A Brief History of Iran | Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi

A Brief History of Iran

Today's lecture, obviously, it is of relevance given what is happening, but I want to make it clear that it is not a political analysis today, at least, and there's no theological or sectarian issues. I want to give you some useful information inshallah that will help you understand better that part of the world. And maybe in the future, we can talk more detail. But this is one of the most interesting sections and regions of the Muslim world. And I have to summarize its history in 20 minutes. So this is a very big task, but it is still inshallah beginning the conversation so that you can understand and situate yourself to understand what is happening. Apologies, my voice as you can tell is a little bit under the weather. May Allah give us shifa all of us inshallah.

Ancient Persian Civilizations

So realize that this land that we call Iran, this land is actually one of the most historic and influential in human civilization, not just in Islamic civilization. And even from the earliest of times and the earliest of recorded histories, this land produced some of the most important figures in global history, and some of the most powerful civilizations known to mankind.

You have people like Cyrus the Great, and Cyrus the Great, actually, some of the scholars even considered him – there's a controversy, who is Dhul-Qarnayn, and there are many contenders. One of the contenders is Cyrus the Great. I'm not saying that's right or wrong. I'm just saying that is one of the contenders. Cyrus the Great is considered to be the founder of the first great civilization of Iran in 550 BC. And it stretched over three continents. And this eventually led to the Achaemenid empire, which was one of the first empires to have a universal set of governance, of law, somewhat open-mindedness in religion, and again, one of the primary civilizations of pre-modernity.

And the religion of Iran is also a unique religion, Zoroastrianism. It is founded in Iran itself. Zarathustra, Zoroaster, is considered to be the founder of that faith tradition. And when the Muslims encountered it, they treated Zoroastrians like Ahl al-Kitab. So they said, you are going to be treated like the Ahl al-Kitab.

The Sassanid Empire and Early Islamic Interaction

And in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, the Iranian civilization was under the Sassanid empire 224 to 651 CE. And the Sassanids, the Sassanid empire was the empire that the Quran itself mentions when it talks about the reality of the Romans and the Persians engaging in warfare. This is the Sassanid empire. And it was also the last great king of the Sassanid empire, and that is Khosrow Parviz, that the Prophet ﷺ interacted with, he wrote a letter to. And if you know famously, when Khosrow Parviz, also called Kisra, when Khosrow Parviz, he tore up the letter, the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah will tear his kingdom up like he tore my letter up. And this was a prediction that proved not only to be true, but also, it is an amazing reality to the end of over 1000 years of Persian dominance, over 1000 years different dynasties had ruled.

The Islamic Conquest of Persia

And this is one of the strangest quirks of history, how such a great civilization within less than a decade, crumbled. The Romans and the Persians were at war for decades, in fact, for centuries, the Byzantines and the Sassanids were at war for decades in the time of pre-Islam, they couldn't get rid of each other. A third civilization, which wasn't even known as a civilization, the Muslims rises up, takes on simultaneously, the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire, carves the Byzantine Empire in half and acquires Bilad al-Sham and Egypt and Alexandria and North Africa, this was all Byzantine lands, all the way to Andalus, it was Byzantine lands, and Islam conquers it and eliminates the Sassanid Empire in totality. There is no remnants left of that original empire.

The Muslims famously conquered it, primarily the most important battle which should be known to all of you at least by name, the Battle of Qadisiyah and the primary person is Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas associated with the Battle of Qadisiyah. It is in my mind, one of the most surreal moments of not just Islamic history but of history, to imagine the Sahaba themselves, the people who broke bread with the Prophet ﷺ, the people who interacted with him, who fought at the Battle of Badr, who saw the timeframe when Islam was almost eliminated from global history, those same people walked in the palaces of Khosrow Parviz. I mean it is surreal to imagine, wallahi it is, if you understand this dynamic, it is just phenomenal to understand.

And in particular the Sahabi Salman al-Farisi, I've given a whole lecture about him, even at EPIC I talked about this, that to me this is just an آية من آيات الله, without a doubt this is a miracle, that somebody like Salman al-Farisi, who as a Persian, would never have had the pass to enter the palace, he would never have had the permission, and he is appointed the governor of Persia. Unbelievable, from where to where. This is in the lifetime of the senior Sahaba, we're not talking about Andalusia and China that happened at the time of Tabi'un, the first batch of Sahaba, Umar ibn al-Khattab, in his timeframe, Qadisiyah occurs, and the Sassanid Empire is completely acquired by the Muslims.

