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## ELEGY FOR SAYYED ABBAS MUSSAWI

February 18, 1992

> Nasrallah delivered this elegy in the eastern Bekaa village of Nabi Sheet, following an Israeli helicopter assault in Jibi Sheet, south Lebanon, which had killed Hezbollah secretary-general Abbas Mussawi,1 his wife and baby son. Elected only one year before his death, Mussawi was seen as a relatively pragmatic voice in the party, compared to both the former Hezbollah leader Subhi Tufeili2 and, according to some accounts, Nasrallah himself. Shortly after the assassination, however, Nasrallah assumed the leadership and promptly renewed Mussawi’s earlier commitment to participate in Lebanon’s upcoming summer parliamentary elections—the first since the beginning of the civil war in 1975. He also continued Hezbollah’s strategy of carefully considered operations against Israel and its allies in south Lebanon, demonstrated in his displeasure—made clear in Statement 4—over an apparently uncoordinated Hezbollah rocket attack in the south following Mussawi’s death.

> Not surprisingly, the elegy itself rings with an uncompromising enmity towards Israel’s existence, which would characterize Nasrallah’s public rhetoric at least until early 2000, when peace between Syria and Israel [and therefore Lebanon and Israel] seemed almost at hand. Viewing Mussawi’s death at the hands of his enemies as a modern-day version of the martyrdom of Ali, the first Shia Imam, Nasrallah says: “You Jews, leave our land, you have no home among us, go back from where you came … You are leaving and we are staying.”

In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate. I had to write this down to be able to summarize the feelings and attitude on the day of your journey to heaven where God Almighty is awaiting, a journey that started as you wished and chose with enthusiasm; a death that epitomized the events at Karbala.3 You were just like al-Hussein, a body without a head; just like al-Abbas, with your hands severed; and just like the greatest Ali, with your torn flesh. It is as if your infant son Hussein is the suckling child of Karbala, who did not die from a severed vein, but whose body parts mingled with your own. It is as if your spouse and life’s companion Um Yasser, as if Zeinab4 is screaming in revolution not through words or tears, but with her blood that speaks even louder at a time when words have lost their value. As if your bombed and destroyed cortège were Hussein’s tents burning in the desert, as if you were that same Hussein, the commander on the battlefield, Hussein the rebel in the face of oppression and despotism, and Hussein who rejected humiliation and shame. Just like the committed and faithful Abbas, loyal to the revolution and to the leader, You, My Master, epitomize all that Karbala represented, from resistance to enthusiasm, to the path, to the tragedy.5

You always raised your voice with courage to address the nation about the Israeli enemy, about the great Satan,6 about cupidity and danger, barbarism and savagery, racism and enmity towards humanity. Today, your voice, your wounds and your blood will ring in our ears and beat in our hearts as witnesses to what you have always told us. We promise to carry your rebellious voice to all the dispossessed people of this world, and to sprinkle your blood in every corner of the earth so that jihad7 and resistance can germinate and grow.

You looked forward to meeting your God and He looked forward to meeting you, and you speeded your departure and realized your long-time wish; so rejoice at God’s side, rejoice in the company of His Messenger [the Prophet Muhammad]. It is as if up in the Kingdom of Heaven everyone is busier than usual, busy welcoming him, while he, Sayyed Abbas, moves from the Messenger’s lap to the Messenger’s lap once again, and from Ali to his grandmother al-Zahra, then to al-Hassan, al-Hussein, the Imams, al-Khomeini, the martyr al-Sadr, and Sheikh Ragheb (…).8 As if the entire cortège of the Islamic Resistance and Hezbollah martyrs are standing at attention in readiness to greet the mighty man. Rejoice O Abu Bajiji, Rida al-Sha’er, Ahmad Shu’eib, Hajj Jawad, Ahmad Kassir, Asaad Berro, and all you martyrs, and make haste, for the beloved one has arrived, carrying with him messages from all those who love you, those who are still awaiting their turn and have not changed nor will ever change at all.

Dear brothers, this savage crime is another testament to the Israeli enemy’s racism and barbarism, which should be added to the series of their ugly attacks on our families, villages, cities, and holy sites. It is another testament to the conspiratorial arrogance of the mighty of this world, and to their responsibility for these crimes. For His Eminence, al-Sayyed, symbolizes all the martyred men, Um Yasser all the martyred women, and little Hussein all the martyred children, and all of them together symbolize every family that suffers from oppression and prejudice in our Islamic world. We blame Israel for this blood-soaked carnage, and blame its protector, the United States of America, which is responsible for all Israel’s massacres and all the destruction, murder, and displacement it wreaks. Everybody knows that Israel would not have been able to stand on its own in the region had it not been for Western and American support.

By murdering His Eminence al-Sayyed, our secretary-general, they wanted to kill our spirit of resistance and destroy our will for jihad, but his blood will keep simmering in our veins and will only increase our determination to forge ahead and heighten our enthusiasm to pursue the path. The martyrdom of Hezbollah’s secretary-general is proof of the maturity and grandeur attained by Hezbollah in Lebanon; it is also proof of its loyalty to God’s objectives, the extent of harmony between the leadership and the base, of giving without restraint, of its considerable presence in the battle, and of its deep commitment to the entire project and nation. It is also proof of the beginning of a far-reaching spiritual, moral, and jihadist transformation that no one had expected, not even those who murdered him.

As we bid farewell to our great martyr and to his wife and child, we pledge ourselves to his pure soul and to our oppressed people, that we shall continue to walk in his footsteps. We pledge to persevere on the path he had chosen, the path of Khomeini and Khameini,9 and that we shall remain steadfast to everything we believe in and shall not relinquish any of [our beliefs] even should they cut us to pieces, tear us apart, or commit the worst atrocities against us.

America will remain the nation’s chief enemy and the greatest Satan of all. Israel will always be for us a cancerous growth that needs to be eradicated, and an artificial entity that should be removed, even if all the rulers [of the world] recognize it. The Supreme Guide Ayatollah Khameini will remain our leader, imam, master, and inspiration in jihad, patience, and willpower. Islam, the true original religion of Muhammad, will remain our way of thinking, our religion, and the guide in which we take pride, which we pray for, and in whose name we fight. The Islamic Resistance will remain our only option, our constant response, the path that we shall not relinquish, and the battle we will pursue even if the entire world surrenders. Our oppressed people in Lebanon, whom our great martyr loved so dearly, will remain our living conscience and soul, for whose freedom, self-esteem, and dignity we work and sacrifice. We shall also struggle to achieve this people’s will, to remove the conditions of oppression, injustice, and deprivation under which they live; and realize the real peace and security they crave. Jerusalem will remain present in our memory as a compelling objective, an ambition without limits, and the source of our burning desire to regain the place where the Prophet ascended to heaven and our First Qibla.10 Palestine, all of Palestine, will remain part of this nation, and we shall not relinquish a single grain of its sand. The jihadist movement and the resistance—who stretch out their hands to all Lebanese, Arab, and Islamic forces that are aware of the danger that this enemy poses, and are ready to defend this nation—shall remain steadfast.

Finally, as we stand in front of your torn body and pure soul, we pledge ourselves always to echo your words:

You Jews, leave our land, you have no home among us, go back from where you came, for there will never be peace or reconciliation between us, only war, resistance, and the language of war and bullets. You are leaving and we are staying; dawn is upon us, the sun will shine and the entire nation will rise to greet its God. This era will witness the victory of the dispossessed over the oppressor; it is the era of our beloved Islam and of the Great Khomeini, in spite of the hatred that the Godless and tyrants harbor towards us.

May God’s peace be with you.