The Culture of Martyrdom and Sacrifice and its Role in the Epic of Holy Defense

Introduction:

The great influence of productive culture of martyrdom is benefited by the excellent manifestations in expanse of pure prophet Mohammad Islam’s ideology. The process of this influence is seen in the cultural, political, social, military and economic domains.

The historical findings and accomplishments since the early Islamic period up to now indicate this wonderful fact that the culture of martyrdom-seeking has been posed as the most viable and effective element in achieving the purposes, maintaining the values and confronting the internal and external enemies.

The culture of martyrdom-seeking means believing in God and resurrection, having firm belief in truth and the rightness of the prophet Mohammad’s Islam, resisting against the enemy, devotion and sacrifice in the direction of the maintaining the Revolution and pure Islam’s values, being indefatigable and believing in victory or martyrdom in God’s way.

God says in His noble verses:

“Say: nothing will afflict us save what Allah has ordained for us; he is our patron; and on Allah let the believers rely say: do you wait for us but one of two most excellent things? “

Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran believed that:

“We are God’s servant; we move and progress in His way and course. If we become a martyr in this way, it is a bliss and salvation and if the victory was occurred, it is also prosperity and the nation that has been adorned by the culture of martyrdom-seeking is undefeatable.”?

The Holy Defense is recorded in memory as a document of resistance and submissiveness of Iranians. It is a document of resistance due to this matter that the armed enemy had raised relying on all arrogant and tyrant powers in order to erase a nation’s values even though a short time had passed from the great Revolution’s victory. Still, the revolutionary conditions and its consequences have filled the Iran’s atmosphere and the country has not been in the political, economic and social readiness circumstance that the unwanted and unequal war has been imposed on Iran’s nation via the multilateral invasion. The multilateral resistance and courage of individuals in the form of Basiji forces and the heroic actions of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and Jihad and Army set a new record from resistance.

The Holy Defense is as the document of submissiveness because this war was unfair and Iran was not benefited by defensive capability and the Bureaucracy of the country didn’t allow us to equip the powers for a war. On the other hand, we couldn’t basically use the enemy’s methods such as bombing the schools, residential regions, hospitals and fearing the people due to observance of ethics and humane scales. The Holy Defense was a submissiveness document of a nation that won the war empty-handed and by trusting God at the paganism and apostasy which had been appeared in the form of Baathist Army.

The eight year of the Holy Defense and operations of Islam’s militants led to the creation of a rich culture despite all ups and downs, the very thought which is mentioned under the name of the culture of stability.

The culture of martyrdom-seeking is a kind of religious and national culture due to its historical root and sources can be a sanative prescription for maintaining the territorial integrity of the country in different times.

This culture has the characteristics and features which have made and separated it from other cultures and even the culture of resistance and perseverance of other countries. The most important characteristic of this culture believed in God, the essence which causes all the movements and gesture of the person to focus on the universe’s origin.

God-orientation caused the Islam’s armies to notice God in their moments despite other Armies of the world. Also, they viewed the triumph conquest of the land as a secondary purpose not as a primitive and main aim despite other military strategies, and this matter is peerless in the whole history of humanity, and we can find its examples in the resistances which have been benefited by the Islamic Iran.


Undoubtedly, the period of Holy Defense has unique features which separate it from the other wars. The war started formally on September 20, 1980 after Iraq attacked the Southern frontiers of Iran.

The dirty and tainted hand of Baathist regime of Iraq contaminated with the clean blood of hundreds of innocent persons, and an invasion started that was supported by the alien arrogant countries financially and mentally, an unfair war which was really unequal. Based on the vain primal predictions, many believed that the occupation of Iran will end in less than few months and the aggressive leaders will occupy the seat of power with victory, and the affairs will be run on the basis of Iran’s capture and the leader’s tastes. These predictions seemed somewhat true and rational, for the various groups and parties used to utter their word despite the country which started a Revolution recently and didn’t have a regular systematization. Also, there was not a cohesive and efficient military commandership and … we should not expect anything more against the regular Army which was equipped with all weapons and military equipment and techniques. Now, we want to know the reason why all these predictions ended up being wrong, and some factors cause the destiny of our country to be written in such a way in this unfair battle. Yes, these factors are the unique characteristics of our Holy Defense Period. One of the most obvious and effective factors was the culture of martyrdom-seeking that we will talk about. The various factors played an important role in the victory of war. We can divide them into two aspects of hardware and software dimensions.