And this is without a doubt a miracle that Allah gave to the Muslims, they couldn't have done it by their numbers, they couldn't have done it by their training, they couldn't have done it by their weapons, there is no comparison, you have one of the mightiest empires known to mankind, go read books of history, go look at their armament and their weaponry, their ferocity, and then you have a new civilization, not even a civilization, not even known to mankind, and they take them on, and they become, as they say in Arabic, they become something that is just found in the books of history.

And so the Muslims not only acquire this land, eventually Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) moves his capital to this region, remember Iraq and Iran were basically one entire region in this timeframe, the capital of the Sassanid Empire was Ctesiphon, in Arabic it's called Madain, this is actually currently inside of the city of Baghdad, so understand that when we say Iran, we're not talking about the modern country, obviously we're talking the civilization, and the capital is now in one of the suburbs of the modern city of Baghdad, this is where it ruled, and of course we mean the Iranian civilization, not just the one country here, the people who spoke the language, the entire area that includes Azerbaijan and other regions, that whole region is basically the Persian Empire.

Conversion to Islam Under Different Dynasties

And the Umayyads then took over, and during this timeframe, the conversion rate to Islam was very minimal. It's very interesting here, that when the Umayyads ruled for 90 years over the Persian kingdom, or the Persian remnants, the civilization by and large did not embrace Islam. According to a number of surveys and studies, less than 10% embraced Islam. Why is this the case? There are a number of reasons given, but most likely, the number one reason frankly can be the Umayyads themselves were not encouraging conversions, and they had a very hierarchical policy, and this is well known.

And when the Abbasids began their revolt, they actually allied with the Iranian converts, the Iranian converts and the other Muslim converts from non-Arab backgrounds, they were the main bulk of the Abbasid supporters, why? Because one of the slogans of the Abbasids was that the Mawali, the Mawali are the non-Arab converts, are going to be treated the same as the Arabs, which is of course Islamic. The Umayyads didn't have this policy, the Umayyads had a more pre-Islamic tribal policy.

So when the Abbasids came to power, and also the capital shifted to that region as well, this is when conversion began exponentially, and this really shows you how mu'amala changes the hearts of people. When did the bulk of conversion happen? It happened in the time of the Abbasids, so much so that by the end of this era, 90% of this region was Muslim.

As is the case around the Muslim world, there was no forced conversion, we thank Allah, there has not been a single case of civilizational forced conversion, anywhere, whether it was in Egypt, whether it was in Andalus, in North Africa, in Bilad al-Sham, in Iran, there was never forced conversion. Yes, conversion is incentivized, yes, you get perks, tax benefits, we're not going to deny that, but nobody is putting a sword and saying convert or die, this is just a myth. And the very fact that when the Umayyads were harsher, less conversion, when the Abbasids were nicer, more conversion, it shows you what? Conversion is coming from the heart, conversion is coming when people see the beauty and the good, and then they embrace Islam.

So by the end of the Abbasid timeframe, we have estimates now, these are all modern surveys done, up to 90% of the population had now embraced Islam, almost 100% Muslim. As in all cases, there are pockets to this day, Egyptians are 10% Coptic, even in Bilad al-Sham and in Lebanon and others, you have the Maronite Christians, you have the Coptic Christians, Nestorian Christians. Islam never eliminated all faith traditions, and you still had Zoroastrians and Christians in Iran, and Jews in Iran, you had some of the largest groups of Jewish people, why? Because when they fled Byzantine lands, the emperors of Persia welcomed them to come in, this is pre-Islam, so you had large groups of Jewish people living in Iran as well, and when the Muslims came, they allowed them to remain as they are.

It is true, many of them would not like this, and so they went to other places. That's true, and that's why many Persians, when the Muslims conquered Persia, they decided, especially the rich, they decided to migrate, voluntarily, they weren't forced to, and they went to the closest neighboring polytheistic region, and that is India, and when they went there, they were called the Persians, the Parsees, and as you know, to this day, in India, there's a group called the Parsees, they're from the Iranian merchants, the rich people who didn't want to pay the extra taxes, they wanted to take their wealth, and so they voluntarily migrated to India, and their descendants are still there to this day.

Iranian Contributions to Islamic Scholarship

Now, I'm not going to go over all the history of Iran, but I will mention a few key points. Of the points that I want everybody to know, is that Iranian scholarship shaped Islam, this is a non-controversial statement, the ulama of that region shaped Islam, they contributed unbelievably in every single discipline.

