Friday’s Sermons
Jul 17th, 2009 by pedestrian
Iranian state TV is currently broadcasting via its five channels:
1) a discussion on havij bastani (an Iranian desert with carrots and ice cream)
2) a 1986 Japanese cartoon
3) an Indian movie
4) an even cheesier Iranian movie
5) a documentary on the Iran-Iraq war
I’ve had almost every Friday lunch I can bring to memory listening to the Friday sermon playing in the background. IRIB1 made sure to start the live program a full hour before the sermon began to showcase the environment and the “revolutionary spirit of our people.”
Apparently the spirit was a no-show this time as there is no sign of it on TV.
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Bahman Agha is listening to the sermons on the radio from Tehran. I will be translating his words as long as he keeps them coming.
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12:42 Taghavi the head of the organization that oversees the Friday prayer imams is still speaking. “Whoever participates in the Friday prayers is strengthening his ties with the leader.”
12:47 Taghavi is going on still.
12:48 Taghavi: The Imam is speaking on the behalf of the supreme leader and thus must only speak of those policies approved by him. The Imam must organize his speech according to these policies.
12:50 Taghavi: This podium and this gathering must never be used on behalf of any political party or political cause. The Friday prayer is a prayer said in allegiance with the supreme leader. It is a prayer of unity and brotherhood.
12:52 Taghavi (again): The Imam must only speak of those policies approved by the supreme leader.
12:55 Taghavi: Unity is a policy that must be propagated by the Friday prayer. Respect for the law is another such policy. We must accept the law even if it is not to our advantage.
12:58 Taghavi: We must accept everything the leader said during his Friday sermon a few weeks ago.
13:05 Taghavi is done speaking. He ended with a few grudging words for the BBC.
(I’m now listening to the sermons myself . There is only the sound of prayer playing via a speaker)
The moazzen is saying the azan.
Rafsanjani just got introduced to the podium.
Sound of loud chants we can’t make out.
Rafsanjani: Please sit down so we can make time for the speech.
Chants again. They’re not letting him speak. I can only make out “leader” in their chants. (the blood in our veins is a gift to our leader)
13:20 Rafsanjani: We are approaching the anniversary of the Friday prayers and today’s Friday prayer is in ways very similar to the first every prayers led by Ayatollah Taleqani. In hopes that we can use this prayer for the betterment of the future of our country and the goals of the revolution.
(Tehran radio is now cut off. The host just came on to announce that thousands of people are chanting Allah o Akbar in the streets. WTF?!)
13:23 Rafsanjani: I have a main part to my speech. It will be about the most critical aspects of Islam.
13:25 The second part of my speech will be about the goals of the revolution, the goals people have worked for and have given their blood for and the goals that our Imam [Khomeini] spent his entire life fighting for.
13:26 The third part will be about current events and the conditions we are in today. I will try to draw out solutions the way I see them. Of course, these will be my personal opinion.
13:27 Rafsanjani is speaking of Mohammad, the prophet, and the early days of Islam. This will go on for the first part of his sermon.
13:34 Rafsanjani is still speaking of Mohammad’s early days as prophet and his attempts to establish rule in Medina.
13:36 He is reciting a sourah from the Koran and interpreting it.
13:41 Rafsanjani is getting teary. “The prophet respected the rights of all those under his rule.” He brings an example from the end of the prophet’s life where the prophet comes to the people and asks that they come to him to let him know if he ever treated them unfairly.
13:44 The prophet felt, during the last years of his life, that animosity was brewing amongst his people [he is crying now]. The prophet felt that his old friends are now enemies.
13:46 The prophet went to Baghi [where his old friends were buried] and said to them: you are lucky that you are no longer here to see that your old brothers are killing and destroying one another.
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The first part of the speech is over. The second has begun.
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13:51 He begins (as is the custom) by mentioning the upcoming religious dates of significance (e.g., the death of the seventh Shi’a Imam)
13: 52 May all the oppressors who make innocent people bleed be a witness to eternal condemnation
[the chants begin again]
13:53 I asked you, I pleaded for you to let me speak.
[more chants]
13:54 Rafsanjani condemns China. People chant “Death to China”. He asks that people stop their chants.
13:55 Rafsanjani: China has a rational government. It must look at how it can benefit from its relations with the Islamic world. We hope that we will no longer be witness to such atrocities towards Muslims in China or anywhere else in the world.
