A Brief History Of Iran

Exploring Iran's Historic Role in Global Civilization This audio is brought to you by Muslim Central. Please consider donating to help cover our running cost and future projects by visiting www.muslimcentral.com/donate. Speaker 2 Today's lecture, obviously it is of relevance given the 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 Utah, Allah, 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, Utah, Allah beginning the conversation so that you can understand and situate yourself to understand what is happening. Apologies, my voice, as you can tell is off. I'm a little bit under the weather. May Allah give a shifa all of us, inshallah. 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 of 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 to be Dokarnain. You know, there's a there's a controversy who is Dokarnain? 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 contender. Cyrus the Great is considered to be the founder of the first great civilization of Iran in 550 BC and it stretched over 3 continents and this eventually led to the a comedian Empire which was one of the first empires to have a a universal set of governance of law, somewhat open mindedness and religion. And again one of the primary civilizations of pre modernity. And the religion of Iran is also unique religion Zoroastrianism. It is founded in Iran itself. Zarathustra Zoroastra is considered to be the founder of that faith tradition. And when the Muslims encountered it, they treated Zoroastrians like Aliqitab. So they said if you are going to be treated like the Aliqitab. How Persian Scholars Shaped Islamic Civilization and Knowledge And in the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam, 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 the the 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 Hosaro Pervez that the prophecies Adam interacted with hero letter 2. And if you know famously when Hostro Pervez also called Kisra, when Hostro Pervez he tore up the letter, the prophet system 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. 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. Speaker 1 3rd. Speaker 2 Civilization which wasn't even known as the civilization the Muslims rises up, takes on simultaneously the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire, cars the Byzantine Empire in half and acquires it, Bilad the Sham and Egypt and Alexandria and North Africa. This was all Byzantine lands, all 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 Odyssea, and the primary person is Saddam Nabil Akash, associated with the battle of Qadisiya. It is, in my mind, one of the most surreal moments of not just Islamic history of history. Speaker 1 To imagine the Sahaba themselves, the people who broke bread with the Prophets asylum, the people who interacted with who fought at the Battle of Badr, who saw the time frame when Islam was almost eliminated from global history. Those same people walked in the palaces of Kosaro Pervez. I mean, it is surreal to imagine. Well, why 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 I am in Ayatollah. 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 the the palace. He would never have had 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 Andalus in China. That happened in Samitab. Your own the first batch of Sahaba in his time frame. Odyssey occurs and the Sasan 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. Speaker 2 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 of arcana, they become something that is just found in the books of history. And so the Muslims not only acquire this land. Speaker 1 Eventually, Ali Radiallahuan moves his capital to this region. Speaker 2 Remember, Iraq and Iran were basically one entire region in this time frame. The capital of the Sassanid Empire was Tessafon in Arabic is called Meda in this is actually currently inside of the city of Baghdad. So understand that when we say Iran, we're not talking 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 its whole region is basically the Persian Empire. And the Umayyads then took over. And during this time frame, the conversion rate to Islam was very minimal. It's very interesting here that when the Umayyads rule for 90 years more the the Persian Kingdom or the Persian, sorry, 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 Abbas's 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 Umayas didn't have this policy. The Umayas had a more pre Islamic tribal policy. So when the Abbas's came to power and also the capital shifted, you know, to that region as well, this is when conversion began exponentially. And this really shows you how more amela changes the hearts. Speaker 1 Of people, right? Speaker 2 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 an Andalus in North Africa, in Bilal Dosham, in in 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 Omeas were harsher, less conversion when the Abbas says 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 and they them embrace Islam. So by 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. You can see almost 100% Muslim as in all cases, there are pockets to this day. Egyptians are 10% copped, you know, even in in Bilada Shaman in Libyan and sorry in Lebanon, Others. You have the Maronite Christians, you have the Coptic Christians, historian 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, of Persia welcomed them to come. And 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. So many of them would not like this. And so they went to other places to get their taxes over. 