And in fact, we even have prophetic ahadith that seem to indicate this. It is said, and these ahadith are found in Tirmidhi, and in Mustadrak of al-Hakim, and in other books, that the Prophet ﷺ was sitting with Salman al-Farisi, and he said, and in one version, he pointed to Salman, and he said, that if knowledge were placed in the farthest stars, people from Persia, and in one hadith, Salman al-Farisi's people would go and get that knowledge.

And a number of scholars have considered it to be authentic. So why is this the case? Because Persian civilization was really the most literate, and the most sophisticated, it actually excelled Byzantine civilization, and when they became Muslim, they brought their brains to do khidmah to the religion of Islam, in a way that no other civilization had that expertise.

So where to begin? Wallahi, there could be many lectures given about the contributions of the Persian civilizations to Islam, the Persian scholars to Islam. Where to begin? Arabic itself, ya ahl lughat al-Arab, who codified your language, who codified, who wrote the first book of grammar?

The Persian Contribution to Islamic Scholarship

Sibawayh, through and through Persian, Sibawayh, born in a Persian family, spoke Persian better than Arabic, it's his mother tongue, and he writes his famous book, Al-Kitab, that's the title of the book by the way, Al-Kitab, and it is the first and the mother of all books in Arabic grammar, it's a Sibawayh.

In hadith, oh my God, hadith wala haraj, it is as if the majority of muhaddithin are from this land: Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Tirmidhi from Tirmidh, Imam al-Nisai, Imam Ibn Majah from Qazwin. It is as if only basically Abu Dawood and Imam Ahmad and others are from pure Arab, otherwise, all of these, and that's just the main generation. If you want to go beyond that, we can keep on going, right?

You look at the scholars of fiqh: Abu Hanifa. Imam al-Shafi'i is allegedly reported to have said, people are indebted when it comes to fiqh to Abu Hanifa. What was Abu Hanifa, an Arab? He was Persian through and through, he spoke Farsi at home. Abu Hanifa is the first of the great fuqaha, and he is pure and through Farsi. And after him as well, you have so many, al-Jassas and others from the same tradition.

The scholars of tafsir: Imam al-Tabari, Imam al-Tabari is from that civilization. As-Zamakhshari is also a Persian stock.

The scholars of aqaid and ilm al-kalam: Imam al-Juwayni, al-Ghazali, through and through Iranian. Al-Ghazali represents Iran of the 11th century. This is Iran, Iran is Iranian Islam. Al-Ghazali born in Islam, born in Iran, born and raised, lived there, and then at the end of his life, he becomes the rector of the university, but otherwise, he is through and through, he is Iranian. And you have so many others as well.

The Great Persian Poets

And of course, let us not forget some of the greatest civilizational poets of the ummah, poets who really brought a level of culture, civilization to the ummah. You have Ferdowsi and his famous book, who knows his book? The what? The Shahnama of Ferdowsi. You have Hafiz, you have Jalaluddin al-Rumi. You have all heard of Rumi. What language did Rumi write in? Not Arabic, Rumi did not write in Arabic, Hafiz did not write in Arabic, they are writing in Persian.

And that is why Persian was after Arabic, it was the most important language of Islamic civilization, and we see its impact globally, across the world. Even in India, what was the noble language? It was Persian, and that is why even Iqbal, I mean a century ago, which language is he writing in? In Persian. This is the influence of the Persian civilization on Islam.

We have to understand there is no civilization that is impacted, obviously other than the local Arab in Hijaz, after obviously Arabian civilization, the Iranian civilization, the Persian civilization impacted Islam more than any other, and benefited more than any other.

Iran's Historical Sunni Identity

Now all of these great names I mentioned are of course Sunni, yes Rumi and all of them are Sunni, but unfortunately we in our minds have no idea, and we associate Iran with Twelver Shi'ism. Now this is a sensitive topic, I am not getting sectarian, literally I am just being historic right now, so there is no judgment, I am just telling you what happened.

The sad reality, the average Muslim is just dismally unaware that Iran was a bastion of Sunni Ilm, Sunni Hadith, Sunni Fiqh, Sunni Tasawwuf, Sunni everything, except recently it changed, and most people do not understand the debt we owe Iranian or Persian civilization. I just give you some of the names, there are so many more as well by the way.

The Safavid Transformation - Ismail al-Safavi (1501 CE)

So what happened, how did Iran become Twelver Shi'ism, how did that happen? And again I am not being sectarian, I am just being factual right now. This is literally Allah's qadr because of one man, one man, of course he founded a dynasty, but I mean it is one man, one person made this decision and enforced it, and that is Ismail al-Safavi. Ismail al-Safavi, this is the person whose name you need to know when it comes to this reality, and this is relatively yesterday, 1501 CE, 500 years ago, right?

