Part of Dr. Sadegh Tabatabaei Memoirs

Imam Concern about the Status of Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Baqir Sadr and Actions to Transfer Him to Iran

Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

2021-12-14

Martyr Seyyed Mohammad Baqer Sadr, who was thrilled by the growth of Islamic struggles in Iran, was constantly busy compiling various treatises on issues related to the movement based on jurisprudential principles and even the primary issues of the Islamic government. As I have said somewhere else, he had a governmental attitude towards jurisprudence and considered issues based on the fluid interests of society. His writings on the principles of interest-free banking and Islamic economics, as well as his theoretical foundations of society and its organs, had already been published. But there were also issues which had not been published because of the expediency and political necessity of the time. A few weeks after the victory of the Revolution, when his wife - my aunt - came to Iran, had brought about 14 or 15 treatises on government issues and problems and its jurisprudential solutions for Imam and Shahid Beheshti; and as far as I can remember, she returned Najaf with a long list of important subjects which should be studied. As his relationships with Imam and Iran increased, especially after the abduction of Imam Musa Sadr, Imam expressed concern about his survival in Najaf. In particular, he was harassed and even temporarily detained by Ba'athists in Iraq at several stages. Before martyrdom, when his last detention ended and he returned to Najaf, the preparations for his emigration from Iraq were made on the advice of Imam. This should be done without the Iraqi authorities being informed. In addition to the difficulty of taking care of family members during such a journey, the problem of his emigration was not without danger under any excuse - even as a pilgrimage. The Iraqi government, on the other hand, was worried about its internal situation and the uprising of the Shiites and the tribes of the Tigris and Euphrates; which were influenced by the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. I worked in the Ministry of Interior at that time. So, with the help of Seyyed Mahmoud Doaei, who ran the Iranian embassy in Baghdad after the revolution, I managed to obtain Algerian passports for him by making appropriate contacts. This passport, which was sealed with a residence permit and several seals of entry and exit to Iran, was issued with a photo of him in a nomadic local dress, and Mr. Doaei arranged his trip through Iraqi Kurdistan to the Iranian border.

All Necessary Actions Were Taken to Transfer Martyr Sadr to Iran, When...