Sunni cleric from Zahedan-Iran: The mourning of Imam Hussain (a.s) made me become a Shia

Hojjat al-Islam wal-Muslimin Sharif Zahedi, new reborn cleric from Zahedan-Iran, who converted to Shiism for more than ten years at the Faculty of Qur’anic Sciences in Qom, explained the process of his story of conversion to the students as follows:

I am Mohammad Sharif Zahedi from Nikshahr, Sistan and Baluchistan province. After 11 years of studying in Sunni schools and seminaries, after hearing the mourning of Imam Hussain (a.s), guidance appeared in my heart and after detailed research in 2003, I was converted to the School of Ahl al-Bayt (a.s).

One of my teachers was “Maulvi Isa Malazahi” Imam of the Muhammad Rasoolullah Mosque (peace be upon him). Sometimes, when there was a problem for him and he could not go to the mosque, he would send me in his place to perform the prayer. It was the night of Ashura 1996 and I went to the mosque instead of my teacher and prayed the Isha prayer. All the people left the mosque. I was the last person to come out of the mosque and locked the door of the mosque. I was about to go back to school when the sound of a speech from Hosseiniye Immigrant Shiites from Chabahar, which was fifty meters away from the mosque, caught my attention.

I was curious to know what the speaker was saying; Because they told us that everything the Shia clerics say is a lie. I went to see what lies he was telling. I got close to Hosseinieh. I wanted to enter Hosseinieh, but I was embarrassed; Because I was wearing the clothes of Sunni clerics.

I slowly sat by the window and listened to the words of the Shia cleric. His speech was about the character of Imam Hussain (peace be upon him). He used to say: “In the Musnad of Ahmad Hanbal and the Sunan of Tirmidhi and several other books, there is this narration that the Prophet (s.a.w.w) said: Imam Hasan (a.s) and Imam Hussain (a.s) are the head of the youth of heaven, and likewise from The books of Ahl al-Sunnah stated contents along with their addresses.

This question came to my mind that how did this Shiite cleric study Sunni books? because they told us not to read Shia books; It is misleading! Why don’t they – Shiites – say don’t read Sunni books because you will be misled? Only our scholars say so?

He finished his speech and started mourning. So that my tears, a Sunni cleric who until that moment, had not shed even a drop of tears for the Imam Hussain (a.s), flowed and I cried a lot.

I got up before the mourning was over and went back to school. I went to my room and wanted to sleep; But the words of the Shiite cleric had occupied my thoughts. I couldn’t bear it. I went to the library to find that narration.

Of course, I had seen the narration before in the book “Musnad Ahmad”; But in order to calm my heart, I went to the narration and its document. I found it and after that, I picked up the book “Hayat Sahabah” and was surprised to see that what the Shia cleric narrated is correct. I said to myself: These are the things they quote from our books, so it is clear that they have read many of our books and know a lot about us.

That night was a strange night. I was surrounded by questions and no matter what I thought, I could not convince myself! I asked myself: “Are the Shiites really polytheists as the Wahhabis preach?” I thought to myself for a moment, it’s strange! As stated in the verses of the Qur’an and hadiths, polytheists are against God and the Prophet and against the religion of Islam! So, what kind of polytheists are these Shiites who accept God and the Prophet (s.a.w.w), and even show love to the Prophet’s family, and praise the Prophet of Islam on their pulpits, and cry over their sufferings? It occurred to me that it is not possible for them to be polytheists.

It was after this that I started researching about Shiism and for the first time, by reading the book Nights of Peshawar written by the late Sultan Al-Waezin Shirazi, many facts became clear to me and I saw that many of the things mentioned in this book from Sunni sources are approved and this was very interesting to me.

Then I continued my research and read more books until I came to the conclusion that Shiism is right, and since 2000 I became a Shia secretly, and in 2003 I decided to reveal this matter and officially announced it.