1) The hardware dimension:

All military equipments such as the military forces, ammunitions, heavy and light aerial and ground instruments and etc. which have the tangible aspect, and are used in war form the hardware dimension of war. We encounter a great inequality in this dimension, for our enemy is benefited by today’s lawful and unlawful military equipments which were produced in laboratories of the advanced countries. Also, it was benefited by the financial aids of many countries which were in agreement with Islamic Republic system and it didn’t have any problem and concern on purchasing and providing the ammunitions and heavy and light tools. The military power of Iran and Iraq was never equal since the beginning of the war in 1980 A.D up to the end of it in 1988. The support of Iraq Baathist regime by all Arabian countries except for Syria and financial and arms support of Iraq Baathist regime by many countries of the world show the inequality of military power among two countries. The below table shows the charter of military power of two countries at the beginning and end of the war which was published by the valid Economist Magazine.

- Inequality of power’s balance

(1980-1988) / Iraq / Iran

-Tanks in 1988 /2700 / 1740

-Tanks in 1988 / 4500/ 1000

-Fighter-bomber in 1980 / 332/ 445

-Fighter-bomber in 1988 /500+ / 65

-Fighter helicopters in 1980 / 40 / 500

-Fighter helicopters in 1988 / 150 / 60

-Artillery in 1980 / 1000 / 1000+

-Artillery in 1988 / 4000+ / 1000+

Our country accepted the unwanted sanction while a short time had been spent from the beginning of the war as the shells which were used by our soldiers, were rationed in some fronts.

2) The software dimension of the war:

The equipments, facilities, educations and skills which don’t have the objective and tangible aspect and consist of forces, and immaterial educations and motivations of the people who are involved in the war form the software dimension of the war. This dimension can be considered and investigated in some subsets. It includes a part of military and defensive power of the involved forces in the war and the other part is related to the purpose, motivation and leadership. From the viewpoint of military educations, Iraqi soldiers learned the most recent techniques and put them in the direction of their victory due to the chronological and strategic situation of Iraq and existence of suitable mutual relation with other countries especially America while these educations had been postponed and finished in our country for a while due to the occurrence of Islamic Revolution and relevant disorders, and even most of the commanders resigned or were not present due to the specific situation of the country. However, due to the necessity, these educations were revived in the period of the war as an intensive educational course was held for some months before the dispatch of forces to the front lines. (Of course, these courses were very worthless in comparison with the rival)

What caused the Islam’s soldiers to win over the hegemony army was the subject of purpose, motivation and leadership not the military equipment and educations. The comparison of this feature among the soldiers of Islam and atheism army indicates that the purpose and philosophy of the war were different among the Baathist and aggressive armed soldiers. They were aggressors and intended to capture our country in order to meet their mundane and worldly needs, while our soldiers went to the battle field with the purpose of defending the ideals and Islamic values and protecting their country. They were aggressors and we were the defenders. They fought for themselves and we fought for protecting our values. Undoubtedly, the motivation of two groups was different and separated. Their motivation was promotion, compensation and gaining the mundane and worldly facilities, while our soldiers had offered themselves generously and used to act bravely so as to reach the victory or martyrdom. There were many obvious differences in the arena of leadership. Saddam was a despotic and dictator commander who used to remove the people who didn’t act according to his wishes. (We see some examples of this in the execution of several commanders and intimates of him which was done by his command). On the contrary, our leadership was perfect and was done by Imam Khomeini (RA) who used to rule over the hearts with specific leadership not by force and exaction. His soldiers were not mercenary, and they considered themselves as the fellow fighters of Islam’s soldiers. Imam Khomeini (RA) was a complete figure in various scientific and functional dimensions who created one of the most unique incidents of Islam’s history.

