Index of memories of Hojat-Ol-Islam Mr. Sheikh Mehdi Shah Abadi

News ID: ۸۵۵۵۲

جمعه - ۲۲ اسفند ۲۰۰۷ / 2007 22 December

Life story of the martyr

Arrest, prison and exile

Fighting against Taghoot regime under the leadership of Imam Khomeini

Memories from the fighting period

Hand written by the martyr on 29/11/61 in reference to the fighters

Point of view of the martyr especially towards religion and leadership of the Imam

Martyrdom in the combat zone of just against unjust

Message of the Imam about martyrdom of martyr Shah Abadi

Life story of the martyr;

In the year 1930 in the peak of evil reign of Reza Khan, in the kind house of a great politician a child was born to a great mother, they named him Mehdi.

He was only four years old when in order to learn the Koran he was sent to a special school. After two years, he graduated and begun Tofigh primary school. Because of his extreme sharp mind, after returning from school and a short rest he would join his father Ayatollah Shah Abadi for religious studies.

When Mehdi was in the fourteenth spring of his life he entered Marvi School. The year 1948 was a future making year for Mehdi; in one of the religious ceremonies in luxurious surroundings he got the honor of wearing the robe of spirituality.

Although 1948 was an honorable year for Midi, but bitter experiences always come to men of God and put them under strenuous tests.

It had not been a year since Midi got his robe that he lost his best friend and teacher in 1949. In this year Ayatollah Shah Abadi went towards God.

Sheikh Midi, two years after his fathers death left to go to the holly city of Qom. He spends a year in Qom then returned to Tehran to go to high school; within fourteen months he completed high school successfully.

In the year 1953 in the shameful codetta of Aug. 19th for the first time got Arrested and put in jail, but let out after a short time.

In the month of Mehr that same year he went to Qom again to continue his religious studies. He learned the Ressael from Ayatollah Meshkini, Makaseb from Ayatollah Sotoodeh and Kafayatolosool from Ayatollah Mojtahedi. In his 25th year he completed this course and started other studies. His teachers in these courses were Ayatollah Broojerdi, Golpayegani, and Araki. Sheikh Midi was very conscientious in his studies, there were a lot of nights when he was up studying all night, and he would not get but about four hours of sleep at nights.

In reference to this he says:

"I would fee myself with very little food in the month of Ramazan and continue my studies, before I even got settled, they would call me and say it is azan time, so I'd have to eat something quickly and say my prayers. All through the years of study there wasn’t a night were I could sleep more than four hours".

Arrest, jail and exile;

From the time when Sheikh Midi came to Tehran, his fight against the evil Pahlavi regime got more and more serious. This brave spiritual with the correct understanding of Imam's goals and a complete insight of the countries situation, would inform the youngsters who had intentions of visiting the Imam or get

military training abroad and help them financially or any other way that he could   He also at the time had contact with the Hezbollah (an armed Moslem activist group). In order to free prisoners from the black holes of the regime played an important role. For this very reason he had become known by the regime and it resulted in several times of imprisonment and exile once.

Here we take a look at his first prison term in 1973:

Sheikh Mehdi got arrested for his fights against the regime and also as a result of interrogations of some others who had circulated flyers for him. When he was arrested by Savak, they found a large amount of books and flyers in his house that lead to his prison term.

He got arrested again in 1974 and was released after twenty days; got arrested there again in 1975, this time he was tortured and exiled to a town in the region of Kurdistan called Baneh. The reason he got exiled to this town was that other spirituals there were of different point of view so Savak thought there they could keep him silent. He continued his activity there by talking to people and other spirituals in mosques and proved the evil ways of the regime to them.

One of the spirituals says: "all the time Mr. Shah Abadi was exiled here I never saw him say his daily prayers at home; in fact he would go to several mosques around town and say all the prayers there. Martyr Shah Abadi during his exile in Baneh socialized with all the spirituals there and got them on his side to fight the regime, he was particularly close to one martyr mullah Abdolkarim (one of the spirituals in Baneh".

In all of his exile he led a very simple life.

There were times when he would go through a 24 hour period with just some bread and cheese and was content with three hours of sleep. This simple life style had a great impact on people of Baneh, during this time against Savak's orders traveled to other towns and kept in contact with other exiles.

Finally his ways and open mindedness had its effect on the people there and with his leadership they held a huge demonstration against the regime. So the regime with the fear of worse reactions ended his exile, and was released six months after that. Once again Hojat-Ol-Islam Val-Moslemin along with seventy others was arrested on Khordad 30th 1975.

This time from the moment he entered he had a strong tone with the guards and kept making fun of Shah's regime, he constantly told the guards "you have to return the books and flyers you stole from my house".

He spends about six months there and was released on the month of Aban, but he was arrested again after 12 days on the 3rd of Bahman 1975. He was released a few days before the entrance of Imam into Iran.

One can confidently say: martyr Shah Abadi who with his bravery and strong character managed to make the enemy taste the bitterness of defeat.

Fighting against the regime under the leadership of Imam Khomeini;

The start of this martyr's religious, political and social endeavors have to be traced back to the times of great mujahed Ayatollah Kashani. He considered the fight against the barbaric regime his personal responsibility.

His inflamed anger towards Savak and the Pahlavi regime could be felt from a young age.

The peak of his fights has to be considered when the Imam decided that the only way to remove this sleazy Pahlavi regime is a public uprising and removal of the Shah. At this time when Hojat-Ol-Islam Mehdi Shah Abadi whose thoughts of uprising had been deep within him for years, heard a familiar voice and made a pact with God ,and with the great leader's ideas there was nothing he did not do to accomplish what they had set out to do.

