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Ayatollah Mahdavi kani was born in 1931 in Kan village- which is now part of Tehran- and after completing primary school studies in Kan he entered Lorzadeh Seminary in Tehran and learned a lot from late Ayatollah Borhan in scientific and ethical fields. Ayatollah Mahdavi kani immigrated to Qum in the year 1948 at the age of 17 so as to continue his studies and enjoyed the teaching sessions of various great clergies such as Ayatollah Meshkini, Haj Sheikh Abdoljavad Sadeie (Jebel Ameli), Shahid Sadughhi, soltani, Mojahedi, Rafie qazvini, Shaerani, Ayatolla Uzma Borujerdi, Imam Khomeini, Ayatollah Uzma Golpayegani and…and over there he mastered courses like principles of Feqh, Tafsir, Hekmat, Kalam and beyond Feqh and Osul.
Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani got familiar with the ideas of Imam Khomeini when he entered Qum seminary and by realizing how people were suppressed under the Shah's regime decided to follow Imam's political doctrine as the strategy to revive Shiites. He was first arrested at the age of 18 (1949) in Ardestan and resulted in his getting tortured and expelled. Upon reaching the news in this regard to Qum late Ayatollah Uzma Borujerdi seriously expressed his objection to prime minister (Eqbal) asking for explanation why they had beaten his own child.
Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani stated his political activities inside the seminary and one the major ones in this regard was becoming a member of a political assembly comprising persons such as Hojatol-eslam Saadat parvar, Mohammadi Gilani, Mahfuzi, Khademi Esfehani, Shams, Samandari, Joneidi, …part of its activities related to analyzing the political status of the country. The members also tried to study the books of Communists and materialists so as to get them examined and wrote critical reviews on them.
Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani's activities in Jalili mosque were of various aspects like social, cultural and political including expounding the outlooks of Imam Khomeini and eventually he was arrested due to his efforts in such areas. He was expelled to Bukan city in 1974 but after a while because it was found he was engaged in another case worse than the dossier concerning his supporting Imam he was transferred to Mahabad and then Tehran. At the Joint Committee combating Sabotage, he was tortured by SAVAK and over there he was accused of sending financial aids to anti-regime dissidents and their families. He was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment and after 2 years along the changes in the political situation in Iran in 1956 was released from prison. During the three decades of Islamic Republic of Iran's glorified life he assumed various positions like: member of guardian Council as the Faqih twice, Imam's representative at Board of Dispute settlement with regards to differences among the authorities, Minister of the Interior at Shahid Rajaie's cabinet and becoming the prime Minster after their martyrdom and…and currently he is the general secretary of Ruhaniat Mobarez Society, head of Imam Sadegh University, in charge of Marvi Seminary together with the Moghufat attached thereto, upon Imam's decree he is also a member of the Leadership experts assembly.
The text below is an abstract of 2 decades of revolutionary efforts and companionship of Mr. Aliakbar Hashemi Rafsenjani and Mr. Mohammadreza Mahadavi Kani in their fight against Shah's regime which is present to the dear reader through greetings to the souls of all myrtles of the far back years:
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First meeting about 60 years ago
As I told you before I immigrated to Qum after 2 years to continue my studies and for quite some time at Qum seminary I was engaged in religious teachings and education. The seminary had been established by the order of late ayatollah Uzma Borujerdi and some young students were supposed to get dispatched to other countries. At first late Mohegheghi was sent to Germany for Islamic publicity. Some other young students like Shahid Mofateh, Mr. Hashemi Rafsenjani, Sheikh Ali Ghafuri, my brother: Aliasghar mahadavi kani. Mr. Taheri Khoramabadi, Mr. Emami, Mr. Nuri Hamadani and …were dispatched to Tehran. In this regard we gathered at Alavi School for preparation in terms of sciences and culture so that we started to learn languages and modern courses. We finished the high school period at Alavi school.
