The Rosary

It was the 12th of Mehr, 1359 AHS. It had been two days that Ibrahim was missing! I went to the headquarters for the prisoners of war to get news, but it was useless. I was awake until midnight, and I was very upset. I didn’t have any news from my closest friend. I went into the compound after the Morning Prayer. There was a strange silence in the Abudhar garrison. I sat on the ground of the compound. I went over all the memories I had with Ibrahim. The sky was still dark. The door of the garrison opened with a sound and a few people entered. I unconsciously looked at the garrison door. In the twilight I stared at their faces. Suddenly I jumped up! It was him. One of them was Ibrahim. I ran and after a few seconds we were hugging each other. The happiness of that moment could not be described. An hour later we were sitting with the other soldiers. Ibrahim told us what had happened these three days. He said, “We went forward in a vehicle. We didn’t know how far the Iraqis had come towards us. We came under siege next to a hill. About one hundred Iraqis were shooting from the top of the hill and from the field. The five of us had taken refuge in a ditch next to the hill and were shooting. We resisted until sunset. The Iraqis retreated when it became dark. Two of our companions who knew the way had been martyred. We came out from where we had taken cover, and no one was around. We went to the back of the hill, between the trees. We hid the bodies of the martyrs there. We were tired and hungry. I guessed the direction for prayer from the sunset and we prayed. I told my friends after praying, ‘Let’s say the rosary of Hazrat Fatimah (s) with careful attention for our release from this difficulty.’ Then I continued, ‘The Prophet (s) taught this rosary to his daughter when she was caught up with great problems and difficulties.’ After we had said the rosary, we went back to our previous place of cover. The Iraqis were not there, but we had little ammunition. Suddenly I saw a few Iraqi corpses next to the hill. We took their guns, cartridges and grenades. We found some food too and became ready to move. But which way?! The sky was dark, and there was a flat plain around us. I was holding the rosary beads in my hand and reciting God’s names constantly. In the midst of the enemy, fatigued, a dark night, and… but we had a strange calm! At midnight we found a dirt road in the middle of the plain. We walked along it. We came to a military area in which was a radar device. Several guards were around it. A few trenches could be seen inside of the headquarters. We didn’t know where we were, and we had no hope of staying alive. That was why we came to a strange decision! I asked God to help me make a decision using the rosary beads, and the answer was good. So we started! With God’s help we were able to bring a chaos to that military headquarters by throwing grenades and shooting bullets. When their radar stopped working, the three of us escaped from there. After an hour we continued on our way. We found a safe place near morning and rested. We rested the whole day. It was unbelievable. We had a strange calmness. When the sky grew dark, we continued on our way and With God’s help we found our forces.” Ibrahim continued, “The only thing we saw during this time was the grace of God. The rosary of Hazrat Zahra (s) opened the knots of many problems.” Then he added, “The enemy is afraid of our forces because of their lack of faith. We should expand our irregular battles as much as we can in order to prevent the enemy attacks.