A while ago, a crowd of dervishes gathered in Reza Welfare Centre (“Madad-kari-ye Reza” institute-“Reza Social Service institute) which was closed by the security forces. They issued a letter to the Minister of Work and Social Welfare, Ali Rabi’i, holding the manner in which the social workers were treated by intelligence agents responsible for the loss of home in the society. According to Majzooban Noor, these dervishes who gathered in Reza Welfare Centre wrote: “In the eve of Moula Ali’s birthday you proclaimed that you support whomever adds a brick on another brick because they contribute to society. However, your colleagues in the intelligence and security in the shaky government’s cabinet behave differently. With the closure of Reza Welfare Centre, workers who were actually helping others in this country lost their jobs and it added on the number of needy. Selflessness and needlessness which are a part of Iran’s ancient culture and taught by Islam, instead of encouraging and propagating, you suppress and marginalize. Instead of shaking the helping hands of those who help within their means, you put in handcuffs”.
This letter is being petitioned by other Gonabadi Dervishes.

Hou
121

Dear Dr. Rabi’i,
The respected Minister of Work and Social Welfare,
This letter has been petitioned by Gonabadi Dervishes of our country, a number of old women and men, the disabled and the welfare recipients have written and presented to you on the Day of Welfare which has been named after Ali whose teachings have been the light of our path, guidance to our deeds, and the ideology of dervishes.
Mr. Minister
The intelligence agent and security forces, in their cowardly operations, have closed down Reza Welfare Centre which was a subsidiary of Gonabadi Dervishes. In today’s harsh economic climate where fraud and corruption from outlaws, big and small, are prevalent, they have made life even harder for us. A number of aged patients who were being cared for in the centre became homeless by closing it down. Welfare recipients with dependents and disabled individuals who were barely getting by with the minimal assistance from the welfare centre are now desperate.
Mr. Minister
This letter is neither to seek vindication nor to inspire pity for assistance. However, we are writing to you to inform you that the dervishes in whose ideology begging is the same as stealing, and who are guided by their elders to have compassion to people, to assist the needy and to respect the rights of others, have suffered a great deal under the government’s security forces pressures and abuse. As if demolishing our centres and closing down the places of Sufi sessions was not enough, they have attacked and closed down Reza’s Welfare Centre in which aid was provided to the people of this country to prevent unemployment and isolation.
Mr. Rabiee’
In the eve of Mola Ali’s birthday you proclaimed that you support whomever adds a brick on another brick because they contribute to society. However, your colleagues in the intelligence and security in the shaky government’s cabinet behave differently. With the closure of Reza Welfare Centre, workers who were actually helping others in this country lost their jobs and it added on the number of needy. Selflessness and needlessness which are a part of Iran’s ancient culture and taught by Islam, instead of encouraging and propagating, you suppress and marginalize. Instead of shaking the helping hands of those who help within their means, you put in handcuffs.
Mr. Minister
Once upon a time, homes in this land were open to the poor and passengers so they had a place to stay at night and something to eat, enjoy the company of other fellow human beings, and not find themselves restricted like slaves. Is this time gone? Why do pessimistic security agents close the doors which were open to do the disabled, elderly, and poor service in a heavy-handed manner? How would a couple of old and lonely men and women threaten the esteemed government and the venerable state?
Dear Dr. Rabi’i,
If God opens a door, no one can close it. We have devoted ourselves to His will and express our requests but to Him. As we did prayers on the debris of our places of worship which were ruined by pessimistic and myopic extremists, we keep open the doors of our hearts’ “welfare center”, which no aggressive bodies can attack. We try our hardest to be as kind to human beings as possible, including our ignorant friends who bear animosity. You, as the minister of Work and Social Welfare, are to know that the security agents have blocked all possible channels of fostering welfare, sympathy, friendship, and brotherhood.
Until your words and speeches are put to practice, you should change the audience of your Friday prayer speech; from the oppressed to those who impede peace and brotherhood, those who, instead of giving a hand to the underprivileged and disadvantaged, arrest those who help the poor.