AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The unveiling ceremony for the documentary “Vakil” (The Envoy), which recounts the history of Lebanon’s Resistance and the influential role of Hojat al-Islam Sayed Isa Tabatabaei, the representative of Imam Khomeini (r.a.) and the Supreme Leader in Lebanon, was held in Tehran.
At the event, Mohammad-Mahdi Shariatmadar, former Cultural Counselor of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Lebanon, described this devoted cleric as an exceptional figure, a man deeply wounded by the enemy yet foundational to the path of resistance.
Referring to the stature of Sayed Isa Tabatabaei, he said that just as one may recognize the creator through his work, the achievements of Tabatabaei reveal the depth of his character. Although “The Envoy” is a valuable production, he argued that it could not capture the full dimensions of Tabatabaei’s persona, as “he is greater than what any documentary can encompass.”
Shariatmadar, outlining the historical background of Lebanon’s resistance, recalled that before the Islamic Revolution, three prominent clerics, Imam Musa Sadr, Sayed Mohammad-Hussain Fadlallah, and Sheikh Mohammad-Mahdi Shamseddine, laid the foundations of the resistance movement in Lebanon. After Iran’s Revolution, Iranian scholars and figures such as Imam Musa Sadr, Martyr Mostafa Chamran, Ayatollah Akhtari, the late Mohtashamipour, and the late Hossein Sheikh-al-Islam played significant roles in advancing this path. Among all of them, he said, Sayed Isa Tabatabaei holds a distinct place.
According to Shariatmadar, if Imam Musa Sadr established the social and cultural institutions of Lebanon’s Shiites, Sayed Isa Tabatabaei breathed the spirit of resistance into that community and institutionalized its identity. His efforts, he said, gave birth to modern Lebanese resistance, a movement that later reached its peak in defending the cause of Palestine.
He stressed that Sayed Isa Tabatabaei founded nearly all of the humanitarian, cultural, religious, and medical institutions that today form the backbone of Lebanon’s resistance society: from the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, the Martyrs Foundation, the Veterans Foundation, the Qard-al-Hasan Fund, the Construction Jihad organization, and the Kowsar Foundation, to 40 Imam Khomeini cultural centers across towns and villages, the Rasoul Aazam Hospital in Beirut, the Sheikh Ragheb Harb Hospital in Nabatieh, the Imam Khomeini Seminary in Baalbek, the shrine of Lady Khawla (a.s.) in Baalbek, the Gathering of Muslim Scholars, the Al-Manar network, and the Relief Committee schools. These institutions, he noted, remain pillars of Lebanon’s resistance society.
He added that Sayed Isa eventually handed all these institutions over to Lebanese Hezbollah, a gesture that reflected his utmost sincerity and disregard for position or wealth. “It is rare,” he said, “to find someone who would relinquish such achievements with no expectation.”
Addressing the final question raised in the documentary, “Can Israel bring an end to the history of resistance?”, Shariatmadar replied that as long as occupation persists, resistance will endure. Resistance, he said, is not merely about weapons or rockets but a spirit embedded in faithful and conscious individuals. Even in international law, he noted, the right of peoples to resist occupation is recognized.
He continued that Sayed Isa Tabatabaei was not merely a builder of institutions and structures; he was a builder of the culture of resistance, a man who believed that “we can stand, and we must stand.”
Shariatmadar concluded with a quotation from Saayed Hassan Nasrallah: “Whatever we say about Sayed Isa can never do justice to him, not even in the slightest. His right over us, over the people, and over the path of resistance is a right that is great and everlasting.”
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