Sheikh Isa Qassim: Resistance Martyrs Are Our Pride, Model of Sacrifice

Translated by Staff

Bahrain’s highest religious authority Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim marked the first martyrdom anniversary of Hajj Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by describing them as a living school in jihad, truth, right, and glory. 

Both inspire the love of martyrdom in the path of God for future generations. Whenever they are not mentioned, the necessity and greatness of jihad, the value of martyrdom, and the high status of the martyr are also mentioned.

"The teacher, Hajj, saw pride, faith, and jihad in his great student Hajj Abu Mahdi, and Abu Mahdi saw in Hajj, a role model, a great mentor and his beloved on the path of God,” Ayatollah Sheikh Qassim said during a memorial service held by the Bahraini community in Iran’s holy city of Qom.

"Today we stand before two men whose great jihad and diverse capabilities terrified America, the state of arrogance and great despot, its creation, the Zionist entity. They both relentlessly fought America, the ‘Israeli’ entity, Daesh, and the front of hypocrisy.”

Ayatollah Sheikh Qassim also asserted that “the malicious Zionism and US tyrannical policy resent the sacrificial jihad of these two great and spiritual men, their leadership, and their spiritual appeal for heroic young men.”

He underscored the importance of “the duty of jihad, defense, and confronting deviation from Islam with every resource.” 

“The ummah’s great role models and pride today are the martyrs of the resistance and their great leaders,” he added. “It is the right of our ummah to be proud of the great martyred field commanders, such as Sayyed Abbas Al-Mousawi, Sheikh Ragheb Harb, and Hajj Imad Mughniyeh. It should take them as role models in sacrifice and redemption."

Regarding the Bahraini issue, Ayatollah Sheikh Qassim urged "Bahrain to remain on the path of martyrs, be faithful to its great Islam, and not accept to be humiliated by injustice and not to accept to enter the state of infidels."