Chamran was a scientist who left behind his well-off life in the US to help the oppressed: Ayatollah Khamenei

It behooves me to make a few comments about Shahid (Martyr) Mustafa Chamran during this meeting. First of all, Mustafa Chamran was an outstanding and talented person, in addition to being a scientist. He would tell me about the manner in which his professors used to treat him and about his progression of scholarly works while completing his graduate studies in the United States of America. As far as I remember, he was one of the top two students at his university, in his field. He was a true scientist, yet his religious devotion was so strong that he gave up his notoriety, position and future in the academic world.

He went to Lebanon to join the jihad alongside Imam Musa Sadr; this was at a time when Lebanon was going through one of the most bitter and dangerous eras of its history. We would hear the news from Lebanon in the year 1979: temporary bulwarks had been built all over the streets of Beirut; the Zionists were provoking the people; and there were a number of people inside Lebanon who would help them. The conditions were tragic and the situation was extremely complicated in Lebanon. It was at that time when I received an audio tape from Mustafa Chamran, while I was in Mashhad. The audio tape was the establishment of my familiarity with Martyr Chamran, it was a two-hour commentary on the scenes he had witnessed in Lebanon. I found the audio very interesting: with clear insight, with a clear political view, with clear political understanding, he had recorded his commentary on the events in Lebanon; what was going on, who was fighting who, who had the motivation to let the killings continue in Beirut. He made a decision to go to Lebanon and fight. Later on, it became clear that he enjoyed lucid political insight and understanding, he was a light in the fog in times of fitna (sedition); fitna is like a dense fog that makes it difficult to see; it is necessary to have light in times of fitna and insight is the fog light. Chamran carried on his fight in Lebanon and later, when the Revolution achieved victory, he returned to Iran.

Mustafa Chamran was present in different arenas from the start of the Revolution: he went to Kurdistan where he had an active presence in the conflicts there; later, he went to Tehran, it was here he became the Minister of Defense; and when the war broke out, he gave up his position as the Minister of Defense and went to Ahwaz to fight. Mustafa Chamran continued to fight until he was martyred on June 21, 1981. These events reveal that a position in the government was not of value to him; the material world was not of value to him; the attractions of material life were not of value to him. However, he was not a dry person who could not enjoy life. On the contrary, he was very sensitive and artistic. He was a first-rate photographer, he would tell me, "I have taken thousands of photos and I am not in any of them because I’m always been behind the camera." He had a tender heart for one who had not studied mysticism. Maybe he had not received education from anybody in any divine or mystic schools of thought, but his heart was after God. His heart was tender. He was a spiritual man, a man of praying. He was also an impartial person. You have definitely heard the story about Paveh.

After a few days of resistance, Martyr Chamran and his companions had been besieged in the mountains of Paveh. Anti-revolutionary elements had besieged them. They were about to be captured when Imam Khomeini (ra) found out, Khomeini issued a message on the radio and asked everybody rush to their rescue. The message was aired at 2 p.m. and at 4 p.m. I witnessed, in the streets of Tehran, trucks of ordinary citizens and members of the military leaving the city for Paveh. This was the case with other cities as well. After the event in Paveh, when Martyr Chamran had returned to Tehran, in a meeting, he reported the event to the then Prime Minister. Chamran and the Prime Minister were close friends for quite a while earlier. At the meeting Chamran said, "As soon as Imam's message had been issued on the radio at 2 p.m. and before anybody had arrived there, we felt that the siege had been lifted." He said, "Imam's decision to issue the message was so effective that as soon as it had been aired, it seemed to have put an end to the pressure that was being exerted on us. The morale of the anti-revolutionaries was destroyed. The message raised our spirits: we attacked them and managed to break the siege." At the meeting the Prime Minister of the time became angry and lashed out at Mustafa Chamran, saying, "We worked so hard and we made so many efforts. Why do you give all the credit to Imam?" Chamran was impartial and he would not take anything into consideration in this regard: He said what he said, although he knew he would be criticized for the statement.

