Islamic Republic outlets endow Raisi’s death with religious, mystical meanings

Since the official announcement of the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, numerous spontaneous instances of celebration and sarcasm have been expressed by Persian and Arabic-speaking users and outlets in the Middle East and abroad. However, in the meantime, outlets loyal or belonging to the Islamic Republic regime have been notedly attempting to endow Raisi's death with a mystical dimension and grant religious meaning to his passing.

The death of Raisi was announced this morning at the Imam Reza Holy Shrine in Mashhad, where crowds could be heard crying and grieving following the news of the crash. During the announcement, Raisi was described as a President who both began and ended his term officially on the same date, May 20th, also the birthdate of the Imam buried in the shrine, a significant religious leader in Shi’a Islam.

Imam Ali Reza (Ali Al-Rida in Arabic) was the eighth Imam of the Shi’a sect of Islam who lived around the 8th and 9th centuries. According to Shi’a Islam, the Imam is a holy leader with prophetic and superhuman qualities, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and his successor Ali, who is supposed to lead the entire Islamic nation. According to some traditions, Imam Reza was poisoned by the Sunni Caliph Al-Mamoun.

Raisi was given the title “servant of the Reza shrine” during his lifetime due to his service and maintenance of the shrine. As part of the narrative building of Raisi as a martyr related to Imam Reza, many photographs of the late President wearing ordinary clothes and cleaning the holy site began circulating virally to show his piousness. READ MORE

The connection made between the traditional Shi’i religious leader and Iranian President Raisi is further propagated by the viral hashtag #Servant_of_Reza, alongside others such as “the martyr of servitude.” These are meant to further cement the mystical and mythological aura surrounding the President’s death.