View source for The Lord of Captives in the political arena

Seyyed Ali Akbar's adolescence  coincided with the political activities of Fadaeeyan-e-Eslam organization led by Martyr Seyyed Mojtaba Nawab Safavi. He often attended the speech sessions of Nawab Safavi and other members of that organization, and as he remarked in his diary, above all he enjoyed the content and intonation of speeches delivered and the parts in which the present company saluted the Prophet and his [[family]] members. . He was well aware of the political events of 1962. On 23<sup>rd</sup> of January in that year, when the Shah was planning to travel to Qom seeking the approval of Ayatollahs about the six-principle referendum, the Imam issued a statement that was stuck on the city walls, and ordered a boycott of the people's reception of the Shah. People were asked to stay indoors and not come out.

== Political activities before the Islamic revolution ==
Earlier, the Imam had announced the boycott of Shah's six principle referendum on 25<sup>th</sup> of January, which was reflected in the newspapers, and the implementation of its principles was a prelude to the eradication of any material pertaining to religion. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard was among the demonstrators who chanted:” We follow the Quran, and we do not want a referendum.” In this demonstration, the angry people of Qom destroyed the Triumph Arch that was situated in the proximity of the gate of St. Masoumeh's shrine. And they attacked the car belonging to the Chief of the police with pieces taken from the debris of the destroyed Triumph Arch and totally battered the car. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard's familiarity with the Imam began during that time. In addition to attending Evening praying services, which the Imam did in his home, he also sometimes took part in his speeches delivered in the Central Mosque. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard  was present in the incident of Feyziyye school on March 22<sup>nd</sup> 1963 . - when the  martyrdom ceremony of Imam Sadiq (PBUHS) was held each year,  and attended in the evening meeting of the Feyziyye School, where the late Ayatollah  Golpayegani used to hold the same ceremony every year, and he witnessed the assault of Shah`s henchmen who were equipped with weapons such as clubs on the Islamic theology students and the present company and also, how they were beaten up and sustained injuries in the hands of the thugs and the members of Shah`s guards. On this day, he was forced to take refuge in a room on the top floor of the Feyziyye school along with twenty students to avoid being hit by batons . .

Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard witnessed the courageous presence of the Imam in the Faiziyah School after  its destruction by the Shah's agents. After the imam and his companions were faced with the closed door of the school when they entered the Feyziyye school, he allegedly climbed up the wall of the school   with two other people with special agility and opened the door for the imam and his companions. But as usual, he refused to reveal his name in this case. In his diary, he said that when a ceremony was held in the presence of Imam at Feyzyye to eulogize the Prophet and other Saints, for the first time I witnessed the imam crying in the School where  the students' blood stains were still visible on the doors and walls.

== Arrested at the Khosravi border ==
The political activities of Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard in Najaf gained more momentum when he returned to Najaf from Iran. In this context, he established a relationship with the late Haj Seyyed Mustafa Khomeini, son of the Imam, and at one stage he came to Tehran by plane to accomplish a mission and returned to Najaf again.

In 1970, the Imam issued a statement on the occasion of the martyrdom of Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Reza Saeedi, which took place at the hands of Savak. It was decided to take the Imam's printed leaflets, which were placed in a suitcase, to Qom. Another person who had taken the first suitcase with him earlier to Iran   was arrested at the Khosravi border and under the pressure of interrogations and harassment by SAVAK, he confessed that the second suitcase was going to be  taken to Iran by Mr. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Tarabi Fard in the following days.

With this confession, Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Tarabi Fard, who was not aware of this incident, was arrested on August 14, 1970 at the Khosravi border , and after recording 1,254 pages of the Imam's declaration, which was entitled “The reply to the students of Islamic theology”,  he was first sent to Kermanshah Savak, and was transferred and sent to Tehran on the same day and was immediately incarcerated in Ghezel Ghale prison in Tehran, and then was transferred to Ghasr prison in Tehran and according to the court's decision, he was sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment, with his previous conviction taken into account. He was released from prison on January 17, 1970.

As SAVAK documents show, Mr. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard was completely under the surveillance  of security forces in the cities of Qom, Tehran and Qazvin after his release from Ghasr prison on January 17, 1970. At this time, the Shah's regime was preparing to hold the 2500-year imperial celebrations in Shiraz and closely monitored the moves of all the ex-convicted political prisoners. As SAVAK rejected the request of Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Tarabi Fard, who intended to return to Najaf in order to continue his [[education]]. and also to conduct a transaction involving the sale of his house, he was forced   to continue his education in Qom and took part in the foreign jurisprudence classes of great  theological scholars such as the late  Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Reza Golpayegani. During the days of Muharram, Safar and Ramadan, he went to different cities including Qom, Qazvin and Fasa on missionary assignments.

