Sayyed Mahmoud Taleqani

Ayatollah Sayyed Mahmoud Taleqani, a militant scholar and prominent commentator of the Holy Quran, was born on March 6, 1911, in one of the villages of Taleqan County in Alborz province. As a teenager, he learned to read and write and was prepared by his father, Ayatollah Sayyed Abolhasan Taleqani, and went to the seminary in Qom to study Islamic studies. He first lived at the Razaviyeh Seminary and then in Feyzieh Seminary, where he used the teaching lessons of Sayyed Mohammad Hojjat and Sayyed Mohammad-Taqi Khansari. After that, he went to Najaf and attended the lessons of Shaykh Mohammad-Hoseyn Gharavi and Agha Ziaoddin al-Iraqi, and later returned to Qom.

After obtaining the degree of ijtihad, he went to Tehran in 1900 and interpreted the Quran in one of the mosques in the Qanatabad neighbourhood, located in the south of Tehran.

At the same time, Reza Shah’s officers accused him of defending one of the women wearing a hijab.

After the fall of Reza Shah in August 1941, relative freedoms emerged in society and religious ceremonies and rituals were freed. Ayatollah Taleqani emerged and was free to hold religious ceremonies. Ayatollah Taleqani took this opportunity to establish the “Islamic centre” in Tehran to attract young people and academics and introduce them to Islamic teachings, which was well received by academics. With his help, the student magazine of the organ of this centre was published and he actively participated in the meetings of the Islamic Association of Students of the University of Tehran and the “Islamic Association of Engineers” which was formed in the same years and gave several speeches.

Ayatollah Taleqani was sent to Azerbaijan in 1946 on behalf of the “Union of Muslims” and the “Clergy of Tehran” to both encourage soldiers to sacrifice for the territorial integrity of the country and to ensure the security of the people during the operation of the army in Azerbaijan.

He supported the movement to nationalize the oil industry and Ayatollah Kashani. In the 17th parliamentary elections, he was also elected by the people, but because the government annulled the elections in some constituencies, he could not enter the parliament. After a growing rift arose between Ayatollah Kashani and Dr. Mosaddeq, and on the other hand, there was a distance between Dr. Mosaddeq and the devotees of Islam, Ayatollah Taleqani met and talked with Ayatollah Kashani and the devotees of Islam to try to resolve disputes, but he was not successful in this way. Relations between Ayatollah Taleqani and the Fadaiyan-e Islam were good until the end, despite some disagreements and criticisms of Ayatollah Taleqani. He was also arrested and imprisoned for some time. After the coup d’état, some libertarians formed the secret organization of the “National Resistance Movement” to continue the national movement, including Ayatollah Taleqani.

Ayatollah Taleqani was arrested in 1957 following the SAVAK attack on the centres of the National Movement in different cities of the country and remained in prison for a year. In the celebration of mid-Shaban 1960, he led a peaceful political demonstration with his speech, which led to clashes with SAVAK officers. During the clashes, he and a large number of people were arrested but later released. Ayatollah Taleqani then chose the “Hedayat Mosque” in Tehran as his centre of activity. He used to hold congregational prayers in that mosque and recite the Quran. His scientific interpretations of the Quran were favoured by the religiously educated. Hence, Hedayat Mosque became the religious-political centre of academics and religious intellectuals. For this reason, the Hedayat Mosque was closed several times and its speakers were arrested.

Following the relative freedoms of 1960-62, political groups and populations resumed their activities. In 1960, Ayatollah Taleqani, along with a group of religious activists in the Second National Front, engaged in political struggles. But because he did not find the organization of the National Front suitable for his religious goals and methods, he avoided it and participated in the establishment of the “Society of the Freedom Movement of Iran.”

After the announcement of the White Revolution referendum by the Shah in late December 1962, Ayatollah Taleqani, in unison with Imam Khomeyni, condemned it and considered it unconstitutional. Therefore, he was arrested again and imprisoned for more than four months. He was released before the arrival of Muharram 1342.

By order of Imam Khomeyni, preachers and religious delegations were forced during the mourning period of the first decade of Muharram to expose the crimes of the Shah’s regime in attacking the Feyzieh Seminary, arresting and imprisoning the Shah’s fighters and the goals of launching the White Revolution. Ayatollah Taleqani, following the order of the Imam, gave revealing speeches for ten nights, and after the end of Ashura, because he saw the possibility of his arrest, he went to Lavasanat on the outskirts of Tehran.

