Your Excellency:

Greetings

Perhaps you would agree with me that happiness has been the lost property of mankind throughout history. So to reach the summit of happiness many have had to trample upon the heads of others with their feet and resorted to bloodshed and destruction. In the pursuit of greater happiness, many have landed themselves and their adherents into catastrophes. I think if happiness is taken in its many manifestations Your Excellency may be counted among the happiest persons in history. nurizad-mandellaNot from the view that you were averse to the material gains of this world but from the perspective of human relations you have earned a place in the hearts of the people of the whole world. We are familiar with many persons who own legendary wealth. They enjoyed more fame and publicity than you. Camera lenses were always focused to click their images. They lived in the spaces created by themselves but occupied the lowest place in people’s esteem. But you have transcended this valley to occupy a place in the hearts of people throughout the world.

I can say it confidently that if all men join together to search in the whole world a person who had no enmity towards anybody, who never hurt anybody, who never inflicted a loss upon his own society or the world community but rather brought happiness to all, joined the hearts together, broadened the avenues of mutual understanding, and gave a new meaning to the word humanity, certainly they will converge around your person. How fortunate we feel to be living and breathing with you in this world. We have witnessed the process that brought into being such a great and unrivalled leader as you are.

Your Excellency:

Perhaps the best part of your humanity lies in the fact that at the height of your power and popularity you transferred the rein of power to the younger generation of your country trusting the will and wisdom of your people. This was a very difficult step which you took overriding your personal inclinations. While others have remained stuck to their seats you, by treading a different path, have created a place for yourself not only in the hearts of your own people but the people of the whole world. Thus you have found an everlasting place for yourself on the stage of humanity. You reign over the hearts of the people because they see the most sublime humanity in your person.

Political men who reach the top tend to remain at the top for the rest of their lives. To ensure that they are not toppled from the top they manage to spin lies, deceive the people, launch false propaganda, use all means of coercion and repression, and inflict death and destruction upon their people. But you entrusted this power of yours to the discretion of your people and put their happiness above everything else.

You with all your fame and popularity could have remained in the seat of power and even could have transferred it as patrimony to your sons. You could have installed filters to weed out the opposing views, controlled the parliament, cabinet, courts, and all other instruments of the state to follow your will, and could have used the media, the intelligence and security agencies and tamed agents to silence and marginalize all the opponents. You could have ignored all the good work being done in the rest of the world. But you were more humane and more understanding than all those who want to stick to power for the whole of their life. With your inner eyes, you had visualized the fate of dictators even before the Saddams, Qaddafi, Mubaraks, and Ben Alis were toppled. You had understood very well that unprecedented popularity should not be misused to remain in power for ever. You understood very well that by arbitrary rule and false propaganda you could never win the hearts of the people.

Please accept the good wishes and greetings of us Iranians, the Iranians who have always suffered at the hands of their kings and rulers, the Iranians whose rulers have buried all the good teachings of humanity in their religious, ethical and literary books. They are inclined in the least to follow the spirit of these teachings.

We Iranians have learnt from our legends that once we had a king by the name of Keikhusrow who was very gentle, cultured, and very popular. Like you he also gave up power after reaching the pinnacle of fame and popularity. He taught to the coming kings that power and popularity cannot be made hereditary. So power needs to be transferred to the newcomers. Thousands of years have passed since this episode. Generation after generation of us Iranians have gone to their graves in their longing to have another Keikhusrow among us. Light has gone out of our eyes. But it was with your emergence as a leader that light has come back to our hearts. Now we see our Keikhusrowite excellence in the brilliance of your thought. You are now the Keikhusrow of us Iranians. Not only the hearts of us Iranians but of all other people have become abodes of your noble thoughts.

May your greatness last forever!

Mohammad Nourizad