The Bottleneck of Living, Writing and Speaking, Part 1

Ayatollah Khamenei
The Bottleneck of Living, Writing and Speaking, Part 1

A Quranic Comrade

The year 1968 did not begin with ease. Sayyed Khamenei was still being observed by the security service. Early in 1968, the Imperial Armed Forces Bureau of Justice demanded SAVAK to arrange and send Sayyed Ali Khamenei’s “Criminal Tribunal.” Khorasan SAVAK was informed of the matter; they even wrote down his home address to prepare his “biography with a photo” to be sent to Tehran. General Bahrami, the head of Khorasan SAVAK has called on the police to conduct an investigation into his whereabouts. Police officers approached his home and faced the locked door. Inquiries from neighbours revealed that Sayyed Khamenei had left Mashhad for speeches and preaching on the occasion of the month of Muharram.

Trying to Get a Passport

Sayyed Khamenei was in Tehran on Muharram 1388 (lunar calendar). His wife and two-year-old Mustafa were probably with him as well. Security patrols in Mashhad said that “Khamenei and his family went to Mashhad to speak and preach.”

In early April, he went to the passport office to get a passport for himself and his family. When filling out the application form, he wrote in front of the “destination country”: Iraq; pilgrimages was his intention to travel. What was certain was that no treasure had been found, and nothing extraordinary had happened in his finances that he wanted to spend part of it on pilgrimages. He had problems with his daily livelihood. Whatever the answer, the passport office sent his request to SAVAK and asked for an inquiry from the agency. The answer was very natural: “The person mentioned... takes every opportunity to incite the people and does not adhere to any of his principles and commitments. His departure to Iraq will be rejected.”

A Benchmark for Organizational Activities

Sayyed Khamenei’s approach has changed somewhat in the way he chose, without changing the content. It seems he wanted to shift the focus of the individual movement to other people, masses, and communities. Running away from the hands of the agents, clandestine living, being far from his hometown, fiery speeches and throwing verbal spears at the regime was not ineffective; he was convinced himself, but what were the results among the various communities and classes? Desirous or unintentional, it led to changes in people’s intellectual foundations, the spread of social awareness, the generalization of religion, and ultimately the promotion of cultural and political understanding. Being an imam (congregational prayer leader) allowed him to sit down with people, say, hear and be informed of the outcome of his work. Another step in this way was to establish new circles, such as lectures on Quran commentary and ideas, and theological discourses as well.

Having described intellectual organizing without organizing people individually inefficient, he took a new step, “I thought to myself we must train a bunch of seminarians who believe deeply in the struggle and strive to be in line. I worked on this issue and planned with the seminarians, and we focused on this idea.”

What was in the minds of Sayyed Khamenei was different from the traditional teachings of the seminary. He saw the educational system in the field as only one of many ways that was truly needed. Along with teaching the common lessons, it was important for him to provide the moral, psychological and financial needs of the students. He also thought deeply about the spread of social beliefs among learners. In the meantime, on his mind, ethics training for students was a prerequisite.

Earthquake in Kakhk

This organization manifested itself in the earthquake of Kakhk. At 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 9, 1968, the Khorasan province trembled. The epicentre of the earthquake was in Kakhk, the central part of Gonabad. The next day, newspapers wrote that dozens of towns and villages were destroyed, no trace of life in Kakhk; the area was still shaking; in some parts of the countryside and around Gonabad and Kakhk, the earthquake was so severe that it split the earth. The earthquake, also known as the “Bayaz Plain Earthquake” and the “Ferdows Earthquake,” became the source of the local people’s movement. The measures were ignored or “were some kind of concealed” behind the official news coverage of the visit of Prime Minister Amir-Abbas Hoveyda and then Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his wife to the region. But people’s help came from Mashhad, “When the earthquake struck, we took the opportunity. I contacted some friends. I said we would go to Ferdows. Some friends welcomed; Mr. Tabasi, Mr. Hasheminejad and a group of interested marketers and some of the seminarians, 10-15 cars, and 70-80 people. We went off to the earthquake zone.”

SAVAK’s reporter, who oversaw these activities, named two of the convoy’s main staff and stated that two trucks of “essential foods and clothes” dispatched to the quake zone. The group went to see the injured after arriving in Gonabad, pitching a tent in the main square of Ferdows and then placed the accompanying goods for distribution. The name of the caravan was the “Clergy Relief Base.” Any cargo coming from Mashhad would join the base. Within three days 12 truckloads of goods arrived.

