During the post war years, I served in a residence in west of the country. I received an invitation card from a Girls Guidance School in order to deliver lecture and tell my memories for them.
I prepared some thing to tell them in my mind and went to that guidance school. School girls had stood in ordered lines for the every day morning programs. They invited me to deliver lecture for the school girls. I just wanted to start to speak that one of the school girls said: “Please let us suggest the subject of your lecture.”
I accepted. She said: “Why do we say that martyrs are alive. This is while we bury martyrs.”
My minds which had become prepared for giving lecture in the way I had planned mixed up in one moment. It was due to the question that the school girl had asked. And I asked my God to help me to answer to her as suitable as possible. I wanted both to say what I had prepared and answer suitably to the question of this girl and other students of the school as well.
I remembered the memory of one of my war wounded companions in war. Then I told them: “I was waiting for a taxi in the corner of the street in Kermanshah City some time ago. A van full of watermelon passed from me and stopped after one moment. The van driver put the car in reverse and came backwards for few meters. The van driver got out of the van. He did not have one hand. He called me and became close to me. He hugged me. He was Azizollah, one of my old companions in war. He was one of the brave drivers from “Lorestan” Province. He had created a lot of epics behind him.
I greeted with him and asked what how he was doing. I asked: “What do you do here?”
He said: “Brother Salar! Do you remember it was 1984 and we were in “Majnoon” Operation Region? I was carrying a gun in my hand and going on foot. There was a brother [Iranian combatants called each other “Brother” during war] next to you. You asked” Azizollah! Where are you going?” and I answered: “I go hunting ducks.” We passed from each other and a few minutes later, the brother next to you stood and called me and said: “Dear brother! Do you know why these ducks land on the ground of Islam combatants [It refers to Iranian combatants] and do not go to the side of Iraqi forces?”
Then I said: “No. I don’t know. What is the reason for that?”
He answered: “It is because we are the soldiers of Imam Khomeini.”
These words said by the person next to you created an inner revolution inside me. These words made me aware of my mistake. And I never hunted the ducks.
Then I heard from you that this brother – Ali reza Dehghan from “Mariange” Town in Hamedan – was the deputy of commander of “Hazrat Ali Asghar” Battalion. And he was martyred in Karbala 4 Operation.
Azizollah further continued: “During my life, when ever I become disappointed and I face with the difficulties of life, I remember the words of that dear martyr and take energy from his statement.”
And before the school students, I said that: “Being alive of martyr means that martyr influences on the society and people. It means keeping people stable and insisting in the religion of God.”
And my speeches highly influenced on the students of that guidance school that day. And I am thanked God for that day and the influence.