The son of a prominent Ayatollah, once named as a possible successor to the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader, says his father died because he trusted Islamic medicine and the so-called Islamic physicians.
Speaking to Hawza's (Shi'ite seminary) news website, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi's son, Ala, said, "The so-called Islamic doctors had convinced my father to ignore what modern physicians said about his illness and how to treat it."
Twelver Shia cleric and conservative politician Ayatollah Shahroudi was the Chairman of the powerful Expediency Discernment Council from August 14, 2017, until his death on December 24, 2018. He was previously the head of the Islamic Republic judiciary from 1999 to 2009.
He died on December 24, 2018, of still undeclared complications. Shahroudi was accused of presiding over the killings of hundreds of prisoners and other gross violations of civil and human rights.
He spent time from late 2017 to January 2018 receiving treatment in Hannover, Germany. Iranian opposition groups raised questions about Shahroudi who faced human rights violations for being allowed into the country. Apparently, this expedited his departure.
Shahroudi who was born in Iraq moved to Iran when Islamists took over Iran’s post-revolutionary government in 1979. He was trusted by both the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini and his successor Ali Khamenei.
The so-called Islamic doctors' intervention in treating Ayatollah Shahroudi's illness took so long that even surgery could not help him recover; his son has bitterly said.
"My father underwent surgery in 2017. Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, secretly visited and advised him to ignore what the Islamic doctors say, and listen to the modern-day physicians," Ala Shahroudi disclosed, adding, "Nevertheless, my father ignored the leader's recommendation, and continued to trust the so-called Islamic Medicine experts."
The topic of Islamic medicine (al-Tibb an-Nabawi, in Arabic, or Medicine of the Prophet) has triggered a heated debate in recent years in Iran. Ayatollah Shahroudi was an ardent advocate, calling Shi'ites seminaries to collect Prophet Mohammad and Shi'a Imams' medical quotations and revive Islamic medicine.
However, most of the medical quotations attributed to Prophet Muhammad and Shi'a Imams are unscientific, mind-boggling, and even risible tales.
"Use the black seed, because it contains a cure for every type of ailment except death," one of the tales cites prophet Muhammad as advising his followers.
The deputy of the Islamic Republic Ministry of Health, Iraj Harirchi, disclosed on October 7, 2019, "Four Grand ayatollahs had cancer. Three of them, with progressive disease, were treated and recovered. But, the fourth, who believed in Islamic medicine, sadly died."
Apparently, he was referring to Ayatollah Shahroudi, who died at 70 on December 24, 2018.