13:55 But coming to our own problems. We started off very well in the race for the presidency. Everything went smoothly and fairly.
13:56 People became very hopeful. Everything was set for a glorious day. This glory was due to the people. They were the ones who went to the ballot box. And we must be grateful to them.
13:57 I so very much wish that that path had been continued. But unfortunately, that was not the case. I will now elaborate. We must first see what we [probably the ruling establishment] were after. This is coming from a person who was always by the Imam[Khomeini's] side [he is referring to himself]. For 60 years. The Imam was always after the people. After getting their approval and their participation. This was the art of the Imam which made him so successful. It took the Imam less than 20 years to get the people to come to the streets.
13:58 These people, the ones who were behind the Imam, broke the back of the Shah and brought him to his knees.
13:59 After the victory of the revolution too, we worked on a daily basis with the Imam. The Imam would always say that if the system is not backed by the people, nothing would stand.
14:00 The Imam would always quote the prophet [Muhammad] who would say to Ali [Mohammad's successor]: leave the people if they do not want you.
14:02 He is speaking of the Imam’s command to Bazargan to form a temporary government. But the Imam tells him to keep it short to pave the way for the constitution.
[loud chants]
14:03 We agreed that you will stop chanting. If we do not have the votes of the people behind us, we will have nothing. The guardian council, the expediency council, EVERYONE gets their legitimacy from the vote of the people.
14:04 Without Islam, without a republic, we have nothing. Ali [Imam Ali, the prophet's successor] waited 19 years until the people came for him.
[more chants]
14:05 Stop chanting.
14:06 Why did the elections come to this? Before the election, near the end, some people had doubts about what was going to happen. Maybe because of the way the broadcasting corporation behaved.
14:07 Rafsanjani: Some are chanting and I can’t make out what they say. But I am speaking what you want to hear. I want unity too.
14:08 I have always acted above and beyond party lines, and now too we must search for unity to find a way out of our quandary.
14:09 I have some suggestions. I have spoken to some members of the the expediency council and the assembly of experts about them too. [Signaling that he is the chief of the assembly of experts and the expediency council and he is speaking from that platform]
14:10 We must bring back the trust of the people. First of all, everyone must accept the law. The people, the parliament, everyone.
14:11 We must create a condition so that everyone can speak. We must speak logically. And a part of this responsibility is on the shoulders of the broadcasting corporation.
14:12 The guardian council did not make good use of the extra fives days given to them by the leader.
14:13 We do not need people in prison for this. Let’s allow them to return to their families.
[More chants of Allah o Akbar]
14:14 We must join with those who have incurred great loss and try to lesson their pain.
14:15 We must give freedom to the press within the confines of the law.
[not a word of the government]
14:15 We are all members of the same family. We must remain friends and allies. Why have we gone so far as to pain some of our marajeh [top religious leaders]?
14:16 I hope this sermon will pave a way out of this current situation. A situation that can be considered a crisis.
14:17 The sermon is finished.
14:18 Two chants can be heard: the blood in our veins is a gift to our leader and Hashemi, Hashemi, may god keep you safe.
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The speech was brilliant. At least as far as my sleep deprived brain can think right now. Maybe I’ll have a different opinion later. He didn’t even MENTION the government. How great is that?
Sorry for all the typos, grammatical errors, etc. I’ll edit this soon!
Thank you SO MUCH for doing this live translation!
Hey Jesse!
My pleasure!
Was getting annoyed of all the inaccurate translations out there
thank you as well—a real service, especially in the face of censorship. (who would have thought the regime / IRIB would one day censor a friday prayer! oh the irony)
Thank you, I retweeted as page refreshed.
An excellent job.
Mass, the official state radio would cut him off and talk about people chanting in the streets!
Never mind that he wasn’t on TV.
And I thought the monarchist radio stations were bad!
Seriously…you are the man. That was very awesome of you to do.
Thanks Ali … But I’m the gal
Rupert, again, sorry for all the typos and stuff. Will fix that when my beating heart settles down.
The Iranian community is on FIRE.
thank you very much.
wonderful. Great job
We are living history.
I’m terrified and yet so grateful.
This is by far one of the better translations I got during this past few weeks of the events!!Bravo…Keep calm so you can get going as I go thru the same thing:)
I like your commentaries in between, keep it coming…
thanx a mil
It was awesome! Nice work.
I would like to add my congratulations too.
Excellent and timely work, sir.
