Funeral Ceremony of Martyred Hezbollah Leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah

 February 23, 2025.

Mourners in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley walk on foot through the biting cold, heading over the Jebel Libnan to Beirut to participate in the funeral ceremony of martyred Hezbollah leaders Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine.

 

  » There is no legal and legitimate state called Israel. 

As long as there is imperialism, lasting peace is impossible. «

Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah

 

Mourners in Beirut gather for the funeral.

 

Beirut, at the stadium, right before the funeral ceremony: 100,000 people inside, at least 300,000 outside. Despite obstacles preventing hundreds of thousands from coming from Iran, there were still significant numbers of participants from various countries, including 140,000 from Iraq, 106,000 from Iran, 18,000 from Kuwait, 9,000 from Bahrain, 9,000 from Oman, 27,000 from Yemen, and 80,000 from various other locations.

A Lebanese military source told AFP that over one million people attended the funeral of Hezbollah’s former Secretary-General, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah sources estimated the crowd at around 800,000, while organizers, through Lebanon’s National News Agency, put the number at 1.4 million.
 

 

 

 
 

 

The moment Israeli jets flew low over the venue of the ceremony,

the whole stadium instantly mocked them: "Death to Israel!"

 

 

Beirut's Sports City and surrounding roads filled with mourners.

 

Zainab Nasrallah reflects on her iconic father’s life and legacy.

 

» If you want Arab countries to fight Israel, tell them Israel has converted to Shia Islam. «
Lebanese Sunni scholar Sheikh Maher Hamoud, February 23, 2025.

 

了解你的敌人
Know your Enemies.

Letter to Mikhail Gorbachev | Imam Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini

Imam Khomeini was a Muslim cleric and authoritative scholar in Shia Islam, and the spiritual and political leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which overthrew Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Following the Revolution, Imam Khomeini became the Grand Leader, the paramount figure in the political system of the new Islamic Republic, serving in this role until his death in 1989. He was regarded as a Marja by many Muslims and, in Iran, was officially addressed as Imam rather than Grand Ayatollah, a convention upheld by his supporters.

 

 روح‌الله
Spirit of God.
Imam Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (1900 – 1989).

Ruhollah was born to Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Musavi and Hajieh Agha Khanum in the town of Khomein, three hundred kilometers south of Iran's capital Tehran, on May 17, 1900. Through his father and the seventh Imam Mousa Kazem, Ruhollah was a Seyyed, a descendant of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). His father was murdered by agents of Ahmad Shah Qajar when he was five months old, and he was raised by his mother and one of his aunts. Inspired and guided by his mother and bloodline, Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi would go on to become a Marja and highly influential Islamic political theorist, best known for developing the Velâyat-e Faqih, the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist. In 1964, Imam Khomeini fled from Reza Shah Pahlavi, first seeking refuge in Ankara and Bursa, Turkey, before moving to Najaf, Iraq, in 1965, where he stayed until 1978, when Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, deported him; under pressure from Reza Shah, he was then exiled to Neauphle-le-Château, Paris, on October 6, 1978. Finally, returning to Tehran, already in revolutionary turmoil, on February 1, 1979, he became the one who overthrew the last Shah dynasty, which had been installed by the British and Americans in 1925, and established the sovereign Islamic Republic of Iran. Imam Khomeini became the first major world leader to challenge Anglo-American-French imperialism and the entire foundation of Western modernity: nominalism, materialism, liberalism, nationalism, capitalism, communism, and Zionism. A highly charismatic Seyyed, he stood out for his mystical interpretation of Islam, poetry and prophetic vision of world-historical events.

 

The West's proxy war, namely that of the US, the British, and the French, against the Islamic Republic began in September 1980, with Saddam Hussein invading Iran. The war soon became a brutal stalemate, resulting in an estimated one million casualties, and lasted until August 1988, when both sides agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations, leaving both countries devastated and without a clear victor. In December 1988, almost a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Imam Khomeini wrote his first and only message to the head of a foreign country, to Mikhail Gorbachev, the then leader of the Soviet Union (1985-1991), who was just about to complete the withdrawal of his army from Afghanistan. The Imam's letter was delivered to Gorbachev at the Kremlin in Moscow on January 1st, 1989, by Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli, who read the Imam's message aloud while Gorbachev listened attentively for two hours. In his letter, the Imam predicted the collapse of communism within the Soviet bloc and urged Gorbachev to consider Islam as an alternative to communist ideology. He also suggested that the Soviet leader study the works of Muslim philosophers such as Ibn Arabi, Avicenna, and Al-Farabi. On the fate of communism, Imam Khomeini wrote:

“It is clear to everybody that, from now on, communism will only have to be found in the museums of world political history, for Marxism cannot meet any of the real needs of mankind. Marxism is a materialistic ideology, and materialism cannot bring humanity out of the crisis caused by a lack of belief in spirituality—the prime affliction of human society in the East and the West alike.”

 

 Mikhail Gorbachev (1931 – 2022).

Imam Khomeini warned the Russians about their interest in Western capitalism and the potential deception by the Americans. He also discussed deep philosophical and mystical issues, urging Gorbachev to turn toward God and religion instead of the West:

 

“If you hope, at this juncture, to cut the economic Gordian knots of socialism and communism by appealing to the center of Western capitalism, you will, far from remedying any ill of your society, commit a mistake which those to come will have to erase. For, if Marxism has reached a deadlock in its social and economic policies, capitalism has also bogged down in this regard, as well as in other respects, though in a different form.

 

Mr. Gorbachev, reality must be faced. The main problem confronting your country is not one of private ownership, freedom, and economy; rather, it is the absence of true faith in God — the very problem that has dragged, or will drag, the West to vulgarism and an impasse. Your main problem is the prolonged and futile war you have waged against God, the source of existence and creation.”

 

After listening to the Imam’s message, Gorbachev said, 'I am thankful for the Imam’s letter. I will respond when the situation is appropriate. We will deliver its contents to the Soviet clergy and are approving the law of religious freedom. As I’ve said before, although we have different ideologies, we can still maintain a peaceful relationship.'

 

 » If at that time we took Ayatollah Khomeini’s predictions seriously, we would not be in this situation today. «

The Reagans and the Gorbachevs wearing cowboy hats at Rancho del Cielo, California, in 1992.

Gorbachev, an atheist and communist, did not take the Imam’s message seriously, and as stated in the Imam's letter, this ignorance led to his downfall: By 1991, all communist governments had collapsed. Hailed by the West, Gorbachev faced the consequences of his own foolish Perestroika reforms, and the Soviet Union was plunged into uncertain changes, dominated by the US. In 1999, on the 10th anniversary of Imam Khomeini’s demise, Gorbachev, in an interview with the IRIB News Agency in Moscow, expressed regret for having ignored the Imam’s warnings three years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, saying:

 

“I think Imam Khomeini’s message addressed all the ages throughout history [...] When I received this message, I felt that the person who wrote it was thoughtful and cared about the situation of the world. By studying the letter, I realized that he was someone who was worried about the world and wanted me to understand more about the Islamic revolution. [...] If at that time we took Ayatollah Khomeini’s predictions seriously, we would not be in this situation today.”

Reference: 

Rahbar-e Mostaz'afin Ali Khamenei - Imam Khomeini’s Biography.

Imam Khomeini Archive. 

Ali Teymoori (2020) - Imam Khomeini’s Historic Letter to Gorbachev.

 

See also: 

Henry A. Kissinger (2014) - The Khomeini Revolution.

Baqer Moin (2000) – Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah.

 

了解你的敌人
Know your Enemies.