Foreword By Haj Abu'l-fazl Hazeghi

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FOREWORD

by

HAJ ABU'L-FAZL HAZEGHI
   Sayid Mujtaba Musawi Lari was born in AHS 1314 (AD 1934) in Lar, capital of the southern Iranian province of Laristan. Both his father, Sayid Ali Asghar Musawi, and his grandfather, Haj Sayid Abdul Hussein Musawi, were amongst the most eminent scholars in Islamic theology. Sayid Abdul Hussein was also one of the great revolutionaries at the inception of Iran'sstruggle to throw off the tyranny of the Qajars and start her progress towards the freedom and prosperity upon which she is now entering.
   Our author studied in the schools of Lar, following the classical programme of education, and also undertaking specialist Islamic studies. In his eighteenth year he moved to the holy city of Qum, famous for its golden-domed mosque which houses the shrine of the daughter of the Imam Musa al-Kazem, Fatima al- Ma'sume, who died there in AD 816, while she was on her way to visit her brother the Imam 'Ali-ar-Reza at Tus. At Qum he pursued his studies of Islamic theology for ten years, by which time he had attained the very highest grade.
   Unfortunately the water of Lar, which in those days was unrefined and carried a high level of pollution, had infected him with serious digestive disorders that resisted all attempts at cure in Iran. Finally, at the age of twenty-nine, on the recommendation of his doctors, he went into hospital in Germany. A prolonged stay in that country under medical care failed to eradicate his ailments. But, with the courage that many who suffer from a partial physical disability manifest, he has risen above the infirmity and devoted his great talents of intellect, patriotism and dedication to the service of his country.
   Works of his already published in the Persian language include:

These books were received with such enthusiasm that three editions of have already appeared.
He has been a regular contributor to the monthly review published by Qum Islamic leaders, The Maktab-i-Islam, as well as to many other periodicals dealing with Islamic principles. He has initiated the foundation of a number of public institutions; and enjoys such great public confidence that large numbers have rallied to his aid in the creation of these foundations. They include schools, health clinics, centers for religious training, and mosques, most of these in his native city of Lar. He also organized a charitable trust to help the needy, the sick, orphans and indigent students. Many lives have been saved by these efforts of his, and many people have been helped to advance both their own lives and those of people for whom they were responsible because of the assistance given them by this trust.

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   The family came originally from Dezful in Iran's southwest province of Khuzistan. Sayid Mujtaba's grandfather, Haj Sayid Abdul Hussein, took up the fight for Iran's freedom which originated in those parts of the country. The movement forced the Qajar ruler, Muzaffar-ud-Din, to accept a democratic constitution in December 1905. The National Assembly opened for the first time in October 1906 and drew up a Constitution which was signed and ratified both by the Shah Muzaffar-ud-Din and by his son and heir, Muhammad Ali Shah, who succeeded his father in January 1907. The new Shah, however, was far from welcoming his people's forward march towards liberty, and unwisely showed his hand at his coronation by refusing to invite the National Assembly Deputies. He also encouraged his Viziers in their refusal to appear before the Assembly and answer questions. The newly kindled flame of freedom burst into a furnace of belligerent outrage.
   Haj Sayid Abdul Hussein, already the inspirer of a great following not only throughout Khuzistan but also Laristan and Faris, the two neighbouring provinces, raised a thousand guerilla fighters from the area, many of them from my own town of Jahrom, and with them joined the march on Tehran against the despotism which was seeking in its own interests to keep the Iranian people in the chains of feudalism. A bloody struggle ensued in which the Shah did not hesitate to employ guns and cannon against his own subjects.
   On November 12th 1907 Muhammad Ali Shah for the fourth time swore fidelity to the Constitution in the Assembly: but on December 15th he threw the Prime Minister, Naser-ul-Mulk, into prison, from which the British Legation promptly rescued him. The national rage forced the Shah to take the most solemn oath available, by sending a sealed Qur'an with an oath to observe the Constitution, thereby exposing himself as a proved perjurer. But he was still not dethroned, a fact which Sir Percy Sykes attributes to the recently signed Anglo-Russian agreement, in which each power assigned to the other a sphere of influence in Iran. But in February 1908 a bomb was thrown at the Shah's motor-car. In June he established martial law, and on June 23rd ordered his mercenary brigade of Cossacks to attack the freedom leaders gathered in the Assembly building behind the Sepah-Salar mosque and the Beharistan Square in front of it. However, in July 1909 a great force from the southwest led by the Bakhtiaris captured Tehran and compelled Muhammad Ali Shah to abdicate on July 16th. In this triumph the guerilla force from Faris led by Haj Sayid Abdul Hussein played a valiant part.
   Sayid Abdul Hussein's great influence was due not only to his learning and piety, which had earned him the position of a Mujtahed, highest grade of the Shia' Ulema, but also to his civic services. For soon after the turn of the century he set up a local government in Laristan, presided over by an executive body amongst the members of which were prominent religious personalities; and under his presidency this body protected his fellow citizens from injustices at the hands of arrogant feudalist landlords. He forbade the people to pay taxes demanded by the

