A Sense of Humor

Ibrahim was very serious when the situation was serious. But when joking he was a very sociable and humorous person. In fact, one of the reasons that many people were attracted to Ibrahim was this characteristic. Ibrahim had a special manner in eating! When there was enough food he used to eat well, and he would say, “Due to exercising and lots of activity, our body needs more food.” He went to a restaurant in Kermanshah with one of the locals from Gilan Gharb. Just the two of them alone ate three dishes of food! (Each dish was enough for two to four people.) Or, when one of the friends invited Ibrahim for lunch, he fried six chickens for three people. He also made plenty of rice and…, but nothing remained! I went to visit Ibrahim when he was wounded. Then we went by motorcycle to one of the friend’s houses for breaking our fast. The host was one of Ibrahim’s close friends. He kept telling us to help ourselves to the food. Ibrahim didn’t need encouragement! In summary, he wouldn’t stop. Almost nothing remained from the food in the room we were in! Ja’far Jangravi who was one of our friends was there too. After Iftar[1] he kept going into the other room and calling his friends. He brought them one by one and said, “Dear Ibram, he really wanted to meet you and…” Ibrahim had eaten a lot and his foot was in pain due to a wound. But, he had to stand up to respect the people and kiss them. Ja’far laughed behind them quietly. When Ibrahim would sit down, Ja’far would go and bring the next person! He did this a few times. Ibrahim who was bothered a lot said with a special calm, “Dear Ja’far, it will be our turn too!” Late at night, we wanted to go back. Ibrahim got on my motorcycle and said, “Move quickly!” Ja’far got on his own motorcycle and started out behind us. The distance between Ja’far and us increased. We came to a checkpoint! I stopped. Ibrahim said in a loud voice, “Brother, come here!” One of the young people who was armed came forward. Ibrahim continued, “Dear friend, I am a veteran and this driver is one of the army soldiers. A motorcycle is coming behind us that…” Then he paused a little and said, “It is better that I don’t say anything. Just be very careful. I think he is armed!” Then he said, “With your permission,” and we left. A little further on, I went onto the sidewalk and stopped. The two of us were laughing. Ja’far’s motorcycle arrived at the checkpoint. Four armed people surrounded him! Then they found the weapon on his waist! No one paid attention to anything he was saying … Almost half an hour later the person in charge of the group came and recognized Mr. Ja’far. He apologized a lot and told the members of his group, “He is Mr. Ja’far Jangravi. He is one of the Commanders of the Sayyed al-Shohada Army. The members of the group apologized to him in embarrassment. Ja’far who was very angry took his gun back without saying anything, got on his motorcycle, and left. When he came forward a little, he saw Ibrahim standing on the sidewalk and laughing a lot! He finally realized what had happened. Ibrahim came forward, hugged Ja’far, and kissed him. His frown opened. He started laughing too. Thank God everything finished with a laugh.

[1] Iftar is the breaking of the fast.