Farewell to a tolerant revolutionary

But what remains to overshadow all the implications surrounding the death of Ayatollah Rafsanjani is the reality that today Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has lost a really loyal friend.

Now, the heart of the Leader is filled with grief. The Leader is now feeling lonely as Ayatollah Rafsanjani was one his most considerate and trustworthy companions who has passed away.

For Late Imam Khomeini Rafsanjani resembled an endless source of hope and the one that took care of the most sensitive jobs during the Revolution and after its victory and the man who could manage to shoulder his responsibilities in the best way.

This by itself is evidence to Late Imam Khomeini's right decision and the great Leader's realistic approach to assign Rafsanjani to the sensitive jobs.

Rafsanjani's heart was a chest of secrets; the secrets that required him to exercise great patience and tolerance. And the history revealed that he did show such tolerance and that this was the main reason for him to play a pivotal role during the most precarious eras of Iran's contemporary history and again the reason for him to be at the center of Late Imam's attention.

Late Hashemi Rafsanjani, apart from the key role he assumed in formation of the Revolution Council, also played a crucial role during the months leading to the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Rafsanjani alongside Morteza Motahhari and Mohammad-Hossein Beheshti, the senior clerics both martyred in the early years following the victory of the Revolution in two different terrorist attacks, played a significant role in leading the protests and general strikes that finally brought down the Shah's regime.

In the wake of the demise of the founder of the Islamic Republic, when the issue of finding a successor for the Late Imam was on the agenda, Rafsanjani and Ayatollah Khamenei, as two pillars of the Islamic Revolution and establishment, took charge to steer the country and they remained to be always together as friends and allies, in the same way the late Imam had always advised them to be.

However, what makes Ayatollah Rafsanjani as the stand-alone prominent figure, both before and after Imam Khomeini, was moderation he never stopped to exercise and of course refraining from taking hasty decisions.

This had enabled the revolutionary man to always exercise patience in difficult times and stand against all the attacks, plots and problems he had to face over the years and despite being seemingly defeated he never stopped walking down the road towards safeguarding the dignity and vitality of the nation; the same path followed by the Late Imam to secure the survival of the sacred establishment of the Islamic Republic.

The main goal followed by Ayatollah Rafsanjani was promoting and developing the country in the same way his predecessors in the past did. People like Amir Kabir Chief Minister to Naser al-Din Shah Qajar who contributed greatly to modernizing Iran.

Yet, the Late Ayatollah remained to rely on an enduring and stable way of thinking he had developed based on the Islamic doctrine; an ideology having its roots in the teachings of the Late Imam and his historical experience.

Rafsanjani's stance as a prominent Revolutionary and Islamic figure made the revolutionary cleric both a regional and international character and the goodwill possessed by the man turned him into a mediator to settle regional issues.

Many of the Iranian politicians and those who are in the administrative jobs in the country owe their expertise to him.

It is expected today that his allies and companions continue Ayatollah Rafsnjani's path and similar to him follow the right path of Late Imam Khomeini, the Islamic Revolution and establishment and never stop to keep Iran on the right track of development, in the same way Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani did.

Written By: Hojatoleslam Seyed Mahmoud Doaei, Managing Director of Daily Ettelaat
Translated by: Reza Bahar
Edited by: Behnaz Hossein Gholipour

The article originally appeared in the Persian daily Iran Newspaper on January 9, 2017.

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