A visit to Iran

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By SALEM NASSER*

It is impossible to individually defeat men who carry this belief: either they win the fight, or they are rewarded with the best of deaths and the best of eternal lives.

I was recently in Iran. While I was there, during a meeting in which we were discussing the legal implications of the current war in Gaza and the potential of the actions of the International Courts, we received news of an incident with the helicopter that had the Iranian President on board, who was then returning from Azerbaijan.

The following morning, we had confirmation of the death of the President and also of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and others.

The President's death coincided with the celebration of the birth of Imam al Rida (or Al Reza), the eighth Imam of duodecimal Shi'ism. Even before the tragedy occurred, I had become aware of the approach of the commemorative date; it had been mentioned by more than one of our hosts and by more than one of the participants in the discussions.

At night, in my hotel room, while I was trying to understand something of what I saw and heard on the different TV channels, all spoken in Persian, a sequence of scenes was repeated over and over again: a man of about sixty years old, with a white beard and bareheaded, dressed in a simple abaya white, knelt down to enter a sanctuary, and then cleaned, removing dust, arranging the cloth that covered the tomb, and then praying and crying.

I fear my memory is betraying me now and I'm not sure whether the footage was being broadcast the night before the accident or whether it only began airing when people began to wonder about the President's fate.

In any case, only gradually did I realize the meaning of the scenes: the man of about sixty was President Raisi, and the shrine he looked after was that of Imam al Rida. I soon discovered that the sanctuary is located in Mashad, a historic, almost sacred city in Iran, where the President was born. Finally, I came to know that Raisi was a “servant” of Imam al Rida, which explained the fact that he looked after the physical facilities of the place, but it also meant that he had at some point been appointed responsible for managing the institution of charity that handles the huge amounts of donations made in honor of the Imam.

Once the news of his death was confirmed, as expected, numerous scenes showing the President in various different circumstances continually filled the screens: generally, they either showed him in a position of strength, representing Iran in the international arena, or they showed him in close, direct contact with the population, responding to their requests and needs.

Inevitably, some scenes showed him interacting with the late General Kassem Soleimani, for example, as they prayed and cried together over the tomb of the same Imam Al Rida (who died in 818 CE), and with the Leader of the Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei, weeping profusely while mourning the death of Soleimani. Khamenei was also shown visiting Raisi's family to offer condolences, holding a baby close to his face and praying.

These images reminded me of many others, showing Soleimani interacting with children and showing affection and care, showing the secretary general of Hezbollah holding his newborn grandson on his lap or comforting his mother who would later die in the hospital. They also reminded me of the moments when these men spoke of the deep feelings, love and respect they had for each other, and also of the many people who testified about their generosity and attention to others.

Those who knew them, lived with them, interviewed them, shared the dangers of the battlefields, speak, without exception, of these delicate traits, of kindness, of modesty, of selflessness.

And yet these same men are, or were in life, like arrows traveling towards a precise target, without deviations, without hesitation, without doubts about the rightness of purpose.

Both aspects, delicacy and firm determination, may well be personality traits that by chance could be found in such men who, also by chance, share goals and work together.

But I think there is more.

I think that these men cannot be well understood without taking into account their faith and religiosity.

I have met my share of false believers, people who use religion as an instrument of manipulation and power, people who believe and practice their religion without understanding it...

The men I referred to above are different from all of this. They all have, or had in life, a genuine, powerful faith, capable of giving meaning to everything, and they all have, or had, a deep knowledge of the Islam that they live, or lived, so intensely.

Their faith and their understanding of their own religion dictate the generosity, the kindness, the openness they show towards others, their friends, their families, children, journalists…

And the same faith and the same understanding provide the clear purpose, the mission, the meaning. And they provide determination and willpower, as well as the certainty of success.

The purpose can be summarized as “the fight against oppression and injustice”. Such a struggle makes all the sacrifices worth it.

For the men I refer to here, both the purpose and the willingness to sacrifice have their roots in the experience of the third Imam of Shia Islam, Hussein, and his sacrifice (this event was remembered, as it is every year, a few days, and I will write in more detail about this soon)

They love life, as long as it is dignified and honorable, and believe that it should be lived in a specific way. They believe that there will be a final judgment and that there is a life after earthly life. For this reason they seem to be guided by a teaching from the first of the Imams, Hussein's father, Ali Ibn Abi Taleb: “do for this world as if we were going to live forever, and do for the next world as if we were going to die tomorrow”.

Fighting injustice and oppression is striving for an honorable and dignified life. If you die while fighting this good fight, you die the best of deaths and live next to God.

As Hassan Nasrallah once said, it is impossible to defeat individual men who carry this belief: either they win the fight, or they are rewarded with the best of deaths and the best of eternal lives.

Just so there are no misunderstandings, I must say that I envy these men. I do what I can on the generosity and kindness front, with partial success. As far as the will of steel and the willingness to sacrifice are concerned, my judgment is more rigorous.

As in their case, it could be a matter of personality traits. I am not seeking excuses when I say that I do not share their faith, the strength of their belief, their clarity of purpose, their certainty that all sacrifices are made for the sake of an assured final victory.

A bit like Ivan Karamazov, I rebel against the idea that child sacrifice is part of the divine plan.

I'm just saying that I feel the need to find a different reason to believe that death is preferable to a life devoid of dignity.

* Salem Nasser He is a professor at the Faculty of Law at FGV-SP. Author of, among other books, Global law: norms and their relationships (Alamedina) [https://amzn.to/3s3s64E]


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