Hassaan Al-Laqees: If Only He was Present..

Nothing is comparable to the absence of Haj Hassan al-Laqees in his first year away from his family and Jihad comrades. The loss of this ‘creative mind,’ as the Hizullah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah likes to name him, is one that is hard to amend.

However, those close to him find the victories of the resistance a compassionate condolence for losing him. Whoever had lived along “Abou Ali” ever since his birth all the way until he joined the Hizbullah journey, realizes that he who tired “Israel” and exhausted it until it assassinated him, was indeed unique and brilliant.

Sayyed Nasrallah with Martyr Lakkis

His family and friends recall today with heartache the most significant stages of his life and struggle.

And with great nostalgia and longing, they narrate their common stories with Hassaan Houlou al-Laqees, who became a pioneering example of a leader, a teacher, and an advanced learner who does not get decoyed by the stupidities and ‘superficial’ local politics, as he had kept in his mind what is much deeper and farther: A goal and purpose that are based upon the Karbala’ path, that is paved by the blood of fighters, the rounds of devotees, as well as skill and superiority which in equivalence not even Zionist myths and fictional deterrence systems measure up to.

Sayyed Nasrallah with Martyr Lakkis

A year has passed on the martyrdom of Resistance Leader al-Laqees.
Those who know him see him present at all times on the fields as in Baalbeck and Beirut’s Dahyieh [Southern Suburb]. They speak of a total integration between his job as a Jihadist, and his personality as a supporter of a family of seven..

In al-Ousseira in Baalbeck, where his birth and life was, everything longs for Haj Hassaan: his garden, parking lot, usual sitting place in front of the television, personal belongings and his cellphone. Everything misses its owner. His family however, dives in an ocean of memories with him. His eldest daughter Nour gets puzzled, feeling uncertain where to start talking about her father; hundreds of innumerable memories. At every occasion the loss was present, and especially on Friday, the weekly date, where he would be there after tens of hours of effort.

Nonetheless his last days remain engraved in the memories, distinguished by the remarkable behavior of Abou Ali: his incremental silence, his strange farewell to his daughter and grandchildren. Two days prior to his assassination on Tuesday 3 December 2013 at his doorstep, he turned his face away from Nour as if he were to say “do not get attached to me,” as Nour narrates.

On the next day, he returned to Baalbek on and called his daughter once again reiterating words of death, and literally saying: “Marvellous is the son of Adam, how he used to be inside his mother’s womb, with everything provided for him, then he comes out to this world crying, and gets attached to its delights until the Angel of Death grabs his soul. Then, he moves on to the afterlife remorseful for his sins.”

Martyr Lakkis personal belongings

Only half an hour ahead of his martyrdom, al-Laqees kept calling his wife and son Hussein, repetitively asking about him.

Haj Hassan never did expose his position within the resistance ranks, not even to his close family.

On this level, Nour clarifies: “We used to sense the importance of his job because of the previous assassination attempts, his broad connections, and his close friendship and intimacy with Sayyed Nasrallah which dates back to the day he joined Hizbullah, in addition to the frequent visits to Iran and meeting up with Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei, and his friendship with the Iranian secretary of Defense brigadier general Hussein Dahghan, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Naval Force Commander General Ali Fadavi.
However, it wasn’t until after his martyrdom that we discovered the greatness of his responsibility, especially when His Eminence Secretary General of Hizbullah personally grave clothed his body, and accompanied his casket a night before the burial.”

According to Nour al-Laqees, Haj Hassaan had been perseverant on reading martial and military foreign magazines, monitoring everything going on in “Israel.”
One time he said commenting on a Zionist event “I have something valuable up my sleeve for the “Israelis”!”

The mutual conversation between Haj Hassan and the members of his family formed an essential reference to deduce his position in Hizbullah. Nour pauses at a main station in the series of assassinations of which the resistance leaders had been subjected to: The assassination of Haj Imad Moughniye. At the time, Haj Hassan narrated to his family how an “Israeli” surveillance aircraft had tracked him and Haj Ridwan in the south one time, and how each of them was blaming the other for that. Haj Hassan however would stop at this joke and say: “What is that they want with me? It is you the want.”

And later in 2007, Haj Imad visited the Laqees family presenting deep condolences for his daughter’s death, and a copy of the Holy Qur’an for his wife. All of this indicated the depth of the relation that was between the two leaders.
The character of Haj Hassaan was quite outstanding. Other than shining in the field of computer sciences in the Lebanese American University, he managed to learn the Persian language excellently, without benefiting from specialized schools, but thorough his visits to Iran. He became a fluent speaker in different local dialects relative to villages, countryside, and even the capital Tehran.

Resistance Leader Martyr’s Grave

The martyr leader’s experiences were unbounded by any limitation, as he even played the organ out of his love for old revolutionary hymns. In his last days, he got attached to “latmiyat hussayniya” about imam Ali, especially that of Bassem Karbalai’s “rout” (My Soul). He had also received religious lessons from the Iranian Irfan’s Scolar Haj Ismael Doulabi.

Haj Hassan’s jihadi and religious relations in Iran are “baggy and huge” and probe back for long years. And because they are, his close Iranian journalist Hameed Davoud Aubaudi reveals some details about Leader Khamenei’s reception to a Hizbullah delegation led by the Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah himself after the June Assault in 2006.

The delegation included both leaders Moughniyeh and al-Laqees, as well as other top Resistance leaders in. On that day Sayyed Nasrallah requested from “Abou Ali” to speak in the name of the delegation, and the latter started off explaining to the Leader of the Revolution about the Resistance’s operations against the “Israeli” enemy over 33 days.
Suddenly Leader Khamenei asked Haj Hassan “Are you Iranian?”, he replied “No Lebanese.” The leader replied “But you are fluent in Persian!” Then al -Laqees replied “Yes due to my frequent visits to the Islamic Republic.”

That was when the Leader requested his personal photographer and asked him to take a memorial photograph with Haj Hassaan.

The influence of Haj Hassaan on whoever met him was obvious, according to those close to him. The Iranian leaders passes through his life memorized two words he used to echo in most of his speeches, they are “On my eyes.. On my head,” (meaning that when he addresses someone he indicated that they are more precious than his eyes, and his head – Lebanese idiom,) according to what the family said based on the meetings they held after the assassination of Haj Hassaan.

As for his Iranian friend Hameed, he too has long memories with the son of Baalbeck, especially that they were friends ever since 1983 when Hameed came to Lebanon and Haj Hassaan helped him in a journalism job he had been doing for the Revolutionary Guards Bureau.

The friendship between the two men developed and strengthened with the career occupational cooperation.

Hammed had started to notice a similarity between Haj Hassaan and the Iranian Martyrs. After the assassination, Hameed gave Haj Hassaan a special description: “He is the extract of the martyrs, an honest soldier, and a true loyal to Velayat-e Faqih.”

The martyrdom of Haj Hassaan has an impact amongst his lovers and knowers.. and because he was a bright shining resistant and leader, rather than just some random person, Sayyed Ali Khamenei pays his family care as he does to the families of Iranian martyrs.. He asked about their news, and remarks the sacrifices of their supporter, Haj Hassaan, and recommends they be taken care of particularly. He even supervises the occasion of Haj Hassan’s granddaughter’s wearing of Hijab.

Source: al-Ahed news