Ayatollah Javadi Amoli
On January 3rd 1989, Imam Khomeini’s delegation left Tehran to Moscow, and they came back the next day, their total stay at Moscow was 23 hours. They were given a warm welcome at the international airport by the Premier of the Soviet Union and some of the high political officials along with the Friday Imam of Moscow and the ambassador of Iran and some of the Iranian embassy employees.
Before and after the official visit of the Iranian delegation with the leader of the Soviet Union, there were no political contacts made, to a person or a group, by the head of the delegation, because this visit was only for submitting the message and clarifying its deep contents. But there were some talks with those who came to welcome and convoy us on the way from and to the airport about monotheism and denying atheism, at times with a proving language and times by the language of nature. The 40km path from the airport to Moscow, and on the returning path, nothing happened but remembrance of God and distributing Gods messages and inviting to the path of God and reforming the nature of the pagan Marxists.
The meeting time with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was at 11:00 am January 4th, and it took 2 hours and 5 minutes. On our entering the Kremlin palace the Premier of the Soviet Union and two of the high political officials, which were already there, came to welcome us a few steps from the meeting room, showing great enthusiasm for hearing Imam Khomeini’s message.
Considering the issue of mutual respect that is one the international rules of Islam and does not belong to any specific group, the delegation was determined to transfer the message with the language of guidance and education and not by the usual diplomatic way and they tried not to mix the words of God with some diplomatic smut, and not to ruin the strength of the invitation to monotheism with the usual diplomatic words, but to deliver the contents of the message in the language of guidance and education and not only reading some words and transferring the surface of the message. So they decided to say some prayers and they asked Allah “My lord, relieve my mind, and ease my task for me, and loose a knot from my tongue, that they may understand my saying” (The Holy Quran, 20:25-28)
With a relieved mind and not minding the Kremlin palace and by transferring and submitting the contents of the message with the language of guidance and education, we received the response of our God as the following verse “He said: Thou art granted thy request, O Moses” (The Holy Quran, 20:36). And now with the falling of the political powers of the communist parties in a short time and the breakup of most of its power centers the message of God can be heard by every one: “So we seized him and his hosts and flung them in the sea, for he was reprobate.” (The Holy Quran, 51:40)
The message was read with delineating some important points. Then the Kremlin’s special interpreters translate it for Mr. Gorbachev and two other people that attended the meeting. If a point was not clear for the interpreter, he asked and after understanding the point he translated it to Gorbachev. During reading the message and translating it, which took 65 minutes, Gorbachev himself wrote down the important points and so did the other two.
During reading the message the Soviet leader listened to the message diplomatically polite, but because the content and its literature were at apex of guiding to monotheism and not at the perigee level of diplomacy and the style of transferring it was deductive, not just delivering a report. So at points we saw the true sign of this verse of Quran “Thus was the disbeliever abashed.” (The Holy Quran, 2: 258) in Gorbachev’s face which it almost awoken the dead nature of him.
Issuing the letter was after the UN Security Council Resolution 598 and Iran had just entered to the stage of post-war reconstruction process. The content of the letter was completely secret and except Imam Khomeini none of the Iranian authorities knew about it, so the Russian officials especially the Premier did not even imagine that the content of the letter was invitation to monotheism and Islam. So after listening to the major points of the letter, all the anticipation about the content turned wrong and no one could give a suitable quick answer to this holy letter, As Imam Khomeini said to the special envoy of Mikhail Gorbachev: “I wanted to open a door from the unseen world to him; not just to talk about the issues related to the material world.”
After listening carefully to the letter and understanding the intentions of Imam, the former Soviet leader started to answer the invitation that took him one hour.
A summary of Gorbachev's answer based on the Persian interpreter’s saying is as follows: “I’m thankful of Ayatollah Khomeini's letter, I'll send an answer to this letter as soon as possible, we'll deliver it to the Soviet's clergymen, we are approving the law of religion freedom in the Soviet Union, I have claimed before that despite having different ideologies we can have peaceful relationship.
Imam Khomeini invited us to Islam; do we have to invite him to our school of thought? (At this point Gorbachev smiled and went on, this is a joke.) This invitation is interference in the internal affairs of another country. Cause every country is free and independent for selecting its school of thought.”
Iranian delegation studied the response of Gorbachev to the letter and got that the country reacted politically to the letter not culturally and educationally. Gorbachev considered the letter as interference to the national issues of the country. So with considering the letter politically the issue of sending the letter and the letter itself was under the question, so the delegation did not discuss the content of it. The head of the delegation said, "Thanks for listening the letter carefully and we appreciate your readiness for answering the letter and delivering it to the Soviet's clergymen.”
He underlined, “We appreciate the freedom of religion and hope an amicable condition for all people to live with each other as they have different schools of thought. But “the issue of interfering” should be clarified. You are free to do what you want in the vast land of Russia to the end of its skies and no one has the right to interfere in this realm. But the content of this letter, as the messages of other divine leaders, had nothing to with materialism and the territory of Russia; it was just related to your souls.”
The head of the delegation continued: “Mr. Gorbachev, are you as a tree, which your death will only mean the fading and withering of your body, and there won’t be any signs of life after your death? Or you are as a bird caged in the nature of your body, which your death would mean the opening of this cage and the flying of your soul to the eternal world? Of course the second one is true and not the first; and the contents of Imam Khomeini’s message is an invitation to monotheism and denying of atheism which is related to your soul, it has nothing to do to your country. Indeed when a person’s soul believes in monotheism, he will find the correct way of ruling a country and he’ll do this job in the best order.”