Ahmad Almahdavi: All of Iran’s Glory Belongs to Afghanistan
Ahmad Almahdavi said in his speech: All of Iran’s glory belongs to Afghanistan and we are one with Afghanistan.
Seyyed Ahmad Almahdavi, in a speech while attributing Iranian glories to Afghanistan, emphasized that Afghans and Iranians are one. He stated in this speech: “We are not separate from Afghans, but we are one blood, one element, and one race. All of Iran’s glories in various fields of science and culture have all been from Afghanistan. In the matter of comprehensive scholarship on Earth, no man like Avicenna has emerged—Avicenna was from Balkh, Afghanistan, and is presented as an Iranian glory.
In the matter of comprehensive science and art, no man like Al-Farabi has appeared in any nation or people, and he too is from Afghanistan, who is considered one of Iran’s glories. In the matter of literature and poetry, Mowlavi is the sole master of this field. He was one of Iran’s glories, and he too was from Balkh, Afghanistan.
In the realm of religious authority and jurisprudence, even now the Shiite seminaries kneel at the table of the late Akhund Khorasani’s principles and benefit from the scientific works and jurisprudential blessings of this great reference and teacher of jurists. Akhund Khorasani was also from Herat.
Therefore, all of Iran’s glories belong to Afghanistan, and we are not two with Afghanistan. There is no duality between Iranian and Afghan. Afghan and Iranian are one, and the enemy wants to create distance between these two, which we must not allow the enemy to do.”
Ahmad Almahdavi’s remarks about Iranian glories, which he attributed to Afghans, sparked reactions. One of these reactions concerns “Avicenna,” the physician, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, philosopher, and musician who was born in Bukhara, which is one of the cities of Uzbekistan, not Afghanistan. Likewise, regarding Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi, known as Mowlana, who was born in Balkh, “Ishaq Nagargar,” an Afghan writer and former professor at Kabul University’s Faculty of Languages and Literature, says about Mowlana: “We cannot claim about Mowlana that simply because he was born in Balkh, he is necessarily from Balkh. He was only born in Balkh but lived in Iran and is necessarily from Iran. Mowlana considered the world of spirit as his homeland, and in the world of spirit, there are no borders.”
There are many other reactions to his remarks based on the fact that a supreme leader still does not know where Iranian glories were born or where they lived, and merely repeats a text that was dictated to him. This itself is one of the weaknesses of the country’s leaders, who know nothing about the history and culture of the country they govern.
Similarly, Almahdavi’s remarks about the unity of Iran and Afghanistan were made at a time when most Afghans in Iran, given the promises the government has made to them, still live under pressure and are deprived of many civil rights and rights. In many cases, some of them have been expelled from Iran and sent back to their own country, Afghanistan. The Iranian government, in some cases when it needs cooperation regarding elections or to show the enemy that the Iranian government defends all minorities and has no problem with them, speaks of its friendship with Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Sunni minorities, and others to show that the system and its agents have no problem with minorities, but behind the scenes they harass, torture, and abuse them.