The year 1974/ hearing the voice of Hashemi in solitary confinement
For a while I did not know the late Ayatollah Taleghani was arrested since I was in prison and had no idea what was going on outside. At the same night that I was arrested they had also captured Hashemi, Taleghani and Lahuti. Our dossier had one point in common and that was having contact and relationship with Mojahedin Khalgh. They claimed that we had sent financial aids to that group and cooperating with them. They talked about arms too. Of course they did not accuse me on that ground and mainly kept interrogating me about financial matters. Mr. Hashemi was talking to the prison guards and I recognized his voice. Then I asked one of the guards about that person and he confirmed that Mr. Hashemi was also there as a prisoner. Most of the questions was related to Mojahedin and helping the families of political prisoners. They started torturing us from the very first day on. I insisted that I was in touch with that group and I kept denying such accusations. I kept telling them that the funds given out from the Mosque fund went to charity purposes. They wanted to know why Mr. Lahuti had taken money from me and what for. And I did not confess anything so they continued torturing me. Other than physical tortures like slashes and hanging from the ceiling and they also used psychological tortures like four-lettered words and various threats regarding one's wife and family members.
To be with Hashemi for a few hours at Evin prison's clinic
For about 2 months they did not stop torturing us and my feet were badly injured. I could not take a shower for 50 days or even wash them. They had to take us to the clinic for getting the injuries dressed. Azodi who was SAVAK's deputy at that center used to say: " Mahdavi! Why don't you cooperate with us? Why do you tell lies to us?"
After 2 months eventually we got transferred to another place. We got on board of a vehicle at night while our eyes were covered and we could not see a thing. When we opened our eyes to the light we saw Mr. Montazeri, late Rabbani shirazi, Lahuti, Anvari and late Taleghani inside a room. It was so nice and pleasing to meet our friends after 2 months of staying at the solitary confinement. That place was the clinic of Evin Prison.
That was a very good night and we enjoyed it very much. Mr. Anvari was quite humorous and telling jokes. There some objects there like coolers and every now and then they would make some noises. I said that they were not coolers though our friends disagreed and later on we got to know that those objects were in fact close-circuit TV sets and recording all our movements.
Hashemi was committed to reciting Quran aloud after dawn prayers with a type of voice which aws not pleasant!
In the morning after saying dawn prayers, Mr. Hashemi used to recite Quran. I am not saying that his voice was too bad but it was not a good one. Mr. Lahuti kept making joke about that and used to say: "OK. Go on; keep reciting I am feeling heaven! And Hashemi kept reciting Quran with that voice of his. He used to study Quran every morning after breakfast. He was very much persistent about that and at that time he kept taking notes and the book he published a while ago was in fact written during his imprisonment. He began the task by working on Quran from its very first page. Part of his life was spent on that matter. Another part was spent on learning French whose teacher was Dr. Sheybani. In the past he had learned a bit of English, too. Well, he kept practicing languages very well. I wonder if he knows any certain language right now or not but at that time he used to be busy with learning languages.
On the same shift with Hashemi for cleaning the prison's rest-rooms!
In assigning different tasks to each person I was on the same shift as of the one Hashemi was responsible for and we were supposed to wash the toilets and clean the rooms. We were in charge of such cleaning jobs. Next time it was Lahuti's turn and his partner to do the same things and so on.
Hashemi and Motafeh were the first persons who wrote down the Articles of Association of Ruhaniat Mobarez society
Once a meeting was held at the house of late Shahid Mofateh in which some of the clergies supporting Imam (later on named as Ruhaniat Mobarez society)_were present. We talked about the fact that we should clarify our stance and outlooks and have a specific plan and articles of association. Late Shahid Motahari made that proposal and then some members were assigned to fulfill the task and write the draft. Mr. Amid zanjani, Mofateh and Hashemi were elected and they prepared the draft and in an assembly in Karaj it was approved. Of course, the articles of association got finally approved after the victory of the revolution in Karaj.
Source: Memoirs of Ayatollah Mahdavi kani/ center for Islamic Revolution's Documents/2006
