An Iranian Ayatollah Who Wants Peace With Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

                                                    

  Big news today was the announcement of Ayatollah (who has lost this title) Abdol Hamid Masoumi Tehrani of Iran  has no hatred toward Jews or Israel and wants to make peace.  "It's time for the Iranian regime to cease inventing enemies that do not exist, the former Ayatollah said.  He has been stripped of his title of Ayatollah for punishment.  Ayatollah is an honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.

                                                    

"Ayatollah Abdol-Hamid Masoumi-Tehrani (Persian: عبدالحمید معصومی تهرانی‎) is an Iranian cleric based in Tehran, Iran. Masoumi-Tehrani was born in Tehran to a distinguished cleric family and attained the rank of Marja al-Taqlid or a "source of emulation" in 1988. Masoumi-Tehrani is an accomplished calligrapher and spends much of his time engaged in this profession as he believes that money should not be made through religion. He strongly advocates human rights for all regardless of religious ideology or belief and has created in calligraphy form the Torah, Psalms and Quran to foster unity amongst religions.

                                                

              Ruhollah Khomeini was known in the West as "The Ayatollah"  Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini ( Persian: سید روح‌الله موسوی خمینی‎ [ɾuːholˈlɒːhe xomejˈniː]); 17 May 1900 or 24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989), also known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian politician, revolutionary, and cleric. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the end of the 2,500-year-old Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. Most of his reign was taken up by the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989.

An unwritten rule of addressing for Shia clerics has been developed after the 1980s as a result of Iranian Revolution, despite the fact no official institutional way of conferring titles is available. Since 1979, the number of individuals who call themselves an Ayatollah, instead of being recipient of that title, has raised dramatically. The title that was previously customary for addressing a Marja', was gradually applied to an established Mujtahid. With recent bureaucratization of Shia seminaries under the current regime, four levels of studies were introduced and those clerics who end the fourth level, also known as Dars-e-Kharej (lit. 'beyond the text') and pass the final exam, were called Ayatollahs. Moojan Momen wrote in 2015 that every cleric who finished his training calls himself an Ayatollah and this trend has led to emergence of "thousands of Ayatollahs".

                                              

Masoumi-Tehrani has been pressured by authorities, detained, and imprisoned on various occasions, starting when he was 23. He claims to have been questioned even by agents of reformist president Mohammad Khatami regarding his project to publish calligraphy of the Torah, and that beginning in 2004 he received threats connected to his similar project for the Psalms.

In April 2014, as a mark of solidarity with the Baháʼí community of Iran, the largest religious minority in the country, he gifted the Baháʼís of the world a calligraphy work from the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, the prophet founder of the Baháʼí Faith, which states: "Consort with all religions with amity and concord, that they may inhale from you the sweet fragrance of God. Beware lest amidst men the flame of foolish ignorance overpower you. All things proceed from God and unto Him they return. He is the source of all things and in Him all things are ended."  The Ayatollah's call for religious tolerance and co-existence has received worldwide support from religious leaders.

In November 2015, Masoumi-Tehrani gave 15 recently arrested Baháʼís in Iran another calligraphy work he produced. It featured a quotation from The Hidden Words, one of the Baháʼí Faith's sacred texts: "O Son Of Man! Ponder and reflect. Is it thy wish to die upon thy bed, or to shed thy life-blood on the dust, a martyr in My path, and so become the manifestation of My command and the revealer of My light in the highest paradise? Judge thou aright, O servant!"  He said he wished to raise awareness among Iranians about the dignity of people regardless of religion.                                  

Baha'i's religious group has found refuge in Israel and have the Baha'i Gardens in Haifa.  Their headquarters are in Haifa, Israel.  "There are 750 Baha’i volunteers from 70 countries in Haifa and Acre. All of them come for limited stints and none stay permanently. Thus, there is no resident Baha’i community in Israel. “Baha’u’llah asked that there be no community in the Holy Land,” Sabet said. “We do not know why, but we honor it.” If an Israeli coworker expresses interest in the Baha’i faith, “we tell them there is no community. It is up to the individual to decide what to do.”

Resource:

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/1611607984-iranian-ayatollah-calls-for-end-to-hostilities-with-israel?fbclid=IwAR005e6JAabUMAB5mVprO3Q21hcV_T0yzDFVJcdV5jsrzCZVKhaY9v6-edY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdol-Hamid_Masoumi-Tehrani

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/from-their-haifa-headquarters-bahais-seek-to-unite-humanity-508037#:~:text=Thus%2C%20there%20is%20no%20resident,to%20decide%20what%20to%20do.%E2%80%9D