"Meeting the Imam"

There was a lot of discussion about the Constituent Assembly in the Revolutionary Council, and there were heated discussions. One day, when it was almost the last meeting where this issue was discussed, the late Mr. Bazargan's government and my father also came, by the way, I remember that the meeting was held at the house of Mr. Mousavi Ardabili. The argument of Mr. Engineer Bazargan and my father was that considering the fact that in the order of the Imam in the name of Mr. Engineer Bazargan, his Prime Minister's order, they mentioned seven, eight, ten things that you should do these things. The last thing is the formation of the Constituent Assembly.

Mr. Bazargan used to say: Because this decree has been published and the people got to know about it we have made a kind of promise to the people that the Constituent Assembly will be formed. Now, if we don't want to form a Constituent Assembly and want to hold a referendum like that, this will be a broken promise and it is not good.

There was a lot of heated discussion on this issue, my father and the late merchant insisted a lot. Mr. Ardabili, the late Taleghani, and Bani Sadr; also agreed with their opinion, finally, because the discussion was very intense and heated, my father was a little affected. He was almost crying. He used to say: Sir, it brings disrepute to the Islamic Republic if the Imam makes a promise to the people and then it is not fulfilled.

Now, based on my moral and religious duty, I am saying what I saw in that meeting, now some of them may be good or some of them may be bitter, Mr. Hashemi said: Mr. Doctor, Mr. Engineer, believe me, these were the same words he said: this Do not insist on forming the Constituent Assembly. With the experience we have gained in the last year and with the current mood of the country, we are sure that if the Constituent Assembly elections are held, 70-80% of them will be mullahs, believe me.

He said in the same way: Then a parliament with such a combination will pass a reactionary constitution that you will bite your finger in regret.

These are the same sentences of Mr. Hashemi. I mean, Mr. Hashemi was a clergyman, he was afraid of the clergy. I wore a tie then, for example, my name was intellectual. I was afraid of intellectuals. Our support for passing the constitutional referendum came from two different positions. But it had a result. Finally, they did not reach an understanding in that meeting, and it was decided that we should go to the Imam and clarify the definite task with him.

For this reason, after a week, it was decided that the government delegation with the members of the Revolutionary Council would go to the presence of the Imam, and one day in the afternoon we went to his office in Qom, there was a detailed meeting. There were a lot of these discussions. There was a lot of discussion and the discussion almost reached a dead end. The Imam did not say anything until the late Mr. Taleghani suggested that if the founders were formed, it would take a long time and due to the large number of them, it would take several years. Well, let's consider the middle of it and form a council with few members.

At that time, the population of Iran was not more than 34 million people. They said that: for example, for every one million people, let's choose one or two people who are involved in jurisprudence and politics. Let's do this, in this way, that parliament will become, for example, 60 to 70 people. The number of people decreases, and with fewer people, decisions are made sooner.

This suggestion made by Mr. Taleghani was first accepted by the imam, who said: This is not bad, this is a middle ground, it is less dangerous.

They agreed, others also agreed, and it was agreed that a council of jurisprudence experts - whose names were mentioned there - would be called the Council of Experts, not the Council of Founders, and this constitution, whose draft was revised by the Revolutionary Council, and The proposal of the government and Dr. Habibi has made it completely Islamic to deal with it. This was approved and it was supposed to be this way in early July. The Ministry of Interior was assigned to prepare the regulations for the elections of the Assembly of Experts and to implement the elections, which were implemented and the results of the elections were known by the beginning of August.

Now, until you see here, you can read the newspapers of that time as they are. In the articles in the debates, whether clerics or non-clerics, no one has discussed the authority of the Faqih until now. The constitution was approved by the Revolutionary Council. The Revolutionary Council, the majority of its main members were Imam Khomeini's first-hand students, the late Beheshti and Mr. Hashemi were the closest people to the Imam.

Ezzatullah Sahabi

With a history in the scene (conversation with engineer Ezzatullah Sahabi), by Dr. Hamid Basirt Manesh, publisher: Arouj Publishing Institute, first edition: 2020, pp. 389-387