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central government or by the official provincial government. People gladly gave contributions to support whatever expenses his new independent administration required. He even printed special postage stamps in the name of the Laristan Government. These are now great rarities highly prized by collectors.
   After the successful coup d'etat of 1909, and Muhammad Ali Shah's abdication in favour of his son the twelve-year-old Sultan Ahmad Shah, Sayid Abdul Hussein returned to his task with the Laristan government and performed many further services for his people.
   Local feudalistic opposition against him rose to increasing heights of virulence. In the midst of this the people of the town of Jahrom invited Haj Sayid Abdul Hussein to leave Lar, which he had chosen as his administration centre, and move to their city, which is also my own native home. He accepted the invitation, withdrew from Lar and was given a most warm and respectful welcome in Jahrom.
   There he became the accepted religious leader. He inspired a large circle of youth to practise all that a profound faith in God and desire to serve their country would demand. He encouraged many in the study of theology. His public services in the mosque on Fridays drew thousands to hear his eloquent preaching and to join in his fervent prayers.
   As a child I was one of those who most eagerly participated in these services. I can still see the huge crowds which gathered for them; and remember the large numbers that followed him back to his house to talk over lunch, a meal which had from early morning kept numbers of cooks busy in a huge kitchen to prepare for so many.
   On his death there was no one in Jahrom who failed to be present at the services of mourning and of memorial held in all the mosques and theological colleges. For three days the bazaar was closed, and business was at a standstill out of respect for his memory.
   He left three sons: Sayid Abdul Muhammad; Sayid Ali Akbar; and Sayid Ali Asghar Musawi, our author's father, born in 1907 in Lar. Sayid Ali Asghar attended theological college in the city of Najaf, scene of the martyrdom of the Imam Ali's sons in Iraq, where he attained the highest degree in theology. From thence he returned to Lar where he remained.
   The second brother, Sayid Ali Akbar, accompanied his father to 1.Jahrom and set up his home there. The eldest son, Sayid Abdul Muhammad, set up his house in Shiraz, where he died, lamented by all, in 1973.
   Sayid Ali Asghar was a great leader—not only in the people's religious, but also in their social and political life. A faithful guide, a wise leader, a skilful organiser of welfare organisations, he was a great help to the needy and a brave fighter against injustice. He taught his disciples; he ran many charities; he wrote a number of valuable works: of these perhaps the most important was Mankind's Need of Prophets and Religious Leaders of which I had the honour of undertaking the publication just after my first election as representative of the people of Jahrom in Iran's Parliament nearly 30 years ago. He did my wife and me the honour of making our home his own whenever he came from Jahrom to stay in

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Tehran for a period. He was of such a compelling faith, infectious integrity and bounteous quality of life that we always loved to be with him, and greatly grieved when he passed away. He now lies buried beside his father in Jahrom.
   But he has left us a priceless heritage not only in our memories of him in his own writings, but also in the fruits of the marvelous training he gave his children, of whom the author of this present book, Sayid Mujtaba, is the eldest. Readers of this book will see the great width of Sayid Mujtaba's reading, the meticulousness of his observation, the profundity of his judgment, the penetration of his understanding of human beings and of society, and the wisdom of his counsels for the future welfare of men and nations.
   This book is a worthy tribute, and will, I am sure, draw the same sort of attention as that which is given by the crowds who flock every Thursday evening and Friday morning to pay their respects at the shrine of his grandfather and father where they lie buried in Jahrom. These tombs and their sanctuary are safeguarded by a Waqf, or charitable foundation, entrusted with funds to keep the shrine in perfect order for pilgrimage.
   It was Sayid Mujtaba's own personal request that Mr. Francis Goulding, whose acquaintanceship with Iran goes back some 47 years, should translate this book and so make it available for readers in that Western civilisation whose features are so artistically, often amusingly, and always interestingly, drawn by the distinguished author.

