Respecting the Elder Brother

On February 1, 1979, when the aircraft carrying the Imam landed at Tehran airport, Ayatullah Pasandideh, the brother of the Imam went inside the plane to welcome the Imam. In keeping with his ethical outlook, he requested Mr. Pasandideh to disembark from the plane first because the Imam would never walk ahead of his elder brother. On the other hand, because of the political sensitivity of recording the historical moment when a large number of film cameras and projectors waited for the Imam to disembark and to shoot the arrival of the Imam to the country, it did not seem proper that Mr. Pasandideh to walk ahead of the Imam. The Imam stated to his elder brother that, “You please disembark from the plane ahead of us otherwise I will not disembark ahead of you.” Thus, only a short while after Mr. Pasandideh had disembarked from the stairway did the Imam disembark from the aircraft.

* By: Sayyid Mahdi Imam-Jamarani, ibid., p. 251.Aya