For the bulk, a thousand years, Iran was a bastion of Sunni Ilm and of Sunnism. Shi'ism was not associated with this region, it was associated in small pockets in Kufa and in other places, there was a small area as well in Lebanon, it was associated with Tashayyuh from the beginning of time, especially Kufa, it was Eastern Iraqi phenomenon. Iran had nothing to do with Twelver Shi'ism, it was only recently.

The Qizilbash Cult

What happened? Long story short, it is a bit complicated, but the founder of this dynasty, Ismail al-Safavi, the Safavi dynasty, actually the origins of this family have nothing to do with Iran even, believe it or not. His father, Ismail al-Safavi's father, was the founder of a messianic, cultish, extremist, Shi'ite, Sufi, jihadist tariqa, all of those adjectives, literally, I'm not exaggerating. It was a bizarre cult called the Qizilbash, the Qizilbash.

His father, Ismail al-Safavi's father founded it, they were not mainstream Twelver Ja'afaris, they were not, they were their own version of Islam. If you want to look up the Bektashis, they were similar to, if you want to look up the Turkish Alevis, they're similar to them, these are some, you know, just esoteric group, they're called the Ghulat groups, they're a different strand.

And his father, Ismail's father, founded a messianic, end of times, cultish, giving bay'ah just to me, blind following, jihadist, like we're going to fight everybody that doesn't follow us, Sufi, yes they were in their own version of Sufi, and Ghulati Shi'i order, called the Qizilbash. And more and more, is messianic figure, people flock to him, they would wear a bizarre turban, and that's why they got the name Qizilbash from, it's like a red turban, they would have it, the term means red turban with 12 prongs, so Qizilbash is what they would wear.

And in one of these battles, his father died, so the group took his young son, and they said, you are the next Mahdi, or messianic figure, because you're the son's father, you're the father of your son, so they took him far away, and they protected him, they obeyed every order of his, they treated him almost like a demi-god, even as a child.

So he grew up with these bizarre notions in his head, when you're treated like this, even as a 7, 8, 9 year old, when you're given those importance, he felt himself divinely, not just protected, not just guided, appointed, and there are reputable, authentic reports that indicate, he felt he is the Mahdi, he felt he is the Imam al-Ghaib, of the Shia, and in fact, it is quite clear, he even said he is the return of Imam Ali himself. He had these strange beliefs, so he is not mainstream Twelver, he is not your traditional Twelver, he is his own version.

The Conquest and Declaration

At the young age of 12, 13, whatever, he then says, khalas, we're gonna go and conquer the world, and he gathers his followers, because they have put him on the pedestal, so they actually follow him through, and because they're fanatical warriors, and whatever the politics and the political situation, the weaknesses of the time, he manages to actually conquer a large, not he with his generals, with his large army, he conquers what we now consider to be the land of Iran.

And when he enters the famous city of Tabriz, which is in Iran, Tabrizi, Tabriz, when he enters Tabriz, he then announces himself for the first time in 2000 years, the term has never been used, he says he is the Shah of Iran. Now who used this term in the past? No Muslim ruler, this was something Cyrus used, this is pre-Islamic, this is not something any Muslim ruler ever used, this is a term that has nothing to do with our faith. The first Shah of Iran in the Muslim time frame is this guy Ismail al-Safavi.

And at the age of 14-15, he publicly declares, from now on, we are going to have Twelver Shi'ism as the state religion. His advisor said, don't do this, you're going to, the people are not Shia, this is where he said, no, Allah has sent me, I am the chosen of Allah, Allah has designated me, I am the Mahdi al-Muntadhar, I am this and that, and I will enforce Twelver Shi'ism.

The Forced Conversion Campaign

How? This is when, again, I'm not being sectarian, but I mean, it will come off as criticism, because it is criticism, what happened should not have happened, but I don't mean to inflame sectarianism simply by describing the past. One of the most brutal cases of religious forced conversion in human history took place right now. This is a reality that most people are unaware of, but it needs to be said, and any fair-minded person, I would hope, even if they're Twelver Shia, I would hope they would say, this should not have been done. Even if you think that is right, the way he went about doing this is one of the most brutal mechanisms in human history.

