In order to better understand the lifestyle of Farajullah Selahshour, a visionary and brave artist of Iranian cinema who has become a household name in the Islamic world due to his attention to the Quran and the creation of Quranic stories, he had an intimate conversation with Fatemeh Selahshour, the youngest sister of the late Haj Farajullah Selahshour. Am.
He says: We grew up in a family of 11, two brothers and seven sisters. Our two brothers, Haj Faraj, the first child and Haj Mehdi, are the last children of the family, and the girls are between these two brothers; I am the seventh daughter in my family.
Our parents were ordinary people with Quran literacy. In our family, father gave great importance to earning a halal livelihood and mother to our upbringing. Going to and from the Qur’anic gatherings was part of our program. I remember “at a young age – under 4 years old – one day my sisters put a scarf on my head and a tent themselves and we went somewhere, where a Sidi cleric – Mr. Hosseini gave a speech, from that day we continued our relationship with that family. We gave and this was a sign of the father’s attention to communication with scholars.
The beginning of Ahl al-Bayt praise from a young age
He continues: Regarding Haj Faraj, I must say that my brother was a 10-12-year-old teenager who used to go to the Qur’an and Rozah training sessions, used to sing praises, and started a mourning group, and he himself was the praiser of that group. It was impressive. I remember, “Before the revolution, my sister had a friend in the neighborhood with a girl who did not respect her hijab. My brother seriously stood in front of this friendship and for several times he controlled that there was no connection between that girl and my sister.”
Generosity, strong will and simple living” are three important traits Haj Faraj
The sister of Haj Farajullah Selahshor says about his most important traits, which were in a way his lifestyle: I emphasize the three qualities of my brother the most, “Generosity, strong will and simple living”.
My brother’s generosity was so great that we would go to him in any case, we would not return empty handed. In this context, one of my sisters says: “I visited him several times and every time Haj Faraj helped one or two and a half million people or centers around us.” I remember: “I knew a Bahraini person from Sadat who did not have a good economic situation and was a tenant in one of the cities; When I shared his situation with my late brother, they drew a check of 16 million and told me to go and rent him a suitable house and spend this money as an advance. According to the conditions of that city, this money started a lot of work and also gave an amount so that we can provide them with means of living.
He continues: My brother also paid special attention to the people who worked with him, during the production of the “Yousef the Prophet” series, we went to him once again to receive financial assistance, and they said that due to the “Yousef the Prophet” series has a large army of black people and these people too. They don’t have a good financial situation and since it is important to me that we give them better salaries, I cannot participate in this work.
This trait-generosity-is visible to the family members, especially the mother, our mother made many pilgrimages to Mecca, Karbala, Syria, and Mashhad. And these trips Thanks to Haj Faraj who paid most of the expenses and Haj Mehdi who was proud It was done to accompany him.
Scripts of light
You also said about the strong will of the late Selahshur, talk to us about this too, yes! His strong will was also one of his good traits.
My brother has shown many times in his life that he has a good will in situations where he would stay up until after midnight to write his stories or in other words his scripts. They themselves said in this regard: “Me midnight I stayed awake because I believe in the night And Sahar has a spiritual effect in writing.” Therefore, they stayed up until midnight They would write until morning prayer, after morning prayer they would sleep until around 9:30 AM and from 10 AM they would write again until sunset… Between sunset and night they would take care of their work or be in meetings or resting. .. They would start writing again from one o’clock in the morning and this routine continued until the end of their story.
My brother used to say about their mood when writing stories (which were mostly Quranic stories): “I beg God in the middle of the night, I hug the Qur’an, I cry and I ask God to give me the strength to stay awake” I remember that they practiced for a while and were even tortured until they got the habit of staying awake and Create writing at night for themselves and continue this path.
Fatemeh Selahshor, pointing out that the late Haj Faraj played an effective role in the education of family members, mentions a memory of him in this regard: As I said, we are seven sisters and 2 sisters. Faraj Allah is the eldest child of the father and I am the last daughter. I remember “I was in the first grade of elementary school when one day they called me and scolded me for going out without a headscarf, and from then on I wore a headscarf.” Take, for example, he said: To concentrate in prayer, you must look at the seal and..
My brother attached great importance to study and this was one of his characteristics and he gave us many books to read, including the books of “Mahmoud Hakimi”, “Ali Wafi”, “Be Azar Shirazi”, “Jalal Al Ahmad” “, “Magazines of the School of Islam”, “Liar Frog” and…
Selahshor’s home team, which was very famous
The sister of the late Selahshur says this about his household and family: Haj Faraj insisted to hold a meeting in their house. After a few years, it was suggested in a family meeting that this board should be held in the homes of brothers and sisters on a rotating basis. After hearing everyone’s opinions, my brother disagreed and said: “No, if you want to hold a meeting at your home, do so, but I hold my prayer once a month and anyone wants to come.”