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, so they were called the the Persians, the padisis. And as you know, to this day in India, there's a group called the padisis and this the padisis and the padisis, the padis, they're from the Iranian merchants, the rich people who didn't want to pay the extra taxes. They wanted to just, you know, be, take their wealth. And so they voluntarily migrated to India and their descendants are still there. Speaker 1 To this day, 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. Speaker 2 They contributed unbelievably in every single discipline and in fact we even have prophetic A hadith that seemed to indicate this, it is said. And these books, these hadith are found in Timothy and the Musta cover Hakim and in other books that the processor 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 far the farthest stars people from Persia, and in one hadith, Salman Al Farsi's people would go and get that knowledge. And this hadith is intimidi and other books as well. And the number of scholars have considered to be authentic. So why is this the case? Because Persian civilization was really the most literate. Speaker 1 And the most sophisticated, it actually excelled Byzantine civilization. And when they became Muslim, they brought their brains to do hidma to the religion of Islam in a way that no, there was no other civilization that had that expertise. Speaker 2 So where to begin? Well, Lahi, there could be many lectures given about the contributions of the Persianate empire civilizations to Islam, the Persian scholars to Islam. Where to begin? Arabic itself? Who codified your language? Who codified who wrote the first book of grammar? Sibawe. Speaker 1 Through and through Persian. Sibawe, born in a Persian family, spoke Persian better than Arabic, says mother tongue. And he writes his famous book Al Kitab. That's the title. Speaker 2 Of the book, by the way. Speaker 1 Al Kitab and it is the first and the umm, the mother of all books in Arabic grammar says Sibawe in Hadith. Oh my God, Hadith Walaharaj. It is as if the majority of muhaddithin are from this land. Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Tirmidhi from Tirmid, Imam and Nisai, Imam Ibn Maja from Khazwin. It is as if like only basically Abu Dawood and Imam Muhammad and others are from 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 FIQ, Abu Hanifah and now sorry, I don't fulfill ABI Hanifah. Imama Shafr is allegedly reported to have said people are indebted when it comes to FIK to Abu Hanifah. What was Abu Hanifah? An Arab. He was Persian through and through. He spoke Pharisee at home. Abu Hanifah is the first of the great Fukaha and he is pure and through Pharisee and after him as well you have so many al Jassas and others from the same, you know tradition. The scholars of Tafsiri, Mahmoud Tabadi, Imam al Tabadi is from that civilization as Zamakshari is also a Persian stock. The scholars of al Qaeda and Elmal Kalam, Imam al Jawani 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 and born in Iran, born and two was born and raised, lived there, and then at the end of his life he becomes director of the university. But otherwise he is through and through, he is Iranian. And you have so many others as well. 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 Ferdosi and his famous book. Who knows his book? The what? The Shahnama Ferdosi. You have Hafez. You have Jalaruddina Rumi. You've 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're 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 he's writing in, in Persian. This is the influence of the Persian civilization on Islam. We have to understand there's no civilization that is impacted obviously, other than, you know, the local Arab and Hijaz, obviously the Arabian civilization, the Iranian civilization there, the Persian civilization impacted Islam more than any other and benefited more than any other. Ismail Safavi and the Forced Conversion to Twelver Shiism Now all of these great names I mentioned are of course Sunni, yes, Rome and and all of them are Sunni. But unfortunately we in our minds have no idea and we associate Iran with 12 or Shiism. Now this is a sensitive topic. I'm not getting sectarian literally I'm just being historic right now. So there's no judgment. I'm just telling you what happened. The sad reality, the average Muslim is just dismally unaware that Iran is was a bastion of Sunni ILM, Sunni Hadith, Sunni, Sunni Tasawwuf Sunni everything. Except recently it changed and most people don't understand the debt we owe Iranian or Persian civilization. I just give you some of the names. There's so many more as well by the way. So what happened? How did Iran become 12 or Shia? How did that happen? And again, I'm not being sectarian, I'm just being factual right now. This is literally Allah's other 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, and that is Ismail Asafavi. Ismail Asafavi, 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 1000 years, Iran was a bastion of Sunni and of Sunnism. There were Shi. Shiism 