front of the hands and feet and making them less valuable or, God forbid, worthless to the people, this is not justice.
When my speech came to an end, and I came down to be run away by a motorcycle, I saw that an old woman saying to the one beside her, " May God protect that kind man. Did you see what he said? He said, "If your children ask for money to buy the Imam's photo, you must give them money to buy it." Exactly, the opposite of what I stated was in the minds of some people; but at the same time, that was good. The people's belief was so sacred and this made the Imam's love to remain steady in the hearts of all people.
Source: Mr. Mehraban: Memoirs of Gholam Ali Mehraban Jahromi, Compiled by Vahid Karegar, Shiraz, Asman Hashtom Publications, 1392 (2013), pp. 183-191.
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