What I like to convey this to the community It is that Bradham, as a cultural personality and someone who wanted to influence the cultural improvement of the society, insisted that They should hold meetings and delegations at home so that, firstly, the principle of peace and reconciliation will take place and cause intimacy and preservation of relationships, and secondly, in this way, the revolutionary and religious culture of the old generation will be transmitted to the new generation and our children.
In this group, we had a Quran meeting before the call to prayer, where Mr. Jabari, the son-in-law of the family, listened to the recitations as a teacher, and in the meantime, the children memorized the Quran and the families practiced. The Quran was encouraged with their children and the children who memorized the Quran received prizes. Lately, he also gave prizes to parents whose children had memorized the Quran well.
After the prayer, with the presence of a counselor, a counseling session for children or life counseling for husbands and wives It was held especially for young people who were newly married, and after this meeting, Haj Mahdi’s prayer made the atmosphere religious. When the assembly was over, we were all together.
This was the price board. We intend to continue it, and in my opinion, everyone has a duty to their family to find this process in their family.
Haj Faraj’s exemplary simple life
Fatemeh Selahshor further added: In the photos taken of my brother at home, you can see his simple life, he really tried to live a simple life. Following this statement was Imam Khomeini (RA) who said: The one who thinks that the struggle with a prosperous and luxurious life will accumulate, is beating water in a mortar.
Haj Faraj insisted on living simply and living simply, on this principle, until the last 6 months of his life, he didn’t even have a sofa in his house until, because of his boredom, and the people he met, who were scholars and sometimes elderly people. They used to come and go to their house, he prepared a simple sofa.
They had a very simple curtain at home, and we insisted that they prepare a beautiful curtain. He said that if the price of the curtain is 1 million tomans, I will use a curtain of 500 thousand tomans and I will give 500 thousand tomans for it, so that someone who His house does not have a curtain, he should get one.
Self-sufficiency is my brother’s unique trait
The youngest sister of the late Selahshor continued: Taking care of housework was another characteristic of my brother, Haj Faraj took care of men’s work at home, he had all kinds of expertise and was a technical person with a technical mind so that one of the houses they lived in for several years He had done the plan himself until the final stages of construction.
Haj Faraj was like this in his personal affairs as well, he did not entrust his personal affairs to others, he even did his own laundry.
Have you had a dream after the death of your brother?
My brother is buried next to the unknown martyrs, the mother of one of those martyrs narrates: “The night before the burial of the late Selahshor, I saw that it was crowded around the burial place. I called my son to ask Morteza what is going on here, he said: We have work, mother, they want to bring Mr. Selahshur here tomorrow.”
Another mother of the martyrs explains: “I had a dream that a Ta’zia was held and Mr. Selahshur was standing next to the Ta’zia square and watching, and the actor playing the role of Imam Husayn in his Ta’zia was Imam Husayn (A.S.). He came to the side of the square and put his hand in my brother’s hand and they went to the sky.
Final word…
In an advice to his lovers in the field of art and artists of the country, the sister of the late Selahshor added: Following the board’s discussion, which emphasized self-improvement and culture-building, I must say that my brother had given priority to self-improvement first.
For 25 years, they had not given up the first time prayer and the evening prayer, as advised by Ayatollah Haqshanas. So that the first time prayer was never abandoned, even if they had to stop the car and perform the first time prayer in the middle of the square or boulevard, they did this.
The point is that my brother first focused on himself and worked on self-improvement, and then, by forming this family board, he institutionalized educational and cultural points within the family, and in the next stage, he worked on society.
In fact, my brother did not give the priority of education and cultural development to the society, first they had drawn self-improvement, then the transfer of culture to the family and then to the society, and in my opinion, if they had not worked on self-improvement, they would not have succeeded in the next stages.
Haj Farajullah Selahshor, director, producer, screenwriter, actor and face of Iranian cinema and television, was born in 1331 in Qazvin. In his artistic career; Acting in Toba Nasuh in 1361, acting in “Gurkan” in 1363, acting in “Flight of the Night” in 1365, acting and producing “Man and Arms” in 1367, acting, directing and writing the screenplay for “Ayoub the Prophet” in 1372, He acted in “The Upside Down World” in 1376, directed “Mardan Angels” in 1376, and directed, produced and wrote “Youssef the Prophet” in 1386.
Faraj Elah Selahshur died on March 8, 2014 due to cancer The sacred threshold of Imamzadeh Jafar and Hamida Khatun He was buried next to the martyrs.
In a part of the condolence message of the Supreme Leader following the death of the late Selahshur, it is stated: “The famous and enduring works of this artist with faith, who crossed the borders of the country and became the source of the prestige and credibility of Iranian cinema art in the eyes of the nations of other countries, will undoubtedly be among the good deeds left by him and will be the cause of his divine reward and good name among the people, God willing. “