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 with Tashayor from the beginning of time, especially Kufa. It was eastern Iraqi phenomenon. Iran had nothing to do with 12 or Shiism. It was only recently what happened. Long story short, it's a bit complicated but the founder of this dynasty is Smila Sefave. The Sefave dynasty. Actually, the origins of this family have nothing to do with Iran. Even believe it or not, his father, Ismail Slovi's father was the founder of a messianic cultish extremist Shiite Sufi jihadist tariqa. Although those adjectives literally I'm not exaggerating. It was a bizarre cult called the Quizzle Bash. The Quizzle Bash, his father, Ismail's father founded it. They were not mainstream 12 or Japanese. They were not. They were their own version of Islam. If you want to look up the Bektashis, they were similar to him. If you want to look up the Turkish alavis, they're similar to them. These are some, you know, just esoteric group. They're called the Gulat groups. They're a different strand. And his father, Ismail's father, founded a messianic End of times. Cultish giving just to me blind following jihadists like we're going to fight everybody that doesn't follow us. Sufik, yes, they were in their own version of Sufik and Rolati Shiri order called the Kizil bash. And more and more is Messanic figure. People flock to him. They would wear a bizarre turban and and that's why they got the name Khizel Bash from it's like a red turban. They would have it. And the term means red turban with 12 prongs. So Khizel bash 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 demigod even as a child. So he grew up with these bizarre notions in his head. When you're treated like this, even as a 789 year old, when you're given those, you know, 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 the the Imam al Khabib 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. Shia is his own version at the young age of what, 1213? Whatever. He then says Hamas, we're going to 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, you know 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 Tabrez, which is in Iran, Tabrezi Tabrez, when he enters Tabrez, 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. Speaker 2 Term in the past No Muslim. Speaker 1 Ruler. This was something Cyrus used. This is pre Islamic. This is not something any Muslim ruler ever used. This is a a term that has nothing to do with our faith. The first Shah of Iran in our in the Muslim timeframe is this guy Ismail Safavi and at the age of 1415 he publicly declares from now on we are going to have 12 or Shia ISM as the state religion. His advisor said don't do this, you're going to the people are not Shia. This is where that he said no Allah has sent me, I am the chosen of Allah, Allah has designated me. I am the Mahdi al Muta that I am this and that and I will enforce 12 or Shirism how this is when Again, I'm not being sectarian, but I mean it. It will come off as criticism because it is criticism. What happened should not have happened. But I don't mean to inflamed sectarianism simpler 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 12 or 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 four? 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 Shiri, all Sunni madaris either shut down or become Shiri. Every khutba will have a section in it where start for Allah. For even saying this, Al Bakar Omar and erythman of the Allahu Anhum, we will give la Ana Tabarro from them tabarro, 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 firkh to being 12 or Jaffray firkh. And by the way, one thing is interesting. He kind of understood he couldn't import his extremist version of Shiism. So the closest thing that he could think of was at least 12 Rashir ISM because 12 Rashir ISM at least had some FIQ 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. How? 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 12 or Shia growing up. He's not a believing 12 or Shia 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, that for the next 100 years, him and his descendants basically executed thousands of scholars, senior scholars who refused to publicly curse the three Imam, the three Khalafa they exiled or forced exile or the people themselves had to flee for their lives. Hundreds of thousands of people. They imprisoned 10s of thousands of opposition and Sunni Imams. And there were no Shiri scholars or very few. So what are they going to do? I mean, there were no in Iran. What are they going to do? They began importing senior 12 work clerics, especially from what we now call Lebanon, in a place called Jabal Ahmed. So Al Ahmedi family, they came Ali al Karaki, Zenuddin and how many the famous 12 or Shia scholars of a particular strand of Shiism. 