The Khorasan security apparatus was discontent with these actions, knowing that the “clergymen relief activities” would not only have no gaining for the government but that they would use this opportunity to weaken the state aid to the people of the region.

Khomeyni or Khamenei

The people knew Khomeyni. They had heard his name. Within the days that the Mashhad relief clerics were in the earthquake zone, Khomeyni’s name was spread. They thought that he had entered the area, “Early on, when I was there, for about 10 to 15 days people had mistaken my name for Khomeyni. Mr. Khomeyni was said to have come, and a group of villagers and inhabitants from distant places were coming to see Mr. Khomeyni. At that point, it was clear that Khomeyni belonged to everyone, and it was not that we only knew and liked Khomeyni. In the countryside and even in remote villages, Khomeyni was a popular name. Eventually, my name [Khamenei] was discerned and people recognized me.”

Forty-five days after his arrival in the area, the documents say, “he went beyond the material assistance of the earthquake victims and sometimes gave them speeches that displeased government officials.” On October 20th, he went to the pulpit on the Fatimiyah Religious Circle of Ferdows.

Although returned to Mashhad in late November after two months of activity, the Ferdows earthquake was a continuing disaster and its effects remained for a long time.

Intensive Care

While he was still dealing with the problems in an earthquake-stricken area, Tehran SAVAK in its postal censorship noticed that magazines such as “Free Iran” and “Western Today,” published abroad, were sent to his address. The source of the news was the “Maktab Ahl al-Bayt” publication in Najaf. Parviz Sabeti, who was then the head of the 1st Bureau of Operations and Investigation and the successor to Nasser Moghaddam, director-general of the Third Bureau, informed Khorasan SAVAK of the matter in a letter, and in six sections provided information on Sayyed Ali Khamenei:

  1. A description of personality and social status
  2. Announcing a summary of the records indicating the current situation
  3. Investigating indirectly about political thoughts, beliefs, and tendencies
  4. Investigating in an aforementioned way about how possible covert activities are
  5. Investigating in an aforementioned way the quality and manner of communication with the transmitter and other persons concerned in the area
  6. Controlling correspondence.

Re-starting Lectures on the Interpretation of the Quran

It was the second time that Sayyed Khamenei had spoken to a group of friends and people about the interpretation of the Quran. The first time was in January 1965 when a group of co-neighbourhoods asked him to teach them the interpretation of the Quran on the occasion of Ramadan. This time, the requesters were two old friends, Sayyed Reza Kamyab and Mohammad-Baqer Farzaneh; both from Gonabad, both co-neighbourhood, co-school, co-table, co-path, and co-discussion. They both came to Sayyed Ali Khamenei and insisted on starting new general lessons, in addition to the curriculum, such as the interpretation of the Quran, Islamic theology, ethics. The two had come with a convoy of clerics in Mashhad to aid in the earthquake of the Kakhk. In the course of their journey, though briefly acquainted with Sayyed Khamenei’s knowledge, social, and political dimensions, they found him worthy of a master’s position. Sayyed Khamenei had a particular belief in the interpretation of the Quran. Hence, upon returning to Mashhad, as in 1965, Surah al-Ma’idah became the cornerstone of his Quranic teachings, “I don’t know how chose al-Ma’idah. Then later, when I began my interpretation course in Mashhad, in the year of 1965 for the seminarians... which continued for many years, I started with Surah al-Ma’idah... and then it was al-Anfal.”

Those lectures gradually gained popularity. Interested seminarians increased. The circle of this course were formed on Thursdays and Fridays. Its place was first in the Sadiqiha Mosque in the bazaar of Sarshour, and then, by considering a growing number of learners, held in the library of Mirza Ja’far School.

Participants ranged from high-level seminary students to elementary seminary students. Sayyed Khamenei’s words were recorded. His commentary course was soon ranked first in terms of the number of interested people in Mashhad. No longer was it only the seminarians who wanted those teachings; the high school students and college students and a number of bazaaris (merchants, salesmen, and marketers) also attended.

This knowledge-based circle lived longer than the first time. It took years, but it was finally failed by the security agents, “Unfortunately, their tapes were lost. We didn’t know who got them? What happened? Surely those were something that could have been very useful now.”

A Propagational Journey to Tehran

November 22 was the first day of Ramadan. Khorasan SAVAK informed the Tehran Intelligence Service that Abdol-Karim Hasheminejad on November 22 and Sayyed Ali Khamenei and Abbas Vaez-Tabasi were going to the capital on November 23.