== The second stage of getting arrested and getting to know Martyr Andarzgu ==
Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard, in the continuation of his political activities after his release from prison, met  martyr Seyed Ali Andarzgo (born in 1939 and martyred on 21st of Ramadan equal to 23<sup>rd</sup> of August 1978 in Tehran). The meetings of Andarzgu and Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabifard took place in different places in Tehran and sometimes outside Tehran as he pointed out in his diary. Some of the meetings between the two of them took place at the  Chizar Seminary in Shemiran, Tehran, where Andarzgu spent most of his time. Because Savak was very sensitive to the activities of martyr Andarzgu, who appeared in the society with different faces, names, and guises in order to avoid detection, and Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard was in a relationship with him, through one of the officers. The SAVAK reported his relationship with Seyyed Andarzgu  , and for this reason, he was arrested by SAVAK in Qom on March 16, 1972 and immediately sent to Tehran.

Despite the great pressure exerted by Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard, SAVAK could not find even the slightest trace of Martyr Andrazgo. A week later, he was released from prison on March 23, 1972 after snubbing  SAVAK in repeated interrogations and enduring various tortures and returned to Qom.

== Political activities of Abu Torabi Fard and Andarzgu ==
The summer of 1974 was the peak of Martyr Andarzgu`s activities in supplying and transferring weapons to the fighters inside the country. During these years, he was working under the cryptonym of Sheikh Abbas Tehrani. It is interesting that Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard, in his speeches after captivity, as usual in his diary, repeatedly refers to the martyr Seyyed Ali Andarzgu mistakenly as the late Sheikh Abbas. During these months, Seyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard was able to provide a safe house to Martyr Andarzgu in Tehran. Martyr Andarzgu used Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard to provide financial aid for the purchase of weapons and other needs of the struggle from the benefactors of Tehran and other cities. Some of these fellows such asd Martyr Mohammad Sadagh Eslamy( who had died a martyr at the explosion of the headquarters of Jomhury-e-Eslamy party on 27<sup>th</sup> of June4 1981 in Sarcheshme, Tehran) had been introduced to Seyyed Aliakbar Abu Torabi Fard by Andarzgu himself.

Mr. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard, like Martyr Andarzgu, had to go about everywhere incognito to avoid detection and was reluctant to stay long in a place. His sister in her diary about  those days remarks that once Mr. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Tarabi Fard entered the house in the guise of a plaster worker wearing a handkerchief. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard was also associated with the Mojahedyn-e-Khalgh Organization at the time, and this cooperation continued until the official announcement of the organization's ideological change from Islam to Marxism in 1975.

In an interview in the spring of 1980, on this score he remarked the following: Neither I nor Shahid Andarzgu ever became a member of this organization, but we cooperated with it, because if we became a member of this organization, we would have to act according to their discretion. So, we could not work together like this and be independent at the same time. The most important actions of these two in cooperation with the organization was providing weapons to its members, which were transported by Mr. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard.

Read in his diary that  : Once we took the weapons from Qom to Tehran in three or four empty oil containers that were full of Colt waist guns. Half of these containers held oil. Martyr Andarzgu had brought these weapons and oil containers from Kermanshah to Qom. The cooperation of Andarzgu and Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard with the  Mojahedin-e-Khalgh  Organization of Iran was completely cut off after its position changed. With the separation of some Muslim fighters from the  Mojahedin-e-Khalgh Organization, Mr. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi recruited them and introduced them to Martyr Andarzgu so that they could be rallied for the struggle. Abu Tarabi continued his political activities after the martyrdom of Andrazgo in Ramadan precisely on 23<sup>rd</sup> of August 1978, for example during the Fetr praying ceremony, which was held under the leadership of Ayatollah Martyr Dr. Mohammad Mofatteh on the hills of Gheytarrie. In addition to marching along with millions of people, he was also present at the Fetr praying ceremony after this march. He resisted bravely in the massacre of the people of Tehran in Jhaleh Square  on 7<sup>th</sup> of September 1978, and on that day he helped some of the victims and almost died as a martyr.

== Traveling to occupied Palestine ==
Mr. Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi is one of the few fighters of the Islamic Revolution who, in the continuation of his campaigning activities, was able to travel to occupied Palestine and pray in Al-Aghsa Mosque in the Holy Shrine and visit the shrine of Abraham (RIP). He himself mentioned this trip and said bitterly: In Jerusalem, when the Palestinian children found out that we were Iranians, they threw stones at us because of the support   the Shah of Iran gave to Israel <ref>Rajaei, Gholam Ali (2012). Stages of Abu Torabi`s life 1. Tehran: [https://www.mfpa.ir Payam Azadegan] Publishing House.</ref>.

== '''See also''' ==

* [[The book of Abu Tarabi's biography 1]]
* [[Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard]]
* [[Biography of Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Torabi Fard]]

== '''Bibliography''' ==