What did he do? Literally, at the age of 14, and he's 14, so remember, because he's so young, fanatical, and he's been treated his whole life the way he does, so he issues a decree that immediately, henceforth, all Sunni masajid will become Shia, all Sunni madaris either shut down or become Shia, every khutbah will have a section in it where, istaghfirullah for even saying this, Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman radiallahu anhum, we will give la'na, tabarru, from them, tabarru, and we will force all of the senior scholars to publicly do the same, and if they don't, they shall be imprisoned, jailed, or executed, and we will convert the system from being Sunni fiqh to being Twelver Ja'afari fiqh.

And by the way, one thing is interesting, he kind of understood, he couldn't import his extremist version of Shi'ism, so the closest thing that he could think of was at least Twelver Ja'afari fiqh, because Twelver Ja'afari fiqh at least had some fiqh and some, whereas his version or whatnot was absolutely unique in this regard.

And this is a political statement as well, why? Because he wants to break clear of the Ottoman empire, and of the entire, he wants full independence, he wants no ties with anybody else, how are you going to do that? You're going to do this by establishing your own faith-based system that has no parallel in the entire world. It was a political move, and we know this because he was not a Twelver Ja'afari fiqh growing up, he's not a believing Twelver Ja'afari fiqh growing up, it's a political move to maintain despotic independence. Everybody's going to be following a new system, and this is exactly what he did.

The Implementation and Its Consequences

That for the next 100 years, him and his descendants basically executed thousands of scholars, senior scholars, who refused to publicly curse the three imams, the three khulafa, they exiled, or forced exile, or the people themselves had to flee for their lives, hundreds of thousands of people, they imprisoned tens of thousands of opposition and Sunni imams.

And there were no Shi'i scholars, or very few, so what are they going to do? I mean, they were no, in Iran, what are they going to do? They began importing senior Twelver clerics, especially from what we now call Lebanon, in a place called Jabal Amil, so Al-Amili family, they came, Ali al-Karaki, Zayn al-Din al-Hamili, these are famous Twelver Shi'a scholars of a particular strand of Shi'ism.

By the way, many Sunnis are unaware, just like Sunnism, when we say Sunni, I mean, there's like a gazillion movements within Sunnism, right? Understandably, Twelver Shi'ism also has many movements within it, many understandings, and so it's interesting that the version that is found in Iran basically is this type of overall fikr, which goes back to whom the Safavids imported. The Safavids brought in groups of clerics from this region, especially of Al-Amil region, and these people then were given full license, the country is yours, theologically, do what you will.

So they instituted curriculums, they built madaris in Isfahan, in Qazwin, in Tabriz, some of which are still standing to this day, they began training their own scholars, and they effectively banned Sunnism.

The Statistical Reality

One simple statistic: in 1500 CE, Shi'ism was less than 5% of Iran, just like with every Sunni, there must be some, less than 5%. Within 100-150 years, Shi'ism becomes 95%. This is a simple statistic, and this should not have happened, but this is why Iran is now Twelver Shi'i, because the Safavids politically wanted to break away, and they wanted full independence, and they wanted theologically no ties with the rest of the Ummah.

The Ottoman-Safavid Conflict and Its Legacy

Understandably, the rest of the world was not happy with this, especially the Ottoman Empire. The Uthmani Khulafa were extremely incensed and enraged, and the Ottomans and the Safavids went to war multiple times. There was extreme rivalry, there was geopolitical competition, there were a number of military confrontations. Even senior, famous Suleyman al-Khanuni and others of the Ottomans have famously harsh remarks against the Safavids. They decried the execution of these Ulama. They considered the Safavids to be like the work of the devil.

And modern historians say - and there's really an element of truth, I don't mind saying this - modern historians and political analysts say the hatred between these two dynasties kind of sort of still remains to this day in much of the Sunni-Shi'a rhetoric. The Sunni-Shi'a hatred that we see in our times - it's always existed to a certain extent. As you know, I'm not sectarian. We have to disagree without violence. This is my stance all the time. I don't agree with their theology at all, but at the end of the day, we should not be physical against another person if they're not physical with us, and we have to be careful about fomenting extra hatred.

And the fact of the matter is, in many times of Islamic history, that was the reality across the world. Why is there so much animosity between modern Sunnis and Shi'as? There is a theory which has a lot of legitimacy - that this actually goes back to the Safavid-Uthmani conflict. That the scholars of both began extra sectarianism against the other because there's a war going on, because there's actual battles going on. So that kind of sort of remains to this day. And if you look at it, some of the senior people that are quoted by both sides, they go back to this era. There's a lot of animosity during this time frame.

The Rise of the Pahlavi Dynasty and Modern Iran

Nonetheless, so this is where it became Shi'i. Let's skip over the next 400 years - the Nadir Shah reign and the Qajar dynasty. Let's get to modernity and then finish off إن شاء الله تعالى.

