|
Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Behesti was born on the second of Aban in 1307in Isfahan. His father Seyyed Fazlloah Beheshti was a clergy man in Isfahan and his maternal grandfather hajj Mirza Mohammad Sadegh Khatoon Abadi was one the students of Akhund Khorasani and Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi who was one of the noble clergies of Isfahan.
He passed his elementary school and two years of his high school in state-run schools of Isfahan and in 1321 when Reza shah was dethroned and Iran had started a new period of political events, he entered the Sadr seminary of Isfahan where he studied Arab literature, logic, rhetoric and jurisprudence by the time he was learning English. In 1325 he went to Qom to study in its seminary and the next year he entered the classes of extra jurisprudence of the noble masters of Qom.
By the time he was in the seminary he finished his regular schooling in high school by his own choice and when he got his certification in literature and humanities he entered the University Theology and Islamic thoughts in 1327.
Since 1330 he started teaching in the high schools of Qom and in 1333 he based the “Dino Danesh” high school. Before that he used to teach makasib in the holy shrine of Masumeh in Qom. Establishing that high school in Qom was the first experience of education in a totally religious environment which led the Islamic schools to be established by some others interested in cultural issues. That high school was a sphere for the teachers meet clergies and collaborate with each other.
Ayatollah Gerami has a special idea that school. He mentions in his memoir: “it was almost the end of the life ayatollah Broujerdi when ayatollah Beheshti established his school in which he made a place for seminary students to go there at nights and read about daily topics”
The opposition of the ayatollah Beheshti with Pahlavi regime begins when he based that school. He says: “my defiance and social activities (my organized political activities) starts in 1329 (approximately 2 years before I got married). In 1329 and 1330 when social and political uprisings to nationalize oil under the leader ship of ayatollah Kashani and dr. Mosaddegh was increased and soared, I was an avid young man who participated in the parades.
I was very active since 26 to 30 of Tir and perhaps the first or the second speech in the strike of the telephone company was delivered by me. Any way! After the coup of 28th of Mordad we concluded why the first uprising did not win and we saw that we have got two basic deficiencies: one of them was the ideological and political structure and the next one was the staff. We thought that there should be cultural unit to educate the personnel that we needed consequently we based the Dino Danesh high school as we imagined it.” Beheshti didn’t leave the university although he was too busy with revolts against the regime and his studied in the seminary school of Qom. Since 1335 to 53 he studied philosophy to get his PhD and in 1353 he graduated from the University Theology and Islamic thoughts and became a PhD holder in philosophy. Basing a center for the students in Qom which was managed by ayatollah dr. Mofatteh, was another of his activities before 1341.
In this center some times some of the noble clergies were invited to deliver lectures. It should be noted that dr. Beheshti beside his activities in Qom, did his best in educating the students of Tehran. All of his lectures and speeches were taped and typed and finally published in a collection named “Goftare Mah”.
Establishing the Islamic society of engineers, Dr. Beheshti attended their sessions and delivered lectures about religion. When ayatollah Broujerdi passed away in Farvardin 10th 1340 and Imam Khomeini became a religious authority, a new period of changes and political revolts began. Beheshty the martyr joined the uprising. His activities in the events of Farvardin 2nd of 1342 and 15th of Khordad when imam Khomeini was arrested are mentioned in the documents of the Savak with details. More over Shahid Beheshti was a leading character in organizing revolutionaries and he participated in most of the Islamic moves. He also had a leading role in managing the Islamic revolts in the universities by youngsters and noble intellectuals. He also tried to make a bridge between the university and the seminary and making the clergies use the recent methods of researching. The other move of ayatollah Beheshti and his fellow thinkers was establishing Haghani School which was aimed to increase the level of cogitation among youngsters in their opposition with the regime. How ever this school was based in 1341 but had an important role in what happened after Khordad of 1342.
In this school besides teaching religious lessons other lessons like sociology, economics, and psychology were also taught. In 1344 when dr. Beheshti went to Germani the school was managed by Shahid Ghoddousi how ever he him self followed the activities of the school from there. In 1343 ayatollah mohammad hadi milani who was an religious authority in mashhad asked beheshti to go to Germany and be arespond to the request of the Islamic center of Hamburg for a clergy to manage it. In 1344 Because of the Savak standing against this voyage it became a very hard one but the consequence of that was a new horizon in the active and modern mind of Shahid Beheshti. He remained in Germany until 1349 and Savak had eyes on him. In some documents of the center of the documents of the Islamic revolution we can see the importance of his activities.
In one of the files we can find his letters to imam his links with the revolutionaries and other things. In 1349 Behsehti came back to Iran and according to his activities he became barred from leaving the country. Between 1349 and 1356 whatever he did was based on his opposition with the regime. In the ministry of education he cooperated with Shahid Bahonar, Golzadeh ghafuri and Seyyed Reza Borghaee to write school books of religious thoughts. These books had some important effects in shaping the religious back ground of the youngsters. Accordingly he was arrested by the savak in 1354 and he was imprisoned for awhile.