His guidance and leadership in the eight years of the Holy Defense are considered as the most obvious manifestation of leadership and spiritual role of him and his wonderful influence on morale of Islam’s nation and militants. Imam Khomeini (RA) was a great person that the epos of his fighting was mixed with the highest degree of theosophy, his jurisprudence was manifested in the operational philosophy of Islamic government and his wisdom was the base of Islamic system’s politics.

About the characteristics of commandership and leadership of Imam Khomeini in the guidance of martial and armed forces, Ayatollah Khamenei states:

We don’t know of anyone as a Gnostic, wise, enthusiastic and divine commander-in-chief in the world except for the period of the Prophet and caliphate of Imam Ali and a short time of Imam Hassan … we don’t know of a military force neither at this time nor at the past time in no place of the world which deals to defense the holy ideals and honorable life of nation against the aggressors under the commandership of a spiritual, divine and Gnostic human who has the softest humane feelings and acts with firmness and stabilization that no commander is benefited by it in the world. The fervency and zeal of bravery and being a fighter, enthusiasm of Jihad (holy war) and resistance of militant and great conquests which have been gained in fighting against the Islam’s enemies, all are indebted to the miraculous effects of the spiritual character of Imam Khomeini (RA) in the leadership of Holy Defense.

One of the obvious and distinguished features between the two groups which were involved in war is the characteristic and culture of jihad and martyrdom-seeking. Undoubtedly, this characteristic could protect us against the attacks of the enemies. There were dear ones who dealt to protect our precious country with empty hands and a heart full of hope. There were a lot of mine fields which were cleaned by the dedicated and generous people. Yes, if we breathe in this atmosphere nowadays, this matter is due to the exalted culture of our beloved people.

The very culture of martyrdom-seeking that existed among the believers and crusaders of early Islamic period in the Prophet’s period caused the polytheists and pagans to become sleepless. This culture made strong and brave soldiers out of our children who were in love with martyrdom. Also, this culture frightened the enemies so that they were afraid of confronting the Islam’s forces even though there existed a lot of people and equipment. In Badr war, when some of pagan commanders went to identify Muslims, one of the polytheists said, “The Yathrib camels carry the death’s load. Don’t you see how they have closed their mouth and twisted like viper. I swear to God that they are not killed unless they kill as many as you, what good does the life for you after that? So, think of a solution.

The victory of Islamic Revolution on February 11, 1979 was beholden to two things: one of them was the peerless and prophet-type leadership of Imam Khomeini (RA) and the other one was the culture of martyrdom-seeking that revolutionary people had adorned themselves by it, and use to confront gun, tank and machine gun of devil’s mercenary, and were not afraid of death.

The climax of manifestation of the culture of martyrdom-seeking was visible in the eight years of Holy Defense, for the young people could win against the army and armed tooth of enemy which were equipped with the global arrogance and upraise the flag of Revolution and pure Islam via the least military instruments with the headbands of Ya Zahra, Ya Abolfazl, Ya Husain, Ya Mahdi, …

One of the commanders of the Holy Defense says, “The morale of martyrdom-seeking of our militants was well-known to all, so that it has recently been announced that we cannot confront this martyrdom-seeking of Islam’s militants and we cannot do anything.”?

Also, one of Iraqi commanders says, “We see the Iranian militants who put their foot on mine ground, pass and attack us. But, we see our soldiers -Iraqi soldiers- who wear their boots and escape slowly without any sound! How do we fight? How can not we pull back?!”?

Now, what is our duty in the recent time? The people, who died, acted like Imam Hossein (AS) and those who are alive should act like Holy Zeinab.

Now, we should provide the arena of revival and development of martyrdom’s culture with observance to Islamic and Revolutionary’s high values while protecting the reverence of martyr’s blood, for the global arrogance thinks about winning us and violation of our glory and greatness constantly. Also, the historical proofs have shown that it has benefited by any weapon in this way and uses every way which can. The evident shows that the global arrogance doesn’t have been obligated to war regulations in the period of the war and has indicated its bad faith (such as giving chemical weapons to Baathist regime and attacking passenger airplanes). Our young people must be alert and shouldn’t take steps in the way of accomplishment of the purposes of these world devourers unwantedly and unconsciously.