Yes, huge thanks from me too. It was an important speech and to be able to have it translated quickly and directly is fantastic. You’re a ‘treasure’
thank you again.
oops – I mean Madam.
First time reader! Definitely a future fan. Thanx for doing this, getting an audible live radio stream was a nightmare. Gotta go off line but will be sure to visit daily.
Best,
P.
venusippi: My friend Naj is a brilliant translator. I’m just mediocre. I try.
iran88: It was riveting. I have not slept in more than 24 hours and my heart is pounding like crazy.
Moz: LOL! You got it!
galgo: I definitely recommend listening to the entire thing if you understand Persian.
PeggyH: argh! tell me about it! the radio stream was terrible. Tehran’s state radio was decent enough except for their constant interruptions!
I am also a first time reader.
Great translation. WOW.
Thank you so much.
Will be returning soon.
Tks again.
Ella, not great! Nothing is like the real thing! But I did my best!
Thank you so much! That was a brilliant thing to do! – And you’re the only one I found/read, mentioning the good advise to Ali to “leave the people if they do not want you.”
It was a good speak. He must act very wisely and he did it. He cannot go full frontal against the government. This “game” has to be played with brain and he clearly masters it very well.
Maybe he didn’t said enough for some people, but he has planted some seeds now and time will show if some pretty flowers arise from them.
Thank you lady it was an excellent work.
Bye
D
Thanks for the translation. I retweeted the whole speech.
The speech was good. Especially the references to Ali and Mohammad.
Shurik, I agree!
Vagabond, always a pleasure
Casimirr, tell your friends to listen to the real thing if they can!
Thank you:) you did a great job
A HUGE THANKS for the amazing speed and quality of the translation
Roja, fernlis I tried. I’m still rusty at this translation business. If things go like this, I’ll be a pro in no time
Pedestrian,
It seems to me Rafsanjani was actually calling for Khamenei to resign. In the section from 13:58 to 14:00, I think Mohammad is meant to stand for Khomeini, and Ali for Khamenei. What do you think? I have a longer write-up here: http://tinyurl.com/lu2xaa
I Love the beginning of your report !
Thank you so much for this and keeping all the world up to date,will retweet every where again thank you!
Jesse, I have not slept in forever. I will check this later and maybe I’ll disagree with what I write now.
But no, Ali and Mohammad are on the same side. In a historical/religious context, that interpretation (Ali as Khamenei) doesn’t make sense.
I don’t think he was calling for Khamenei to resign (we could narrowly get away with such an understanding of his sermon, but that would be ignoring the gargantuan power structures within the IRI which make such a thing completely impossible). He did not even mention the leader, except once.
@Pedestrian
I don’t understand Persian, that’s why your translation was so fantastic.
I’m just an interested observer, old enough to remember the 60s & 70s in your country – even as I child in the UK, I found the scenes I saw from there offensive & obscene. I’ve followed Iran’s ’story’ since then and have alternated between joy & dispare at your journey to create your own way. Let’s hope today is a another milestone – another turning point.
Arash, it was ludicrous. My heart was pounding, my hands were sweating, dozens of people I know were in turmoil for the speech to start … and there was the broadcaster on IRIB1 talking about havij bastani! WTF???!!!
firuzabad, make sure to listen to the whole thing if you haven’t already!
Thank you so much, pedestrian for this excellent service. You helped us all a lot to understand what was going on during the friday prayer.
Thanks!!!
Thanks a lot ! in fact I forwarded all this report to hundreds of people who didn’t have any access to this information. great job … you know is my most favorit link.
galgo, I was born a few years after the revolution. You have been a witness to so much more of our story.
But it seems every generation gets to write its own. I think mine has just begun.
Perspektive, yaredabestani my pleasure
Great job, thanks so much!
Jo, I will remember this day for the rest of my life.
Amazing work! I was cutting and pasting into twitter (as khazelton). Started and ended my string of quotes with reference to http://www.sidewalklyrics.com/ During much of the speech I abbreviated to sidewalk, s’walk and finally s’w. Just wanted you to know I gave you proper credit. Thank you so much again.
–Keith
Pedestrian, this is fantastic–excellent job keeping up with transcribing Raf’s most salient points in this very critical speech. I hope all Iranians will carefully consider his words. Thanks so much!
Most of the credit is due to Bahman Agha as I mention above!
He did a wonderful job of summarizing everything.
