Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – March 20, 1998

I studied at home for Friday prayer sermons until half past ten in the morning. It is surprising that the dictionary of Dehkhoda and Farhang Moin introduce "Madain Saleh" in Mosul region and on the way to Medina from Syria! How have they not noticed that Mosul is in the northeast of Syria and Medina and Mecca are in the south!

I went to Imam's shrine; As usual, the last Friday prayer of every year is read at the shrine of the Imam. Before me, Mr. [Mohammed Taqi] Misbah [Yazdi], in a lecture before the sermons, spoke about the political philosophy of Islam.

In the first sermon, continuing the discussion of the stories of the Qur'an, I talked about my observations in the region of Hajar and Madain Saleh to interpret the story of Thamud. In the second sermon, I had a lot of material, from Nowruz Eid and the deaths of male and female students in an accident, the chemical bombing of Halabja and the decision of the US Senate to try Saddam as a war criminal, and the strange verdict of the American court in condemning Iran to pay 247 million dollars for the blood price of an American who was killed in Israel, and the many fruits and results of my trip to Saudi Arabia and the good rains this year, which is three times the last year.

I spent the evening and night studying at home. There were some children in the afternoon. They are supposed to come for the delivery moments of the year. The weather is cold and it has started to rain.