Part of memoirs of Seyed Mohammad Sadr

Selected by Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2024-2-7

One day, while I was driving with my Peykan, I entered from Dowlat Street to Shariati Street and saw Mr. Motahari who was waiting for a taxi. Of course, he had a car of his own and I don’t know why he was on foot on that day. Maybe, it was an opportunity for me to see him. In those days, I knew that he had visited the imam. I stopped the car and he got in. He was very kind to me and I also respected him very much. After greetings, I gave him a copy of Payam magazine from under my seat.[1] This magazine was published by the Freedom Movement and on top of it, an ayah from the holy Quran which says “Those who convey the messages of God” had been printed. With this ayah, it was easy to know that this magazine belonged to Muslims and that the news of the revolution was included in it. The importance of this publication was due to the fact that at that time no news was published due to the strike of newspapers such as Ettela’at and Kayhan, etc.[2] So this magazine was very important. I also always had six or seven copies in my car and distributed them. Therefore, when Mr. Motahari got into the car, I gave him a copy. As he took the magazine from me, he asked: "Whose magazine does it belong to?" I said: "It belongs to the Freedom Movement." He looked at and left it to study another time. I said to him: "Have you been to Paris? Was it good?" He said: "Yes. It was good." I said: "Did you see the imam too?" "Yes," he said. I said: "How was he?" This is the same term that he used with a joking and serious attitude. He said: "The Imam has been sitting in Paris, growling like a lion and not listening to anyone!" I was surprised and asked, "What do you mean by that?" And he explained that "most of the people who come from Iran to visit the Imam advise him to slow down the movement of the revolution and say that the revolution has intensified and is going very fast and we don't know where it will end. Maybe the people will abandon the revolution and do not accompany you; but he says in response, you are wrong. You have not known the people. Our people are the best people in the world and they come wherever we go. Whenever we the clerics came to the stage, people came with us and they sat in their houses when we sat in our houses; So don't advise me to slow down the movement of the revolution."

Apparently, the Imam was mainly advised: "You... give up on your desire, which is to change the regime, and accept this royal council, and in the end this Shah or the next Shah will rule, not the government"; but Imam did not accept.

Anyway, when the conversation between me and Mr. Motahari reached here, he addressed me and said: "Mr. Sadr! Let me tell you something. I have studied the history of all the leaders who have created a transformation in their society, including religious, Marxist, national or other ones. I have read the biography of Mao, I have studied the life of Lenin and even Castro; but I have never seen any of them believe in people as much as Imam. Truly, Imam's belief in the people cannot be compared with the belief of any leader, and with these honest, pure, revolutionary and loyal people, the revolution is victorious.

In continuation of his words, Mr. Motahari emphasized, “when I (Motahari) asked the imam: Sir, where does this movement go? How long does it take? Will these movements achieve victory at all?" He answered with the belief he had in the people and with the confidence of his heart: "I am one hundred percent sure that this revolution will win; because in this new stage of the movement, things have happened to me that made me believe that God is involved in this movement, and because it has been proven to me that God's hand is at work, then this movement will win, even though I don't know the time."