The Solitary Story of a Martyr Who Wrote Letters to Ab

For many, the war began with a mother's and father's prayers. But Yousef had no one waiting for his return. With all his loneliness, he went to the front, as if he had taken the place of everyone who no longer had anyone for Iran.

Sefir Arjan - Mehr Magazine: "Looking forward" is one of the inseparable feelings of wartime; The strong feeling of a generation that has experienced eight years of imposed war. That's why, when we hear the name of an expectant, our mind and imagination go to the mother and father of a lost child who, after years, still haven't found the body or trace of their youngster. Young people whose mothers go to sleep every night with the thought that where their child is resting now? In Feke and Shlamcheh, or in the depths of the waters of Arvandrod, or in the corners of the unknown martyrs? But among all these bitter and intense expectations, there is another neglected expectation that perhaps many of us are not aware of; The long-awaited story of lonely children who tied their shoes and boots tightly at the height of being destitute and orphaned and went to the front. Strange martyrs who now have no one to take the dust from their graves and miss their days. Yusuf Ghorbani is one of them; The one who, in the turbulent days of the imposed war, when many people left with the prayers of their mothers and the goodbyes of their fathers, there was no family behind them to look forward to and there was no one whose heart trembled for their return. Loneliness was the only companion that Yusuf took with him to the front and left himself in the middle of the danger field, without anyone to wait at home to hear his news if he did not return. Maybe this image makes his story more different; The story of a young man who, even in the loneliest days of his life, did not leave Iran alone, as if he were the homeland of everyone among the homeless; A homeland for which you have to fight and die.

Yusuf, who did not have the same expectations as Yaqoob

Yusuf Ghorbani was born in 1345 in Zanjan; In a poor and oppressed family. He was not yet six months old when he lost his father. He was not more than six years old when his mother died in an accident. From then on, Yusuf remained and his brother; Two children who had to deal with the empty place of their parents much earlier than their age. Their grandmother was their refuge; A woman who stayed with them in a humble house so that maybe the weight of this loneliness will be reduced. But this shelter didn't last long and a few years later, when Yusuf was in his elementary school years, his grandmother passed away. The other two brothers had no one to hold their hands. When Youssef was in the fourth grade of primary school, he and his brother went to Tehran and lived and worked for several years. Returning to Zanjan was not a return to their family; It was a small house and two brothers who had learned to stand on their own feet. Years later, when the revolution won, Youssef became a member of Basij. But as if the wound of loss was not going to end for him; His brother also died in a car accident. Yusuf, who had lost his loved ones one by one since childhood, now had no one left; However, loneliness could not turn him back from the path he had chosen. That's why he went to the front.

Marghabi was the imam of his time

After joining Basij, Yusuf prepared himself for more difficult days. He participated in various operations, received training and gradually found a place for himself among the children of the front. He served in the 17th army of Ali bin Abi Talib (a.s.) and the 31st army of Ashura. But the place where Yusuf's name is remembered the most was the battalion of Hazrat Waliasr (AS) in Zanjan province. A battalion whose intelligence and operations forces were always present in difficult missions. Youssef, as a Basij diver, went to water and land operations. On Wal-Fajr 8, in Arundrud and Faw, he set foot on the water and participated in reconnaissance missions and gathering information from enemy positions. A year later, in Karbala 5, he appeared again in Shalamcheh area; Where identifying the enemy's lines and passing through his fortifications was not everyone's job. Finally, he was martyred in the same operation, during the conquest of the Iraqi Kotsaviri outpost in Shalamcheh. Interestingly, just a few minutes before the start of the operation and his martyrdom, when his fellow reporter asked him: "Mr. Yusuf, what does diver mean?" Yusuf gives a different answer and says: "The diver means the duck of Imam Zaman (AS)."

Strange things that were written for water

People in love become like their lover. It is said that from one point onward, Amir al-Mu'minin's exile became so heavy that he used to pour all his sorrows into the well. Now Yusuf also adopted the same custom as if he had taken it for himself and wrote his longings for water; As far as one of his comrades named Jamal Zargari says about this: "After the Wal-Fajr 8 operation, it was part of our Faw defense. Youssef and I worked in intelligence and operations. Every day I saw Yusuf sitting in a corner of the trench and writing a letter. I was saying to myself that Yusuf doesn't have anyone! Who is he writing to? That too every day. One day when I was coming back from Fav, I said: Youssef, don't you post your letter? He took my hand and took me for a walk along the Arvand beach. He took the letter out of his pocket, crumbled it and poured it into the water. His eyes filled with tears and he said quietly: I am writing a letter for Ab, I don't have anyone who..."

You might say to yourself that a martyr who didn't even have someone to write him a letter, probably won't have a will either. But it is not so. Yusuf left a testament as if he had written it for a family the size of Iran: "Today, our country has become the age of the Imam, and devoted people have filled all the fronts, and the Imam, that legend of resistance, piety, and piety, ordered mobilization, and the fronts must be filled. Brothers, hurry to the fronts because this is the way of men like Ali Safarzadeh and Gholami. Dear brothers and respectable people of Iran, today all disbelief is facing Islam and it is a decisive issue. If we neglect it, God forbid, they will not leave anything for us... Brothers, try to fill the mosque on Friday nights and other nights. Brothers of Shahid and Wahaj Islamic Association, try to make your morals, behavior and speech for God. God forbid, you should follow your own desires and do not treat people well. Is it other than that one day you will travel from this world to another world? So how better to choose a path that hundreds of thousands of martyrs chose. My parents, be patient because God loves those who are patient... My sisters, follow the path of Zainab, which is one of the best ways."