Red Shi'ism – Black Shi'ism

In the dress of a simple darvish, he goes to Sabzevar as a lonely stranger, takes up abode in the great mosque of the town, and begins preaching there. [This marks the beginning of the Sarbedaran liberation movement]. He is a preacher who is in revolt against all that teaches people to bow to ignorance and oppression, a revolt backed by a faith, a school of thought and a red history: Shi'ism.

Disgusted by all these robes of piety, and satisfied that they are all the weavers of the clothes of piety to be worn over a body of oppression, with a heart filled with hatred towards the cruel Mongol rulers, reeling under the pain of the evil destiny of the Muslim masses, as a Muslim responsible for the people and knowing the times, and a protestor against the existing system, having lost all faith in the sellers of religion, Sheikh Khalifah choose the Islam of Ali, the school of protest and martyrdom.

It is under these circumstances that a religious preacher starts out in search of the truth in the manner of Salman. He approaches all those with claims to religious faith. First he approaches the pious Bahlul to seek the path of salvation in his school of piety and freedom. There, he sees piety remaining silent against tyranny. What a shame.

What heartlessness and selfishness that a man should be surrounded by the screams of prisoners, the shouts of executioners, the poverty of the hungry, the whips of the cruel over the bodies of the helpless, and, instead of volunteering to defend them, should simply seek his own redemption and try to gain paradise for himself!