An incident Duration 10 minutes This was sometime

An incident… [Duration: 10 minutes]

“This was sometime during the January of 1976…

The battle was in its full swing. Continuous shelling from the opposite sides was going on…. . The sound of heavy machine gun ‘Doshka’ was giving a strange horror to the battlefield…

The aggressive Kataeb started this fierce battle and Muslim fighters 2 were forced to defend themselves. The armored snipers of Kataeb were continuously firing from the entrenchments located at the heights. . . 1 Chirstian Phalangists 2 Fighters of Harkat al Mahroomeen (the movement of the downtrodden) founded by Imam Musa Sadr (qs) and trained by Martyr Dr. Mostafa Chamran 1

They were targeting every person walking in Ashshiyah 1. The Muslim soldiers were hiding in ambush behind the walls of buildings, scattered bags of sand in different corners of the streets of Ashshiyah… 1 The southern suburb of Beirut

Every short while they would pull the triggers of their light machine guns targeting towards Ain-ar-Ramana, the Kataeb stronghold in response to equate their heavy shelling…

We took the responsibility of three defensive posts in Ashshiyah. The most dangerous post was located at the Khayaban-e-As’ad-al 1 -As’ad. . . The routine job of the people of Harkat-ul-Mahroomeen (the movement of the downtrodden) was to visit the different centers and to encourage and console the fighters… 1 As’ad al As’ad street

…And to sit with them, to drink tea, to observe the activities of Kataeb by sitting behind the trenches. Sometimes I would suggest some schemes and discuss ideas with them. Our aim was to spend time with these brave self-sacrificing men…

Just adjacent to Khayaban-e-As’ad-al-As’ad there was a small avenue named Shahra-e-al -Khalil 1. This street was also under attack from Kataeb’s sniper firing. They were targeting everyone who walked on this street… 1 Al-Khalil avenue

I was hiding behind a high wall and was looking towards Ain-ar-Ramana, and exploring entrenchments of Kataeb. There was dead silence on the street at that time and so the sound of firing was also not heard. . .

I was wondering in the world of hopelessness, astonishment and amazement. On the opposite side of the street, at the distance of about 10 meters from me, there was a house where a 2 -3 year old child was playing. The door of the house was open. . .

Suddenly the child came out of the house and started running on the street… Without any intention I immediately screamed very loudly. I had never before screamed like this…

I did not know what did I say and what was the state of my mind and what happened because of my shriek. But of course the young mother of the child screamed agitatedly and ran on the street with uneasiness and bare feet. . .

Before her hand could reach her child… suddenly the sound of firing was heard and the bullet pierced her chest in which the motherly love was bubbling. She screamed…and fell on the street….

Her one hand was on her chest. Because of bleeding her fingers were immersed in blood and the other hand was raised towards her child and she was screaming… “Oh my son, Oh my son…”

I could not endure any more. There was no more time to wait. The danger of death and fear of danger were now meaningless for me. To save the life of the child, I immediately ran towards the street, grabbed him in my arm and jumped inside the house…

A surge of firing rained from Ain-ar. Ramana and it was obvious that the expert snipers of Kataeb were waiting for this moment to shoot and kill us. It was by chance that we were safe as any bullet could have hit us…

I entered the house. The child was safe. I then turned towards the mother. I saw her hand was still raised towards her son and eyes were looking at us. . .

When she was sure about our safety, she kept her head on the ground and her hand also dropped down…

I kept the child in one corner and got ready to save the mother by putting myself in danger. All this happened in few moments. But it was all very dreadful…

By that time our fighters also reached there. They started shooting towards Ain-ar. Ramana from all the sides. This rain of bullets shielded us from Kataeb snipers. . .

I reached the street, one more volunteer helped me and we quickly brought the mother in the house. The child at once went into his mother’s lap. She sighed and hugged her child with the injured, bleeding chest. . .

The child was crying and the tears were also falling from the eyes of the mother. The tears of the happiness, the tears of the thanks to Allah, that her child was safe…

However…her hands were now down on the ground and her eyes were closed. Yes ! Ah! surely the mother sacrificed her life and the child was still crying…

By then, the women and children of the neighborhood had also gathered. The voice of moaning and crying was getting louder. The people were coming and going out of the house and now there was crowd…

But I was roaming in another world. Far from the people, far from all the noise, far from the battlefield, I could not see anything because of the little innocent child…

The child who committed a crime, but was it a crime? He sent his mother to death. But the child was innocent and from his innocent face, tearful eyes and moving lips, his purity and the intense need of the mother were visible…

And then I looked at his dying mother. Her hand was still on the chest. Her fingers were immersed in blood that was getting dried. Tears were on the sides of her eyes and her lips were smiling, as if she was sleeping comfortably…. ”

This was a passage from the book “Lebanon” a compilation of Martyr Dr. Mostafa Chamran’s speeches and writings when he was in Lebanon.

21 st June is the day of martyrdom of this great Muslim fighter and commander, a scientist, an arif, and a person of firm faith, Dr. Mostafa Chamran. He was martyred in Iraq-Iran war in 1981. He is buried in Beheshte Zahra cemetery.

He was a Ph. D with summa cum laude in plasma physics and electronics from University of Texas and then pursued higher research in satellite and high power radars at the University of California, Berkeley.

But then he felt that he should help downtrodden and left USA and went for two year guerilla training in Egypt and finally joined Imam Musa Sadr (qs) in Lebanon. Because of his amazing tactics in battlefield and his miraculous way of defeating enemies, he was known as “modern day Malik-e-Ashter”.

Imam Khomeini (ra) loved him very much and spoke of him very highly after he was martyred. Several of his lectures and writings are published in Persian language.

May God bestow this great personality with His special blessings

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