IRAN RISES

I must say that this issue never lightens the burden of guilt. Both he who issued the order to kill and he who commits the murder are responsible before divine judgment and both are guilty.

In Islamic jurisprudence we hold that the killing of one human is like the killing of all humanity.

Indeed, it is just so. The killing of one human is as if you killed all of humanity, not because you are killing an individual, but because you are in fact killing a personality.

Koranic verses and traditions which we have in this matter are amazing, and the basis of the Koran and Islam are firmly based on the sanctity of humanity, not to mention the sanctity of a Muslim, of a human who had declared the watchwords of our Faith (the shehadatein).

Hi Holiness Ali said in his testimony to his son, “Be an irreconcilable foe of the oppressor, and a succor to the oppressed.”

The basis of the philosophy of Kerbala, too, which holds such a prominent place in Shiite culture, is the matter of Imam Husein‘s long-suffering [mazlumiat], i.e., that which has shaken the world of humanity is that the enemy has sacrificed a long-suffering man.

Aside from all these matters, according to Islamic jurisprudence, “Right is always to be taken; it is never to be surrendered.” All the prophets and imams have achieved martyrdom in defending what is right.