Another quality about the Martyr Mustafa Chamran is that he was always present where he was needed. I went to Ahwaz with Chamran, it was the first time I was going into the battlefield, we entered Ahwaz in the dark of the night and there was complete silence. The enemy forces had been deployed about 12 kilometers from the city. Chamran was accompanied by 60 people, who had travelled with him from Tehran, but I was alone. All of us had travelled there on a C-130 airplane. As soon as we arrived, we were presented a brief military report. Immediately afterwards, he told us to get prepared and leave for the battlefield, it was around 10 p.m. Without wasting any time, uniforms were provided for those who had not brought uniforms and everybody departed. Before leaving, I asked him if I could go with them, because I felt I was unable to fight in the battlefield, he encouraged me when he said that I could go with them. I immediately put on a military uniform, picked up the Kalashnikov rifle, I had brand along, and left with them for the battlefield. Mustafa Chamran began his work in the early hours of the day: he would never allow anyone to waste time. This is presence in the true sense of the word. Being present is one of the characteristics of a basiji and a basij movement. Being present wherever one is needed is one of the most important basiji characteristics. As you know, Susangerd was liberated twice because the enemy forces had recaptured it. The day on which Susangerd was liberated, many efforts were made to encourage the Army - which was controlled by other people at that time - to get involved in the attack and to organize it. On the night of the attack on Susangerd, which was supposed to be carried out from Ahwaz, at about 1 a.m. we received reports that one of the units, meant for taking part in the attack, had been withdrawn. Well, this meant that either the attack would be cancelled or it would fail completely. I wrote a letter to a commander in Ahwaz and Mustafa Chamran added his comments to it. Recently, an esteemed commander came to me and gave me that letter and he had had that letter framed, a letter from around thirty years ago. I still have the letter. We were together until after 1 a.m., trying to make arrangements to carry out the attack on the following day, then the meeting was dismissed and I went to bed. We got up early in the morning, after the Army forces had left; I followed them with a few people who were accompanying me. When we reached the region, I asked where Chamran was and they said, "Chamran came early in the morning and he is in front." Chamran and his companions had left before the organized and disciplined Army forces, although plans had been made about the position of the Army forces and their military formation. He was a few kilometers ahead of the Army forces. Thankfully, the great task was completed successfully, but Chamran was injured in the process. May God bestow mercy on this honorable Martyr. This was Chamran’s manner: the material world and social position were not important for him and neither were wealth and fame; he did not care who received the credit; he was impartial and frank; he was courageous and tough; he was a hardworking soldier on the battlefield and at the same time he enjoyed artistic and mystical subtlety. I saw with my own eyes that he was teaching our forces how to fire RPG-7s: this was because RPG-7s were not among our official weapons. We neither had them, nor did we know how to fire them. He learned how to fire an RPG-7 in Lebanon; he would refer to the weapon as RBG-7, which is the Arabic pronunciation; we would say "RPG", but he would say "RBG" because he had been trained in Lebanon. He had gathered a few RPG-7s and he was teaching our soldiers how to fire them, in the battlefield, he was a completely down-to-earth man. Imagine a first-rate plasma physicist alongside the character of a trained sergeant, not just any physicist, but a physicist with those subtle feelings, a physicist with that firm religious faith, a physicist with that dogged determination; this is what a basiji scientist is like. This is what a basiji professor is like. He was a perfect example in this regard, one whom I met in person. For such a person, the opposition between tradition and modernity is nonsense. For such a person, the opposition between faith and science is ridiculous. Such opposition - which is proposed in the form of theories and followed up by certain people because of its theoretical significance - is meaningless for such a person. There is both science and faith; there is both tradition and modernity; there is both theory and practice; there is both love and logic.

There is a poem which says:

Logic and love do not go together,

How retched I am who have been made from water and fire.

No, he had both fire and water in himself. Spiritual and faith-based logic is not at all in conflict with love, rather it is a kind of support for sacred and pure love.

The expectation that we have is not an unreasonable expectation. The potential that can be drawn from different qualities - your dynamic characters, your pure and sincere hearts, your enlightened minds, your shrewd and sharp minds - makes one hope and expect that universities of the Islamic Republic should train people like Chamran, not as exceptions, but as the rule. This hope and expectation is not unreasonable. Considering this movement and growth, it is not unreasonable to expect universities of the Islamic Republic to train people like Chamran in the future. Imagine what would happen then? A system with lofty international demands in fields related to humanity, government, women, ethics and knowledge; today our demands become international demands. Certain people - journalists and non-journalists - might smirk when they hear the word "international". They are not bright enough to understand what it means to have a vast perspective. As long as you do not look at the peak of the mountain, you cannot even make it to the foothills, let alone make it to the peak. In Islamic narrations believers have been advised to have a firm determination, mystics teach their disciples to strengthen their determination. These preliminary steps and achievements should not give false hope to anybody. It is necessary to have a firm determination and a perspective that is human-based. Human beings have spread out all over the world. "Remember, Malek that among your subjects there are two kinds of people: those who have the same religion as you and they are brothers to you, and those who have religions other than that of yours and they are humans like you." [Nahjul Balaghah, Letter 53] They either share your religion or your human nature. It is necessary to adopt such a vast perspective. The desires that we cherish today for these vast areas are the desires that no aware nation, no learned scholar and no logical politician would reject. We claim that we will annihilate the hegemonic order: namely, the relationship between the domineering and the dominated. Even an individual that lives in a country, under a government that is a hundred percent domineering, would not reject these desires. Meaning, international relations must not be based on the domineering-dominated relationship. Moreover, justice and knowledge must be at the service of human welfare, not a threat against humanity. In particular over the recent years, after the global scientific movement namely, the Renaissance and over the past century, many of the things that have been achieved in science have posed threats to humanity rather than improving human welfare. They have posed a threat to people, ethics and families. They have encouraged consumerism and they have filled the pockets of international plunderers and owners and founders of trusts and cartels. We believe that science should be at the service of humanity rather than these things. We believe that science should be at the service of human welfare and peace, at the service of the human soul. These are positions that the world cannot reject.

When a system with such ideals and a nation with such characteristics - a nation and a government that rely on faith-based determination, in order to achieve progress in these areas, on the Quranic promise of victory for believers, on refusing to fear death, on considering death as the path to God - have scholarly and learned people like Martyr Mustafa Chamran, can you imagine what achievements they would accomplish? This is the expectation that I have.

source: khamenei.ir