So in 1921, at the end of the Qajar dynasty, one of the modern military generals - one of the young army officers - his name is Raza Shah, he overthrows the last of the Qajar kings and he establishes the Pahlavi, the Shah dynasty. He establishes the Pahlavi dynasty.

World War One happens, World War Two happens. And in the World War Two era, the Iranian people seem to gravitate towards freedoms, democracy. They want to make the Pahlavi king nominal, just like the Queen of England or the King of England, and form a democracy. And that's actually what happens. They form a parliament.

Mohammad Mosaddegh and Iran's First Democracy

So the Iranian people now - there's a new excitement, there's a new world post-World War Two - and they elect in the only free and fair elections in the history of Iran, 1951. This is very important - the only free and fair elections where the people are voting, candidates are saying who's gonna be, and they elect their prime minister. And his name is Mohammad Mosaddegh.

And by all accounts, Mohammad Mosaddegh is - well, without a doubt, he's very educated. He is a genuine leader who loves his people. There's no question. Go read his biography - he really wanted good for his people. And he realizes one of our biggest problems is our oil is controlled directly by British Petroleum, BP. It was called something else, but it's BP that became BP. You know BP is the largest oil company in England, BP.

And BP had written a contract with the king - they had not first dibs, they had full rights to the oil. They would mine, they would extract, they would purify, they would sell, and then for every dollar, a few pennies to Iran. This is blatant modern colonization that happened.

Mohammad Mosaddegh understood this is not gonna work - you are fleecing us, you are bankrupting us. So one of the first things he does is get rid of that contract and says to the Iranian people, "This is our land, this is our oil, let's make our own company." And that's what he did - he nationalizes the oil.

Operation Ajax: The CIA Coup

Ah, but you see, the superpowers don't want you to have your own wealth, do they? They don't want you to control your own resources. If you are not careful, they might even invade your country in the middle of the night and arrest you with your wife and drag you back here because they want your oil. But you see, back then they weren't that blunt. You would think we would learn more, but no, we're actually more blunt now.

So Mr. Winston Churchill - you've heard his name - Mr. Churchill is in charge of BP. Well, England, but that is BP. This is the modern East India Trading Company - that's the modern version of it. والله, history repeats itself over and over again.

Oh Indian, Pakistani, Bengalis - what is the East India Trading Company? It is because of that company that so much havoc and chaos exists in our world. And what was it? It was an extension of the British Parliament. That was the real British policy. Go back 300 years - it's the same thing. 100 years - it's the same thing. Instead of East India Trading Company, it's British Petroleum - same concept.

And so, can you believe - I'm not making this up, والله - Winston Churchill calls up America and says, "Help me, the Iranian people have gotten rid of our monopoly on the oil."

And again, this is such an interesting - well, I wish I could go more here. In some ways, I know this is idealistic, but by and large, our country, the US of A, was by and large isolationist for much of its history because the founding fathers had seen what happens when you interfere in other lands and they didn't want that. So the spirit of isolationism - that's why World War I, America had to be dragged in. They didn't want to be involved to the very end.

But during World War II, when the superpowers of Europe all crumbled, a vacuum is created. And it is that vacuum in which America now - we're seeing now, to be honest, many people are saying the decline has long begun, but that's a separate story altogether. Empires take centuries to decline, decades to collapse, and this is the - we're beginning to see this reality now.

So at this point in time, America is still somewhat of a neutral player, somewhat, relatively speaking. And Winston Churchill, because of World War II, is bankrupt. He doesn't have the resources that are needed. And so America decides, in conjunction with England, that they will get Iran's oil back.

The CIA's First Major Operation

How do they do this? Now, I know some of you will think I'm telling you conspiracy stories - you don't believe me. Log on to Wikipedia, very trustworthy source. Log on to any website. Go read any academic book. I'm going to tell you the absolute truth. There is no conspiracy. In fact, the original documents are also available in this regard.

World War II had seen the creation of a new entity here in America - it was called the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. This is brand new. World War II caused America to realize we need foreign influence. And the CIA - you should all be aware - operates outside of presidential and congressional and senatorial jurisdiction. It is not - there are no checks and balances. It can do anything and get away with it.

Whereas technically the FBI cannot - technically no organization within America can get away - you can technically, even now what we're seeing with ICE, the state is suing ICE, Minnesota is. Even now there's some checks and balances. You cannot do this to the CIA. The CIA is black box. It's its own entity. We should all know this. This is the newest American organization now, post-World War II.