The End

Sources:

1. www.sajed.ir

2. The Economist 25-19: September 1987

3. http: //www.fa.wikipedia.org

4. Etela'at Newspaper

Introduction: The great influence of productive culture of martyrdom is benefited by the excellent manifestations in expanse of pure prophet Mohammad Islam’s ideology. The process of this influence is seen in the cultural, political, social, military and economic domains. The historical findings and accomplishments since the early Islamic period up to now indicate this wonderful fact that the culture of martyrdom-seeking has been posed as the most viable and effective element in achieving the purposes, maintaining the values and confronting the internal and external enemies. The culture of martyrdom-seeking means believing in God and resurrection, having firm belief in truth and the rightness of the prophet Mohammad’s Islam, resisting against the enemy, devotion and sacrifice in the direction of the maintaining the Revolution and pure Islam’s values, being indefatigable and believing in victory or martyrdom in God’s way. God says in His noble verses: “Say: nothing will afflict us save what Allah has ordained for us; he is our patron; and on Allah let the believers rely say: do you wait for us but one of two most excellent things? “ Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran believed that: “We are God’s servant; we move and progress in His way and course. If we become a martyr in this way, it is a bliss and salvation and if the victory was occurred, it is also prosperity and the nation that has been adorned by the culture of martyrdom-seeking is undefeatable.”? The Holy Defense is recorded in memory as a document of resistance and submissiveness of Iranians. It is a document of resistance due to this matter that the armed enemy had raised relying on all arrogant and tyrant powers in order to erase a nation’s values even though a short time had passed from the great Revolution’s victory. Still, the revolutionary conditions and its consequences have filled the Iran’s atmosphere and the country has not been in the political, economic and social readiness circumstance that the unwanted and unequal war has been imposed on Iran’s nation via the multilateral invasion. The multilateral resistance and courage of individuals in the form of Basiji forces and the heroic actions of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and Jihad and Army set a new record from resistance. The Holy Defense is as the document of submissiveness because this war was unfair and Iran was not benefited by defensive capability and the Bureaucracy of the country didn’t allow us to equip the powers for a war. On the other hand, we couldn’t basically use the enemy’s methods such as bombing the schools, residential regions, hospitals and fearing the people due to observance of ethics and humane scales. The Holy Defense was a submissiveness document of a nation that won the war empty-handed and by trusting God at the paganism and apostasy which had been appeared in the form of Baathist Army. The eight year of the Holy Defense and operations of Islam’s militants led to the creation of a rich culture despite all ups and downs, the very thought which is mentioned under the name of the culture of stability. The culture of martyrdom-seeking is a kind of religious and national culture due to its historical root and sources can be a sanative prescription for maintaining the territorial integrity of the country in different times. This culture has the characteristics and features which have made and separated it from other cultures and even the culture of resistance and perseverance of other countries. The most important characteristic of this culture believed in God, the essence which causes all the movements and gesture of the person to focus on the universe’s origin. God-orientation caused the Islam’s armies to notice God in their moments despite other Armies of the world. Also, they viewed the triumph conquest of the land as a secondary purpose not as a primitive and main aim despite other military strategies, and this matter is peerless in the whole history of humanity, and we can find its examples in the resistances which have been benefited by the Islamic Iran. Undoubtedly, the period of Holy Defense has unique features which separate it from the other wars. The war started formally on September 20, 1980 after Iraq attacked the Southern frontiers of Iran. The dirty and tainted hand of Baathist regime of Iraq contaminated with the clean blood of hundreds of innocent persons, and an invasion started that was supported by the alien arrogant countries financially and mentally, an unfair war which was really unequal. Based on the vain primal predictions, many believed that the occupation of Iran will end in less than few months and the aggressive leaders will occupy the seat of power with victory, and the affairs will be run on the basis of Iran’s capture and the leader’s tastes. These predictions seemed somewhat true and rational, for the various groups and parties used to utter their word despite the country which started a Revolution recently and didn’t have a regular systematization. Also, there was not a cohesive and efficient military commandership and … we should not expect anything more against the regular Army which was equipped with all weapons and military equipment and techniques. Now, we want to know the reason why all these predictions ended up being wrong, and some factors cause the destiny of our country to be written in such a way in this unfair battle. Yes, these factors are the unique characteristics of our Holy Defense Period. One of the most obvious and effective factors was the culture of martyrdom-seeking that we will talk about. The various factors played an important role in the victory of war. We can divide them into two aspects of hardware and software dimensions. 