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, 12 Rashir 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 figure, which goes back to whom the Safavis imported. The Safavis brought in groups of clerics from this region, especially of Al Amil region, and these people, then we're given full license. The country is yours theologically. Do what you will. So they instituted curriculums, they built madaris in Isfahan, in Khazwin, in Tabriz, some of which are still standing to this day. They began training their own scholars, and they effectively banned Sunnism. One simple statistic. In 1500 CE, Shiism was less than 5% of Iran. Just like with every city, there must be some less than 5%. Within a hundred 150 years she is and becomes 95%. This is a simple statistic and this should not have happened, but This is why Iran is now 12 Rshiri, because the Sefavids politically wanted to break away and they wanted full independence and they wanted theologically no ties with the rest of the ummah. Understandably, the rest of the world was not happy with this, especially the Ottoman Empire. The Othmani Khalafa were extremely incensed and enraged, and the Othman, the Ottomans and the Sefavids went to war multiple times. There was dream rivalry, there was geopolitical competition, there were a number of military confrontations, even senior famous Soleimano Khalnuni. Others of the Ottomans, they have famously harsh remarks against the Sefavids. They decried the execution of these udama. They considered the Sefavids to be like the work of the devil. And modern historians say, and there's there's really an element of truth. I don't mind saying this, that there's an element of truth. Modern historians and political analysts say the hatred between these two dynasties kind of strata still remains to this day in much of the Sunni Shia rhetoric, IE the Sunni Shia hatred that we see in our times. Yeah, 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 very all the time. I don't agree with their theology at all. But in 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 Shias? There is a theory which which has a lot of legitimacy, that this actually goes back to the Safavid or Earth Mani conflict, that the scholars of both began extra sectarianism against the other because there's this war going on, because there's actual vows 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 that there's a lot of animosity during this time frame nonetheless. Operation Ajax and Western Influence in Modern Iran So this is where it became Shiri. Let's skip over the next 400 years, the the Nader Shah reign and the Khaja dynasty. Let's get to modernity and then finish off in Shah Allah. So in 1921, the end of the Khaja dynasty, one of the modern military generals or our young army officers, his name is Reza Shah, he overthrows the last of the Khajar kings and he establishes the Pahlavi, the Shah dynasty, he establishes the Pahlavi dynasty and World War One happens, World War 2 happens. And in World War 2 era, the Iranian people, they 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 now, and form a democracy. And that's actually what happens. They form a parliament. So the Iranian people now, there's a new excitement, there's a new world post World War 2, and they elect the only free and fair elections in the history of Iran in 1951. This is very important. The only free and fair elections where the people people are voting, candidates are saying who's going to be and they elect their Prime Minister. And his name is Mohammad Mossad Dekh. And by all accounts, Mohammad Mossad Dekh is a well, without a doubt, he's very educated. He is a genuine like 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, right? 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. Muhammad Mossaddek understood this is not going to work. You are. You are fleecing us. You are bankrupting us. So one of the first things he does gets 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. Ah, but you see, the superpowers don't want you to have your own wealth, do they? They don't want you to have to control your own resources if you are not careful. Speaker 2 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, right? This is the modern East England, East India Trading Company. That's the modern version of it. Well, history repeats itself over and over again. Speaker 1 Or 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, the same thing, 100 years, the same thing. Instead of East India Trading Company as a British Petroleum, same concept. And so Can you believe I'm not making this a wallah? You think I'm going to know this is this is real? Winston Churchill calls up America, says help me. The Iranian people have gotten rid of our monopoly on the oil. And again, this is such an interesting well, wish you could. I wish I could go more here. In some ways, I know this is idealistic. 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 One America had to be dragged in. They didn't want to be involved, they to the very end. And even that they say was engineer. But that it is what it is, right? But during World War 2, 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 the separatist for altogether empires take centuries to decline, decades to collapse. And this is the we're beginning to see this reality now. So in this point in time, America is still somewhat of a neutral player, somewhat relatively speaking. And Winston Churchill, because of World War 2, 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. 