And I'm not making this up - the first project assigned to them: overthrow Mohammed Mosaddegh and reinstall the Shah with full power, no questions asked. Get rid of democracy, get rid of the parliament, and get the oil back. This was the task handed to the CIA. I'm not making - والله, I'm not making - go read this. And this is called Operation Ajax, A-J-A-X. Go look this up, Operation Ajax.

The Tactics of Destabilization

So long story short, in 1951, '52, '53, all of this time frame, Operation Ajax, along with some help from the British, but this is primarily an American thing. Here's the irony - the Brits called the Americans wanting the Americans to help to get the oil back to the Brits. But of course, when you call in the big bully, the big bully wants his share. And in fact, why would he give you any share? So I don't know how Churchill reacted when they ended that, but it was not - in any case.

So the CIA begins funding specific mechanisms to start fomenting the perception of hatred against Mosaddegh. Again, it sounds so bizarre, but go read - this is now well-known. Freedom of Information Act has made all of these documents public. By the way, who funds the CIA? Our tax dollars. Understand this point. Because the funding comes from American taxes, but there's no governmental oversight, there's no checks and balances.

So the CIA has 10, 15 things they start doing. Of them: paying broadcasters to have their scripts of the news read rather than local journalists - i.e., controlling the media. Of them: doing things in the streets - thugs, whatnot - to destabilize civil society. You know, like accosting people, killing people, whatever it might be - like street crime and street harassment so that people start thinking Mosaddegh's not doing a good job.

Of them: hire - والله, this is true - hire thousands of people with nominal fees, 5, 10, 20 dollars, to go protest in the streets against Mosaddegh. I'm not saying anything about right now. I'm simply saying this is what happened in the '50s - that's all I'm saying. The CIA paid people to go and protest in the streets to create the illusion that there's a lot of anger.

And what's going to happen? It's human nature - even if you are not paid, but when you see 10,000 people chanting something, they're like, "Yeah, maybe they're right," and you get swept up as well. You create the circumstances.

The Return of Absolute Monarchy

And after all of this, you know, what is said and done, in the end of 1953, the Shah issues an executive order - similar to Hitler 20 years ago - in order to achieve stability, in order to shut down all of this chaos: "You have to give me my rights back. I have full control. I abolish the parliament. And for the sake of your people's safety, I have to be your king as a real king. And I'm going to arrest Mosaddegh. I'm going to execute two, three, four people who were executed - the other ministers, whatnot."

Mosaddegh dies under house arrest. They didn't actually execute him because he was too popular. Believe it or not, he was so popular that they didn't actually want to execute him, so they kept him in house arrest until he died.

And then, from 1953 until he was deposed in 1979, the Shah of Iran - who was the son of the founder, the founder I told you about, the Pahlavi - it was his son, the Shah of Iran rules Iran with one of the most brutally repressive regimes of the last century, with direct aiding and abetting of America and England. Because why? As soon as he arrests Mosaddegh, what do you think happened to the oil?

Corporate Control and American Influence

BP didn't get it, Shell, Exxon - Exxon became the number one extractor, refiner, and seller of Iranian oil. Politics and commerce, hand in hand. US foreign policy, multinational corporations, hand in hand, over and over and over again, whether it's the Gulf War, whether it is then, whether it is now, there's always the two colluding together. This is the reality.

And because the Shah did the bidding and the oil is the American's oil, they didn't care how repressive he was. "We want you in office, you do whatever you need to do." And in his time frame, the level of brutality against his own people - all that we hear about later on Libya, Iraq, whatever - it began with Iran. All the brutalities that happened afterwards, Iran is where it began under the Shah.

The Reality of Life Under the Shah

Go speak to any sane Iranian of that time frame, who will tell you the realities of how evil this man was. You couldn't even have a private conversation in your house with your friends criticizing the Shah. If you criticize the Shah in private conversation, you would be disappeared, perhaps never heard of again, executed, tortured in the worst manner possible, because one of those people would turn out to be a spy. He'd get money to turn you in, turns you in, he gets some money, and you're gone for life. 25 years he ruled with an iron fist.

The Extravagant Celebration of 1971

To give you one example, in 1971, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah, he staged what is considered to be one of the most extravagant celebrations in human history. It was his birthday, and it was coincidingly, he said, the 2500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy. So he threw a birthday party, the likes of which the world has never seen.