Great job of translation and a service to humanity. I think Rafsanjani made the points that he wanted to make. People’s expectations were not fulfilled by the outcome as announced, that the Guardian Council did not do the job it should have done in the extra five days, an appeal for release of prisoners, freedom of the press – and freedom of reporters in custody of course.
And I think he completely ignored the admonition he was given about how this was all supposed to be in line with leader’s wishes
Again, well done.
Salim Jiwa,
Editor & Publisher.
http://www.vancouverite.com
Pedestrian thanks for the advice, but I can’t speak Farsi. That’s why I was so delighted to find your translation. I retweeted it for others who follow the situation in Iran but don’t speak persian either. And btw I have to agree with Jesse’s conclusion that Rafsanjani was calling on Khamenei to resign. That’s how I have interpreted his speech to. Although I don’t share Jesse’s allegory of Mohammed/Ali and Khomeini/Khamenei, there were other subtle signs in Rafsanjani’s sermon.
Salim, I agree. He hit many of the right points …
hey, thanks a lot for this!!!
i hope this will be the silver lining for iran that we’ve all been waiting for
Casimirr, of course you can interpret as you wish. But listenign to it entirely, it did not sound that way. He pretty much ignored the leader. If you have time, read my post below. The analogy of the two-pillar system was brilliant. I think that’s exactly what Rafsanjani did: he took a stand on his half of the field as the ruler of that field, while ignoring the other half that does not belong to him.
Revie, we shouldn’t get our hopes up with Rafsanjani. But I hope we have learned to use HIM after many years of the opposite situation.
cheers for all the effort pedestrian!
And good job getting the site back up, after they tried to put you down! i got scared for a moment…your site was the only english one around!
Just THANK YOU!!! Keep up the GREAT work.
Interesting article in The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/something-profound-has-changed-iranians-are-losing-their-fear-and-mock-the-official-line-1750114.html
well, i didnt mean rafsanjani… i meant his “speech”, like the content….
Wow.
Will respond to you all when I get back from the dentist! :-/
اوه! دستت درد نکنه! کلشو مو به مو ترجمه کردی!
تو که گزارش لحظه به لحظه دادی، یقیه شم بگو پس! این که تا اومدیم از سر جامون بلندشیم و بریم سمت خونه گاز اشک آور زدن! اینکه از قلش از ساعت بیست دقیقه به یک داشتن ملتو تو خ انقلاب میزدن!
Pedestrian: ‘But it seems every generation gets to write its own. I think mine has just begun.’
Insha’Allah, I hope so
and I hope it’s in the form of whatever Iran wants not just what a lot of Iran seems to think that ‘the west’ wants for you (we can’t even agree on what *we* want for ourselves, let alone Iran).
I had an Iranian friend in the 80s & early 90s, if he was alive now I’m sure he would be proud of you all.
I’m any no sort of expert, but love him or hate him Rasanjani’s got a lot to lose if it all goes pear shaped either way. He’s a past master at treading the fine line and as you’ve intimated above, if the people can harness that, you’ve got a great advantage.
I’ve been looking at other translations too & taken with yours, I’d say his speech was well judged & he chose his words with great care. I liked the use of ‘we’ through-out – inclusive rather than divisive, very pragmatic too (meant as a compliment). Evolution rather than revolution??
Thanks so much for this!
Iranian site or BBC ’s site ?
Thanks for your efforts. I spread the link of this post at several places.
Rizah, no one tried to bring my site down. Nico Pitney linked to my hompage (instead of the post) and it brought not only my site, but many more by the same host down. I got a warning from my host that they would delete me off if the problem wasn’t fixed.
someone, what do you mean?
Thanks
Thank you for going through all the trouble posting the sermon. Lot of nuances that can be expounded and later analyzed for better understanding of the power struggle and ultimately power shift among political blocs in Iran.
Aria, I am waiting for the transcript to read it again. He fit many, many important lines in that 20 minutes or so that he spoke. You are right: we will discover even more when we listen to it more carefully.
Right-minded!
Straight with a view you dear!
Glad that I found you! I’m always searching for more information on Iran in English and this is a wonderful translation that’s greatly appreciated!! Looking forward to more in the future.
Hey Kat! For great English coverage, look at my friend Naj as well.
Oh ok…well, if you ever do need a new host, just let me know. Now that I HAD to leave Iran, I am willing to do anything to help all of you stay connected.
Thanks Rizah! I know where to reach you then