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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/18/dont-expect-iran-surrender-suffering-ultimate-virtue/
Don't Expect Iran to Surrender: Suffering Is the Ultimate Virtue to Shias
(Telegraph-UK) Michael Nazir-Ali - The Shia have an entrenched understanding of the virtue of suffering for their beliefs. An understanding of suffering and of striving in the way of Allah has been married to the theology of end time, when the twelfth Imam or Mahdi will return and establish a rule of justice. As the Iran-Iraq war demonstrated, if this struggle results in mass martyrdom, this is thought to only hasten the coming of the Imam Mahdi. Iran's creating and strengthening its proxies is based on establishing the rule of God and thus hastening the return of the Mahdi. What the West, and its allies, need to understand is that the rhetoric coming from Tehran is influenced by this martyr complex. If the regime were to fall, the Islamist revolutionaries have a ready-made force for indefinite resistance to whatever takes the place of the present regime and to its allies. Withdrawal to the mountains and deserts, as well as exile, is an aspect of sharing in the sufferings of their imams, and resistance to the "ungodly" will be understood as hastening the return of Imam Mahdi. If the regime survives, this will be seen as a vindication by Allah of the sacrifices made by the IRGC, the Basij and the regime generally. If the military action results in a change of regime, there must be preparations to prevent the Basij and other elements from being able to wage an indefinite guerrilla war.