Aban 13th – The Day of God
THE 13th of Aban (4th of November) in the Iranian calendar, is a day in which three vital events occurred in the struggles of the Iranian people for freedom from foreign hegemony and domestic despotism, beginning with the exile in 1964 of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (God Bless His Soul) and culminating in the 1979 capture of the US embassy in Tehran by revolutionary students.
The 13th of Aban is indeed one of those glorious days in the history of Iran which the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, had hailed as “Youmollah” or the Day of God. That Great Revolutionary who restored to Iran its religious, national, cultural, political, scientific, social, and economic prestige, meant whatever he said.
He was not playing with words, as politicians who get elected for a term or two and then fade away from the scene do.
As a loyal servant of the Prophet of Islam and the Infallible Imams of the Ahl al- Bayt (peace upon them), Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini through his sheer dedication to the dynamic teachings of Islam, had achieved the status of Ijtehad — or independent reasoning on the basis of the holy Qur’an and Hadith — and then risen to higher degrees to become the Wali-e Faqih or the Supreme Jurist, who is always cognisant of the ubiquitous presence of God the Omnipresent.
Thus, it was divine inspiration which made him use the term “Day of God” for the day on which the Den of Spies in Tehran fell to Muslim students, who by seizing top secret documents foiled a dangerous plot to overthrow the Islamic Republic System of Government.
Imam Khomeini meant to say that Iranians and all the world’s oppressed should always be vigilant of the plots of the enemy and never allow it to infiltrate their societies, since humanity is faced with a monster that is more mischievous than its master.
He said our enmity is with the bad nature of the US administrations and not with the American people, who are also oppressed by the regime in the White House.
It should be recalled that on this day in 1964, the detested British-installed and American-backed Pahlavi potentate, under instructions of his masters, exiled to Turkey the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, in the vain hope of perpetuating American hegemony over Iran.
The rest is history. The Imam soon moved to neighbouring Iraq to take up residence in Najaf near the holy shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), from where he inspired the Iranian people to stage their epic uprisings against the US-Zionist domination of the country.
In 1978 on this fateful day, when it was clear to all that it was only a matter of time for the Pahlavi regime to be swept into oblivion, students at Tehran University who were peacefully calling for the return home from exile of their beloved leader,
Imam Khomeini were mercilessly murdered in cold blood by the agents opposed to the change that was coming to Iran.
The bloody event backfired so badly that two months later the hated Shah was forced to flee Iran, and on February 1, the Imam returned to lead the Islamic Revolution to its resounding triumph.
In 1979 came the crowning moment for Aban 13 when revolutionary students stormed the espionage den, caught the spies red-handed in the act of shredding documents of crimes perpetuated by foreign agents, and ended once and for all any undesirable US presence on the sacred soil of Iran.
Imam Khomeini hailed the memorable move as the “Second Revolution” that was without the least doubt necessary for proper materialisation of the rule of the Iranian people over their own affairs.
Thus, in view of these undeniable facts, it is all the more necessary to keep alive the sweet memories of the fall of the US Den of Espionage.