1) The hardware dimension: All military equipments such as the military forces, ammunitions, heavy and light aerial and ground instruments and etc. which have the tangible aspect, and are used in war form the hardware dimension of war. We encounter a great inequality in this dimension, for our enemy is benefited by today’s lawful and unlawful military equipments which were produced in laboratories of the advanced countries. Also, it was benefited by the financial aids of many countries which were in agreement with Islamic Republic system and it didn’t have any problem and concern on purchasing and providing the ammunitions and heavy and light tools. The military power of Iran and Iraq was never equal since the beginning of the war in 1980 A.D up to the end of it in 1988. The support of Iraq Baathist regime by all Arabian countries except for Syria and financial and arms support of Iraq Baathist regime by many countries of the world show the inequality of military power among two countries. The below table shows the charter of military power of two countries at the beginning and end of the war which was published by the valid Economist Magazine. - Inequality of power’s balance (1980-1988) / Iraq / Iran -Tanks in 1988 /2700 / 1740 -Tanks in 1988 / 4500/ 1000 -Fighter-bomber in 1980 / 332/ 445 -Fighter-bomber in 1988 /500+ / 65 -Fighter helicopters in 1980 / 40 / 500 -Fighter helicopters in 1988 / 150 / 60 -Artillery in 1980 / 1000 / 1000+ -Artillery in 1988 / 4000+ / 1000+ Our country accepted the unwanted sanction while a short time had been spent from the beginning of the war as the shells which were used by our soldiers, were rationed in some fronts. 2) The software dimension of the war: The equipments, facilities, educations and skills which don’t have the objective and tangible aspect and consist of forces, and immaterial educations and motivations of the people who are involved in the war form the software dimension of the war. This dimension can be considered and investigated in some subsets. It includes a part of military and defensive power of the involved forces in the war and the other part is related to the purpose, motivation and leadership. From the viewpoint of military educations, Iraqi soldiers learned the most recent techniques and put them in the direction of their victory due to the chronological and strategic situation of Iraq and existence of suitable mutual relation with other countries especially America while these educations had been postponed and finished in our country for a while due to the occurrence of Islamic Revolution and relevant disorders, and even most of the commanders resigned or were not present due to the specific situation of the country. However, due to the necessity, these educations were revived in the period of the war as an intensive educational course was held for some months before the dispatch of forces to the front lines. (Of course, these courses were very worthless in comparison with the rival) What caused the Islam’s soldiers to win over the hegemony army was the subject of purpose, motivation and leadership not the military equipment and educations. The comparison of this feature among the soldiers of Islam and atheism army indicates that the purpose and philosophy of the war were different among the Baathist and aggressive armed soldiers. They were aggressors and intended to capture our country in order to meet their mundane and worldly needs, while our soldiers went to the battle field with the purpose of defending the ideals and Islamic values and protecting their country. They were aggressors and we were the defenders. They fought for themselves and we fought for protecting our values. Undoubtedly, the motivation of two groups was different and separated. Their motivation was promotion, compensation and gaining the mundane and worldly facilities, while our soldiers had offered themselves generously and used to act bravely so as to reach the victory or martyrdom. There were many obvious differences in the arena of leadership. Saddam was a despotic and dictator commander who used to remove the people who didn’t act according to his wishes. (We see some examples of this in the execution of several commanders and intimates of him which was done by his command). On the contrary, our leadership was perfect and was done by Imam Khomeini (RA) who used to rule over the hearts with specific leadership not by force and exaction. His soldiers were not mercenary, and they considered themselves as the fellow fighters of Islam’s soldiers. Imam Khomeini (RA) was a complete figure in various scientific and functional dimensions who created one of