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, 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 Two 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 2 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 so you even now there's some checks and balances, right? You cannot do this to the CIA. The CIA is black box in it's a it's own entity. We should all know this. This is the newest American organization now post World War 2 and, and I'm not making this up, the first project assigned to them. Overthrow Muhammad Mossaddiq 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 the well, I'm not making the go read this. And this is called Operation Ajax a JAX go look this up. Operation Ajax. So Long story short, in 1950150253, all of this time frame, Operation Ajax along with some help from the British, but 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 to share. And in fact, why would he give you any share? So I don't know how Churchill reacted when the and that, but it was not, you know, in any case. So the CIA begins funding specific mechanisms to start fomenting the perception of hatred against Mossaddek again. It sounds so bizarre, but go read this is now well known. Fed Freedom of Information Act has made all of these documents public. By the way, who funds the CIA? Our tax dollars understand this point, right? Because the funding comes from American taxes. But there's no governmental oversight, there's no checks and balances. So the CIA has 1015 things they start doing of them paying broadcasters to have their scripts of the news read rather than local journalists, IE controlling the media of them is. Doing things in the streets thugs what not to destabilize civil society. You know like accosting people, killing people, whatever it might be. They're like street crime and St. harassment so that people start thinking Mossaddek's not doing a good job of them. Hire well lie. This is true. Hire thousands of people with nominal fees, 5/10/20 dollars to go protest in the streets against Mossaddek. I'm not saying anything about right now. I'm simply saying this is what happened in 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 like, yeah, maybe they're right, yeah. And you get swept up as well, right? You create the circumstances and in that, after you know all of this, you know what is said and done. In 19, 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, your safety, I have to be your king as a real king. And I'm going to arrest Mossaddik. I'm going to execute. 234 people were executed, right? The other ministers, what not Mossaddek dies under house arrest. They didn't actually execute because he was too popular believe in or he was so popular that they didn't actually want to execute him. So they kept him in house or essentially 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 Bahlavidadei. 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 American England. Because why? As soon as he arrests Mossadegh, what do you think happened to the oil? 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 Americans oil, they didn't care how repressive he was. You, 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 of later on, Libya, Iraq, whatever it began with Iran, all the brutalities that happened afterwards, Iran is where it began under the Shah. And 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. And you're probably because one of those people would turn out to be a spy. He'd get a money to turn you in, turns you in, he gets some money and you're gone for life. 25 years. You ruled with an iron fist. 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 2005 hundredth 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 of that time frame's money, which is probably a billion dollars now. He invited every world leader. The the, 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's going to happen in this climate? The Iranian Revolution and Lessons on Religious Governance 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 of 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 sensed 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 70's 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. 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 their own a different set of problems because there is no idealistic and whatnot. Nonetheless, you have to understand one thing, that's 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 exit didn't come out of thin air. It's not that Iranian people are born with the DNA against America. There are social, political reasons for that anger. And that anger was manifested in what happened in with the with the takeover, the embassy, and of course, Jimmy Carter lost his presidency because of that. Again, it's interesting how it all relates together. The the American public was never told that 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. 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 isn't Shia ISM. 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 Iran together. Islam together. Sorry. 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 then he was 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 in YouTube such anger, even against the religion. Arudu Villa. There is no excuse for what these people are doing. You don't burn the mosque. You don't. But this is their craze mentality. 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 after. 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 Azza Wajal to save the lives of all those have nothing to do with the evils of reality and to deal with those that are involved in Fitna and Facade. To deal with them this way before the next and inshallah, maybe later, we'll give more political analysis.