The Khorasan security apparatus has been warned by its infiltrators that few active clerics in the city “plan to travel to Tehran and other cities for preaching and sermons and using pulpits during Ramadan.” Tehran SAVAK also issued the order to take care of the actions and conduct of the aforementioned. There was no report of Sayyed Khamenei’s Ramadan activities among the documents.

Prior to his second propagational travel in the last days of the year, another earthquake shook the west of Khorasan and levelled two villages between Sabzevar and Esfarayen to the ground. He went to the area several times to help the earthquake-stricken people. The next event of this tragic chapter was the death of Mohammad-Esmail Khojasteh, the father of his wife. However, he was in Tehran on March 13, 1369. It was a week before the beginning of the month of Muharram. Whenever he came to Tehran, he would attend the meetings of the Combatant Clergy Association of Tehran, usually held every Thursday.

Translating the Book Sulh al-Hasan (a)

In the first six months of 1969, Sayyed Khamenei was in the process of translating the book “Sulh al-Hasan” (“The Peace Treaty of Imam al-Hasan”) by Shaykh Radhi Al Yasin. The Arabic text of the book was about four hundred pages in size, and its translation, along with his educational and social activities, certainly took considerable time from him. Teaching seminary courses, continuing to learn and gain theoretical experience with Ayatollah Milani, forming commentary lessons, daily educational discussions with his father, and other educational circles continued. Even in May 1969, he was sent to the quake-stricken area to pursue new aid.

Sulh al-Hasan is a book concerning the peace treaty of Imam al-Hasan (a) written by al-Shaykh Radi Al Yasin, the Shi’ah researcher, and scholar. The book is one of the few analytic and elaborated works written about the life of Imam al-Hasan (a), his political position, and the conditions of his peace treaty with Mu’awiyah b. Abi Sufyan. The author dealt more with analyses of historical circumstances from his own point of view, rather than citing historical reports. However, he carefully referenced and appealed to various historical sources both within the text and in footnotes.

The book consists of three parts. The first part provides a brief biography of Imam al-Hasan (a). The second is concerned with people’s allegiance to him and the conditions of his army. The last part, which is the main part of the book, is concerned with his peace treaty and the factors leading to it. The epilogue of the book contains an account of a comparison between the conditions of Imam al-Hasan’s (a) peace treaty and Imam al-Husayn’s (a) uprising both with respect to their friends and companions and their enemies.

The book was translated into Persian in 1969 by Sayyed Khamenei as Imam al-Hasan’s (a) peace treaty: the most splendid heroic leniency of the history. In the preface of the book, Ayatollah Khamenei wrote that he had intended to write a book about Imam al-Hasan’s (a) peace treaty, but the values and advantages of this book dissuaded him from doing so, and thus, he started translating this book, “I gathered notes and got ready to write [about the Imam al-Hasan’s peace treaty]. In researching the book’s sources, I came across this book... I looked and saw that all my words were in this book. I realized that if I wrote my own book and not included it, it would be incomplete. If I want to bring up the contents of this book, well, there are. Why!? I have no desire to write something in my own name... First, I decided to include everything I could find in addition to the contents of this book. After translating, I found this book to be an ocean and assuming I understand two additional points, it is not important. I fully translated the book and presented the same.”

Translation Workshop

Sayyed Khamenei’s other compilation after the translation of Sulh al-Hasan was the book “The Rijali Face of Shaykh al-Tusi.” This was suggested to him by the Mashhad College of Theology to present Shaykh Tusi’s millennium. He accepted their request to write, but the authorities did not pursue it, and he did not give it to the organizing staff.

Along with teaching high-level courses in his field, translating works, setting up Quran commentary classes and Islamic beliefs, and holding occasional meetings at his home, Sayyed Khamenei started teaching translation from Arabic to Persian for a number of interested scholars.

His brother, Sayyed Hadi, and some of his friends, including Mohammad-Baqer Davoudi, Habibollah Ashouri, and Sayyed Ali-Asghar Amini, were among them. The rings of this training course were formed at Navvab Seminary School. The basis of the work was participation in translation. Each person was required to translate several pages of Arabic text into Persian during the week and read it while attending the meeting. In that workshop, the translated texts were read and then errors and mistakes reviewed and corrected. The class lasted until the beginning of Ramadan, but was cancelled due to Sayyed Khamenei’s propagational travel to Tehran and was not held again.

 

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