There were many interesting sessions of discussion in dr. Beheshti’s home between 55 and 57.in most of the classes, students of economics in universities and others who had graduated from universities like dr. Hussein Namazi used to analyze Carl Marx book “the capital”. Approximately 90 pages of the first volume of this book had been read and criticized. When the revolts under the leader ship of Imam Khomeini increased, Beheshti began a new period of activities. In 1357 he became a member of the society of militant clergies and when imam Khomeini established the council of the revolution he became a member of that.
He was very active in accomplishing the great parades of the tasua an Ashura in 1357 in Tehran and other towns. When the revolution reached to its triumph in 22th of Bahman 1357, ayatollah seyyed ali khamenei, ayatollah Mousavi ardabili ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani Shahaida Bahonar and he established the “Islamic republic party”. Ayatollat beheshti had an unforgettable role in the election of the fundamental law and was appointed by imam as the chair man of the Supreme Court.
There was an almost short time between the victory of the revolution and his martyrdom and by this time he endeavoured with all his capability in thinking and with all his power to manage and codify the legal and theoretical fundamentals of the Islamic republic of iran. By this time he was one of the most famous believers in the thoughts of imam Khomeini. He believed that to realize islam in the society is to realize some basic religious fundamental elements like independence, justice, liberty and people participating in political and economical issues. Having such a view, he insisted on cutting the dominance of foreigners, the independence of the judiciary branch of the government, distributing the wealth in the society via the expansion of the cooperative owner ship and enforcement of cooperative companies and the importance of political activities in the form of the parties. Beheshti was capable of attracting the power of young men and women for social and political activities and persuading them to reconstruct the country of them and by that he could make staff and personnel for the Islamic republic.
Besides his knowledge in Islamic issues to some extents he was expert of western schools of thoughts, he was good in lecturing and witty in writing and had an exact discipline his style of management. All these aspects made him to be loved by the nation and hated by the enemies who abused his fame and his character frequently because they found him as an obstacle in their way. Especially after the victory of the revolution he became a target for insults and defamation. His patience in this case of hatred and enmity is astonishing.
The enemies and especiallyM frequently spread rumours and lies about him and finally martyred him with some of his colleagues and like-minded friends in the office of the Islamic republic party on the 7th day of Tir in 136o. It manifested his state of being the victim of the oppressions and made anew wave of revolutionary knowledge and movement in the country. In the manifesto of imam for his martyrdom he says: “Beheshti lived under oppressions and died under oppressions and was thorn in the enemies’ side.”
What comes next is a part of memoirs of collaboration of two old concomitants and sympathetic friends, Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Beheshti and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the threshold of the 31st jubilee of the triumph of Islamic republic:
|
|
|
|
|
1343/ the revolutionary execution of the Hassan Ali Mansur/ Aashemi being arrested/ Beheshti’s travel to Germany/
After the assassination of Hassan Ali Mansur by the martial branch of the allied groups, Hashemi Rafsanjani was arrested. Although they tortured him hard but they took nothing out of him and they had no evidence to relate Dr. Beheshti to this revolutionary execution. All they knew was that Beheshti had financially supported the families of the prisoners.
By all their force on hashemi and long inquiries and hard tortures they found no evidence to arrest dr. beheshti by which. Also they finally got the arrest warrant of dr. Beheshti by the letter numbered 20/271175, but because of Hashemi resisting and standing tortures, dr. beheshti had the sufficient time to get his visa and run from the country consequently his arrest was postponed till he comes back to Iran. Dr. Beheshti did not want to remain in Germany for a long time but because of some reasons he didn’t came back before 1349 from Hamburg.
1338/ collaboration in publishing the magazine “maktabe tashayo”
In 1338 when Mr.Bahonar and Hashemi Rafsanjani decided to publish a quarterly magazine named “Maktabe Tashayo” the third one who participated in that move was ayatollah Beheshti. In 1338 he published an analytic research in an essay named “the government in Islam” in that magazine which was a sparkle for seminary students who were not mainly interested in political issues. Later on He followed this notion with a research team. What seems astonishing about this magazine is that it had been published for six years under the hard censorship of the regime and some noble thinkers like allameh tabatabaee, ayatollah Taleghani, Dr. Motahari, Mr. Bazargan, Mohammad Taghi Falsafi, Hussein Ali Rashed and others had written for that magazine.
1357/ the establishment of the Islamic republic party
When the Islamic revolution reached to its triumph and a new period began which was not experienced before, Dr. Beheshti that knew the Islamic groups will be blemished unless they are managed properly, he insisted on establishing a party. When he was asked what is the usage of a party when the revolution is based on people he answered that: “for the revolution to be continued and for the society to be managed and for the resolving the problems and even for facing the enemies and having a proper reflection there is a need for party to be established because the meaning of a party is forming and managing the forces. Accordingly Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani talked about that issue with imam and imam expressed his positive respond. Some days later in the next meeting of them imam himself asked him about the party and by the date of 29/11/57 the Islamic republic party announced its establishment