Ashura mosque at the village of Gillan was full of mourning people and a young speaker was speaking. He had been warned several times before that he had to say a prayer for the Shah, but he would just go on with his speech and ignore their instructions. Suddenly sound of boots turned everyone's attention to the door. The head of police along with some other officers entered and walked straight towards the speaker, he still kept on with his speech. The head of police angrily pulled him down and they went towards the police station. Most of the people followed them to see what they are going to do with their spiritual. The head of police asked him why after several warnings you don’t say a prayer and a few good words about the first person in the country; Hojat-Ol-Islam Shah Abadi answered with a loud voice, in a manner of an expression "I don't work for him so why would I be saying good words about him.

The head of police was in complete shock from the sharp brave answer. The interesting part of it is when the police's wife found out; she stopped her relations with him for a while.

The fearless and straight to the point way that he treated members of Taghoot had left an uncooperative image of him. In the year 1350 after living in Qom for 21 years, he came back to Tehran and after a while the people of Rostam Abad in Shemiran asked him to become the Imam of their mosque. With attention to the area and how he could attract young people to the mosque he accepted. From his activities in Rostam Abad we can point to "explanation of Koran". In these ceremonies that consisted mostly of the educated and upper class, on Friday nights the subject was research the hymns of Koran. In these meetings at first Hojat-Ol-Islam Shah Abadi would listen to whoever had done the research, and at the end he would explain the results.

Memories of combat period;

The wife of the martyr in regards to this says: "we'd get the kids and follow him to the villages. In regards to the negative advertisement about religion by the regime, he would choose villages that the opposition had more influence. At first we had some problems to an extent where they would not sell bread to us. But slowly they would start to open up beginning with the youngsters, towards the end of our stay in the villages their attitudes were completely different to when we first went there. They would come to the front of the car and try to stop us from leaving, he would tell them we’d go back the following year, but the next year he would assign another spiritual to that village and we would go to another"

One of his friends says:

"one time when he was released from jail and there was Shah Curfew, we came from Rostam Abad to welcome him, but he said, if you throw a big demonstration against the Shah, that's fine, I don't need a welcoming party, I'll come the simple way".

Hand written by the martyr on 1982/2/18regarding the fighters;

In the name of God.

In the heart of the strongholds, mountains and deserts I leave all our fighters in the blessing of God and ask him to return them home healthy and victorious. I hope the Lord keeps them patient and strong and victorious on evil so we can be proud of them. God's greetings to you.

Mehdi Shah Abadi    1982/2/18.

The martyr's point of view especially on the leadership of the Imam;

He, before and after The Islamic Revolution, until the last moments of his valued life on a daily basis insisted that the present time requires a people made government. This great martyr believed Imam Khomeini to be one of the greatest men of our times one of his colleagues says: "martyr Shah Abadi was one of the spirituals who from back in the years when he was present at Imam's lessons and to the last day when I visited him, he followed the Imam step by step and obeyed him all the way

Hojat-Ol-Islam Val-Moslem in Amid Zanjani says: "from the chosen group by the Imam to protect the interest of the weak I was at his service.

He honestly tried to follow Imam's instructions to the letter and he could not wait to complete his duty and go to the Imam with his report. Several times he would ask me when your report is going to be ready. When he saw success getting close he couldn’t fit in his own skin. His kind impatience was a topic of conversation among friends".

Martyrdom in the combat zone, just against unjust;

The last stronghold of Hojat-Ol-Islam Shah Abadi was his second term in congress which people of Tehran put him in with 1,200000 extra votes. Even though the Imam had advised against spirituals going to the combat zones, because of his love of the fighters the smallest excuse would take him to the combat zones. He did not even rest on his days off from congress; he'd go to the front lines and spend those two days with the fighters.

In his last trip to the front lines, it was a Wednesday 15th of Ordibehesht; he left to go to Majnoon Islands. In the combat zone the fighters would line up to kiss his hand, but he would say "if you ask for my worthless head it's yours, not worthy of you". That Thursday 6th of Ordibehesht when he said the evening prayers with the fighters, when he bowed and with total spirituality left it to God, and how quickly the Lord answered his prayers.

After prayers he continued his visit to the Majnoon Islands, with the fighters fire a plane had crashed the day before, he also visited. That night was Friday and since the Kamil prayer had to be said, he wanted to get back to his place. Suddenly the sound of explosion from a rocket changed everything, an exclamation from the sky was telling the sheikh; the angles have opened their wings so the night of martyrdom of Imam Kazem, they'll be witness and help his soul to the Hosseinian caravan. The sun was covered in blood trying to hide itself in the shade so the witness is not so painful. Apparently the sun was in blood too. The sacred body of this dear martyr was transferred to Tehran and buried at Zahra paradise alongside other martyrs by the congress of Islamic Republic.

Message of the Imam in the martyrdom of martyr Shah Abadi;

In the name of the forgiving God. With extreme regrets I condole the martyrdom of our respectful teacher Hojat- Ol-Islam Sheikh Mehdi Shah Abadi to Prophet Baghieollah Arvahanna. Congratulations to the Prophet so self sacrificing in the way of our great goal and dear Islam, who with his honorable martyrdom made a whole nation proud.

This dear martyr on top of being a great Mujahed and servant of Islam, in this way he joined Laghaollah, the honorable son of this great Sheikh of ours who really deserved spiritual life, we can not possibly give enough blessings to. I beg the lord for patience and long life for the family of this great martyr.

Ruhollah Almoosavi Alkhomeini.