the most unique incidents of Islam’s history. His guidance and leadership in the eight years of the Holy Defense are considered as the most obvious manifestation of leadership and spiritual role of him and his wonderful influence on morale of Islam’s nation and militants. Imam Khomeini (RA) was a great person that the epos of his fighting was mixed with the highest degree of theosophy, his jurisprudence was manifested in the operational philosophy of Islamic government and his wisdom was the base of Islamic system’s politics. About the characteristics of commandership and leadership of Imam Khomeini in the guidance of martial and armed forces, Ayatollah Khamenei states: We don’t know of anyone as a Gnostic, wise, enthusiastic and divine commander-in-chief in the world except for the period of the Prophet and caliphate of Imam Ali and a short time of Imam Hassan … we don’t know of a military force neither at this time nor at the past time in no place of the world which deals to defense the holy ideals and honorable life of nation against the aggressors under the commandership of a spiritual, divine and Gnostic human who has the softest humane feelings and acts with firmness and stabilization that no commander is benefited by it in the world. The fervency and zeal of bravery and being a fighter, enthusiasm of Jihad (holy war) and resistance of militant and great conquests which have been gained in fighting against the Islam’s enemies, all are indebted to the miraculous effects of the spiritual character of Imam Khomeini (RA) in the leadership of Holy Defense. One of the obvious and distinguished features between the two groups which were involved in war is the characteristic and culture of jihad and martyrdom-seeking. Undoubtedly, this characteristic could protect us against the attacks of the enemies. There were dear ones who dealt to protect our precious country with empty hands and a heart full of hope. There were a lot of mine fields which were cleaned by the dedicated and generous people. Yes, if we breathe in this atmosphere nowadays, this matter is due to the exalted culture of our beloved people. The very culture of martyrdom-seeking that existed among the believers and crusaders of early Islamic period in the Prophet’s period caused the polytheists and pagans to become sleepless. This culture made strong and brave soldiers out of our children who were in love with martyrdom. Also, this culture frightened the enemies so that they were afraid of confronting the Islam’s forces even though there existed a lot of people and equipment. In Badr war, when some of pagan commanders went to identify Muslims, one of the polytheists said, “The Yathrib camels carry the death’s load. Don’t you see how they have closed their mouth and twisted like viper. I swear to God that they are not killed unless they kill as many as you, what good does the life for you after that? So, think of a solution. The victory of Islamic Revolution on February 11, 1979 was beholden to two things: one of them was the peerless and prophet-type leadership of Imam Khomeini (RA) and the other one was the culture of martyrdom-seeking that revolutionary people had adorned themselves by it, and use to confront gun, tank and machine gun of devil’s mercenary, and were not afraid of death. The climax of manifestation of the culture of martyrdom-seeking was visible in the eight years of Holy Defense, for the young people could win against the army and armed tooth of enemy which were equipped with the global arrogance and upraise the flag of Revolution and pure Islam via the least military instruments with the headbands of Ya Zahra, Ya Abolfazl, Ya Husain, Ya Mahdi, … One of the commanders of the Holy Defense says, “The morale of martyrdom-seeking of our militants was well-known to all, so that it has recently been announced that we cannot confront this martyrdom-seeking of Islam’s militants and we cannot do anything.”? Also, one of Iraqi commanders says, “We see the Iranian militants who put their foot on mine ground, pass and attack us. But, we see our soldiers -Iraqi soldiers- who wear their boots and escape slowly without any sound! How do we fight? How can not we pull back?!”? Now, what is our duty in the recent time? The people, who died, acted like Imam Hossein (AS) and those who are alive should act like Holy Zeinab. Now, we should provide the arena of revival and development of martyrdom’s culture with observance to Islamic and Revolutionary’s high values while protecting the reverence of martyr’s blood, for the global arrogance thinks about winning us and violation of our glory and greatness constantly. Also, the historical proofs have shown that it has benefited by any weapon in this way and uses every way which can. The evident shows that the global arrogance doesn’t have been obligated to war regulations in the period of the war and has indicated its bad faith (such as giving chemical weapons to Baathist regime and attacking passenger airplanes). Our young people must be alert and shouldn’t take steps in the way of accomplishment of the purposes of these world devourers unwantedly and unconsciously. The End Sources: 1. www.sajed.ir 2. The Economist 25-19: September 1987 3. http: //www.fa.wikipedia.org 4. Etela'at Newspaper