His Simple Appearance
In the early days of the war Ibrahim was a role model for many of the forces. Many were proud of being friends with him. However, he always acted in such a way to try not to stand out. For example, he didn’t care about the military uniform. He wore a long shirt and loose pants (Kurdish style). In this way he could be closer to the local people and could control his will. He was simple and undecorated. When we saw him for the first time, we thought that he was a servant and … for the soldiers. But after a while, we understood his personality. Ibrahim was a person who broke the traditions of the society. Instead of paying attention to appearances, he thought more about people’s inside. The soldiers followed his behavior. He always said, “More important than making uniforms and a standard military appearance is that we care about the education and the spirituality of the forces. We have to be friends with the forces as much as we can.” The result of this kind of thinking could be seen completely in the operations of the group, although some disagreed with his thoughts. He had bought some material which looked like leopard skin. He gave it to one of the tailors and said, “Sew Kurdish pants for me (loose pants).” The next day he got the clothes and wore them. He looked very handsome. He left the Headquarters. He came back after an hour. He was wearing a soldier’s uniform! I asked, “Where are your clothes?!” He said, “One of the Kurdish soldiers liked my clothes, and I gave them to him as a gift!” He gave his watch to another person. That person had asked him the time, and he had given him his watch! These simple things made many of the local Kurds infatuated with Ibrahim’s morals, and they joined the Andarzgu Group. At the same time that Ibrahim had a simple appearance, he was completely aware of political issues. He analyzed the political currents very well. A while after the pictures of the Imam (r.a.) and the Martyr Beheshti were hung in the Headquarters, an order came to close and stop giving supplies to the Group which had been issued by the office of the Commander in Chief in the West of the country which at that time was managed by Bani Sadr. However, the Commander of the Military in that region announced that the presence of this group was necessary in the region. He said that all of their attacks were designed and implemented by this group. This Commander followed this issue up and after a while prevented this order from being carried out. One morning they announced that Bani Sadr wanted to visit Kermanshah. Ibrahim, Javad, and a few others from the forces along with Haj Husayn went to Kermanshah. The military commanders were waiting for Bani Sadr with a decorated appearance. But, the appearance of the forces from the Andarzgu Group was interesting. They went to welcome Bani Sadr with the same Kurdish pants and their usual appearance! However, their goal was something else. They said, “We want to speak with this person and see which military insight he is using to manage the war!?” That day we waited for a long time. In the end they announced that the president wouldn’t come to Kermanshah because of damage to his helicopter. After a while Hazrat Ayatollah Khamenei (May God protect him) came to Kermanshah. At that time he was the Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran. Ibrahim brought all the forces with him. They met with him with the same simple and undecorated appearance; and, they hugged and kissed him one by one.