It is estimated he spent over 300 million dollars of that time frame's money, which is probably a billion dollars now. He invited every world leader, the guest list is just unimaginable, a who's who of royalty, and he created an entire city, and a whole week long of events, and you can see video footage of it, while his own people right outside were starving for food.

What is going to happen when you spend like a billion dollars on a festival, all the kings and queens and all the rich are inside, and the people barely have food to eat? What do you think is going to happen?

The Rise of Opposition

In this climate, and again I'm not taking sides, but I understand exactly why it happened. People come along, whose version of Islam we might disagree with, but whose integrity you know was not for money or power or fame, and they said this is a land for our people, and not for sellouts. And when you use the name of God, and people are already far away, they get a sense of peace.

And a figure known as Khomeini starts rising up as an opposition, claiming that it was time for the Shah to leave, and for a new era to be ushered in. People who had nothing to do with religion, were so sick of the Shah, they sense from this guy, at least he is one of us, and clearly he's not a stooge of the foreign powers.

Again we have our strong disagreements theologically, but understand in the late 70s, the average Iranian was pro-Khomeini. Understand this point, even if they weren't pro-Shia. Unbelievably, the two had nothing to do with each other.

Khomeini's Return from Exile

And when you look, I want all of you to look at the video footage of when Khomeini returns from Paris in exile, because it was him who became the voice of the opposition. Go look at the video footage of the streets of Tehran. Non-hijabis are cheering for Khomeini, because they have no idea what's going to happen. Clean-shaven men who have probably never prayed for years, are going berserk, "Return of the Khomeini!" They think now is the good era coming in. They don't understand they're going to have a different set of problems, because there is no idealistic and whatnot.

The 1979 Embassy Takeover

Nonetheless, you have to understand one thing, that the antagonism that the people had towards the Shah was also the antagonism they had towards America at that time frame. Those of you older than me, I barely remember this, very vaguely as a child, the 1979 takeover of the embassy. It didn't come out of thin air. There's no justifying, but understand why were people angry, because that was the time when the reality of the coup of 1953 became public knowledge.

Everybody knew America was the one who put the Shah in power, and who kept him in power, and who was behind all of this repression. That's why the anger. It didn't come out of thin air. It's not that Iranian people are born with the DNA against America. There are socio-political reasons for that anger, and that anger was manifested in what happened with the takeover of the embassy. And of course Jimmy Carter lost his presidency because of that.

Again it's interesting how it all relates together. The American public was never told, and they still don't know about the role that they played in Iran, even though it's public knowledge, but it's not taught in the curriculum. And one thing leads to another.

The Problem of Ruling in the Name of Islam

But here's the point I want to conclude on this. Whenever people rule in the name of Islam, their policies become equated with the religion of Islam. It is never a wise thing to do this. We see this reality around the globe, whether it's in Sunnism or it's in Shiaism. When you rule in the name of Islam, any mistake you make is associated with the religion.

And this current regime, even though without a doubt we are not sympathetic, I'm not sympathetic towards them, but what makes it more difficult is that their incompetencies and their problems have actually led to people hating the religion of Islam because of them. And this is well documented that of the highest rates of apostasy in the Muslim world are in Iran.

This was not the case even under the Shah, because nobody blamed the Shah and Islam together. The Shah never said he's doing it in the name of Islam. You want to get angry at the Shah, it has nothing with your religion. But when you have an Ayatollah, when you have a religious cleric ruling in the name of religion, or you have another group, whether they're in Afghanistan, whether they're anywhere else, ruling in the name of religion, their policies when they fail, in the eyes of many people it becomes a failure of religion.

And so this is why we are seeing such anger even against the religion. There is no excuse for what these people are doing, you don't burn the mosque, but this is their crazed mentality.

Lessons from History

Bottom line, I don't want to become political analysts here, simply understand that history teaches us we should not be naive and take things at face value. History teaches us generally speaking superpowers are involved in engineering things. Generally speaking they never learn. They think that by getting somebody in office that will like them, that will do their bidding, this will be better for civilization society, but always it turns out to be for the worst.

And so let's keep our judgments minimal, be a little bit more wise in this regard. And the main thing is we pray for the safety and the security of innocent people who unfortunately are always the one that pay the heaviest price for the games that take place at the political level.

The games that take place between the politicians, they don't pay the price because they will pay it in the akhirah by the way. Who pays the price in this world? The innocent people.

So we ask Allah to protect the innocent people, we ask Allah to save the lives of all those who have nothing to do with the evils of reality, and to deal with those that are involved in fitna and fasad, to deal with them this world before the next, and إن شاء الله maybe later we'll give more political analysis.

وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