Following the June 6, 1963 incident, which took place following the arrest of the Imam and resulted in the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people in Tehran, Qom and Varamin, the Freedom Movement issued a fierce proclamation entitled “dictator sheds blood” throughout Iran. He strongly condemned the arrest and detention of the Imam and the repression and killing of the people. The Shah’s regime, which blamed Ayatollah Taleqani for issuing the declaration, arrested him on June 13, tried him in a military court on September 26 and sentenced him to ten years in prison. He turned Qasr Prison (his detention centre) into a university for political prisoners and organized classes on the interpretation of the Quran, Nahj al-Balaghah, and the history of Islam, which were reflected even outside the prison. In addition, he held congregational prayers in prison and participated in joint activities.

In his spare time, he also wrote and composed an exegesis of the Quran, the product of these years. Finally, in 1967, the Pahlavi regime released him due to the pressure of public opinion and international reactions.

One of the ideals of Ayatollah Taleqani was the National Islamic Union. Therefore, he participated in the Islamic Unity Conferences and warmly welcomed the establishment of the Dar al-Taqrib of Islamic Religions, which was formed by Ayatollah Boroujerdi and the scholars of al-Azhar in Egypt to establish communication, understanding and empathy between the followers of the divine religions. He was concerned about the dangers that threatened the Islamic world and considered the existence of Israel at the top of these dangers.

Ayatollah Taleqani addressed the issue of Palestine in his Eid al-Fitr prayer sermon in 1969, and while informing the people, he asked them to give their instincts to help Muslim fighters, and he did the same.

Ayatollah Sayyed Mahmoud Taleqani participated in the funeral of Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad-Reza Sa’idi, who was martyred in prison, in 1970. It led to the siege of his house and a ban on travel inside. He was subsequently arrested and after a trial in a military court to three years in exile in Zabul, his place of deportation was changed to Baft and finally, after a year and a half in exile, he was returned to Tehran in 1973.

He has since been barred from conducting congregational prayers and giving speeches. Two years later, he was arrested again for his links and cooperation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and was subjected to mental and physical torture. This time, after two years of detention, he was tried and sentenced to ten years in prison. He spent three years in the most difficult conditions in his cell, and despite his physical weakness and overwhelming mental pressures, he refused to give in to the Shah’s rule.

With the height of the Islamic Revolution, Shah gradually released political prisoners to quell popular anger. Ayatollah Taleqani also left prison on October 30, 1978. From this moment until the arrival of Imam Khomeyni in Tehran, his house was one of the main bases of the revolution.

Ayatollah Taleqani became a member of the Revolutionary Council on the eve of the victory of the Islamic Revolution by order of Imam Khomeyni. After the victory, he was appointed by Imam Khomeyni as the first Friday Imam of Tehran. He offered six Friday prayers at the University of Tehran and one Eid al-Fitr prayer. His last Friday prayer was on September 7, 1979, in Behesht-e Zahra and on the martyrs’ section of September 8, 1978.

From the first days after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran tried to create a rift between the people and the leadership by addressing some of Ayatollah Taleqani’s complaints about the irregularities that emerged after the revolution, making him the leader of the opposition forces against the Imam Khomeyni.

In response to this effort, Ayatollah Taleqani, on April 19, 1979, after meeting with Imam Khomeyni during a speech at the Feyzieh Seminary, emphasized his firm obedience to the leadership of Imam Khomeyni.

Elsewhere, Ayatollah Taleqani criticized the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, calling them “chickens of communists who think they are the guardians of all people.”

In the parliamentary elections to review the draft constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he was elected as the first representative of the people of Tehran.

Ayatollah Taleqani died of a heart attack in Tehran on September 10, 1979.

On his death, the government declared a public holiday and three days of public mourning throughout the country. Imam Khomeyni, in a message praising his life of jihad and enlightenment, referred to him as “the Abu Dharr of the time,” whose eloquent language, like the sword of Malik al-Ashtar, was victorious and striking.

He left several works, the most important of which are:

“A Shining Ray from the Quran,” “A Shining Ray from Nahj al-Balaghah,” a translation and explanation of a part of Nahj al-Balaghah, “The Future of Humanity According to our School,” “Islam and Ownership”, Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib” (translation), “We Go Toward God,” “Freedom and Despotism,” “Authority and Fatwa,” “Friday Prayer Sermons,” “The Verse of Hijab,” “A Lesson from the Quran,” Days and Sermons,” “An Introduction to the Gospel of Barnabas,” an explanation and commentary on the book Tanbih al-Ummah and Tanzih al-Mullah.

 

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