ABU'LFAZL HAZEGHI

Tehran 1977

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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

Too seldom does any power give us the gift to see ourselves as it see us. In this book just that gift is given us by an eminent Muslim Divine.
   Our author credits General Eisenhower with having said: An age which has split the atom must heal humanity's splits or perish. A genuine reciprocal desire to explore each other's minds, to appreciate each other's backgrounds, to comprehend each other's viewpoints, is the first prerequisite for achieving mutual understanding. It is as an illuminating insight into the viewpoint of a large section of the humanity with whom we share this globe that this translation is offered to the English-speaking world.
   For some people various of the asseverations of our author may be reparative. Others may carp at factual errors, misinterpreted information or partisan attitudes. But neither angry argument, belligerent bigotry, furious fanaticism nor inflexible insistence on our own conviction of what is true and right will obliterate the actuality of opposite beliefs held equally firmly by others.
   Antinomies and contradictions will only be reconciled on earth when the effort has first been made to grasp what the other man thinks and says, and to penetrate to the underlying experiences which make him so think and say. Everyone is justified in affirming on the basis of their own experience: I have tried, tested and proven certain truths and found that they work: so that I know I am right. But should he go on to say: "Therefore you must be wrong" he moves outside the pale of propriety.
   This translation endeavours to reproduce the exact sentiments of the author. For this reason his quotations from Western authors have been retranslated from his Persian rather than excerpted from the original. It seems more important to reflect what our author considered he had read than to repeat the quoted writer's original words. The sole exception to this rule is the quote from page 270 of Alexis Carrel's Man, the Unknown where the original is cited and our author's divergence from it given for a basis of comparison. It will be seen that he has read widely in collecting his material and has observed shrewdly all that was presented to him during his European sojourn.
   The wise and prudent will not be offended by strictures on aspects of Western conduct or creeds: but weigh what is correct in order to improve; weigh what they think mistaken in order to reach understanding; and weigh what seems valuable in order to follow the advice of Francis Bacon Lord Verulam to prick in some flowers of what he has learned abroad into the costumes of his own country.
   A reverend mullah in Tehran once provided me with a multiple, if covert, laugh, when he complained that a Western general had behaved insultingly, even obscenely, by conveying food to his mouth with his left hand: But I showed him how I despised him by waggling the bare sole of my left foot at him! Here was a fantastic farrago of ignorance and

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in comprehensions. The general had no idea that his eating habits were obscene! He did not know that to waggle the bare sole at someone is an insulting sign of contempt. The mullah did not know that the general did not know these things. All the same, that general would have got farther in his work in Iran if he had spent a fraction of his care to study military dispositions and strategies on also studying national manners, ideas and attitudes and adapting his own behaviour to fit.
   Too many of us disregard and write off others' customs and age-old ideas. For an African it is an insult to walk behind a person. So that in South Africa a black will walk between two persons in conversation on the street rather than pass just behind one of them. Many an untutored white resents what he, from his own background, feels to be rude, and kicks the black intruder, who, of course, does not understand the reaction and is filled with hurt, pride and hate.
   Quotations from the Qur'an are given in the form Sura I : Al-Fatihe — `The Opener' v.1: i.e. first the number of the Sura in Roman numerals, denoting its place in the arrangement of the Qur'an ; then the Arabic name by which it is regularly cited by Muslims, with the English translation of that name; and finally the verse. This is in order to enable readers to compare the translations given in this book with any or all of the many English versions of the Qur'an which now exist.
   Dates are quoted as Anno Domini, in some cases with the Persian Muslim equivalent, i.e. the date in solar years dating from the Hejra, or Flight of the Prophet and his adherents from Mecca to Yathrib, the city 200 miles north of Mecca which after that event proudly changed its name to The prophet's city or The City (Arabic Medina) par excellence. These solar post-Hejra years are quoted as AHS (Anno Hejratis Solari). AHS 1 starts on March 21st AD 622. Arabic lunar postHejra dates are labelled AHL (Anno Hejratis Lunari).
   Most technical terms are explained in the text as they occur, but for ease of reference a brief Glossary defining a few is added at the end of the book.