Astan Quds Razavi; Complex Assets, Unclear Auditing

Astan Quds Razavi is the largest religious foundation and one of the biggest economic entities in Iran. The economic activities of this institution, like those of any other organization, are not only not bad, but would also be commendable if they improved the production and lives of the people. However, this is not the case. Astan Quds forcibly sidelines rival entrepreneurs, seizes monopolistic privileges, does not provide reports on profits and losses, and does not pay taxes, thereby harming the foundation of the national economy and the work and lives of the people. The latest parliamentary resolution, awaiting the Guardian Council's opinion, obliges this institution, alongside several others, to pay taxes unless they have a "clear permission" from the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic for tax exemption. The intimidating sanctity of the Imam Reza shrine, the backing of political power, the complexity of the assets, and unclear auditing make it difficult to estimate the wealth of Astan Quds Razavi. Although everyone knows that Astan has a lot of wealth, few know to what extent. Nevertheless, there is enough data to provide a picture of the wealth of Astan Quds Razavi. The structure of this article follows this outline. First, we will tell the story of the Imam Reza shrine. Then we will explore the assets and income of Astan Quds. In the third section, we will address the expenses, and in the fourth section, we will report on the corruption associated with Astan Quds Razavi. Ali ibn Musa, known as Reza, is the only Shia Imam buried in Iran. He was born in 765 AD in Medina, Arabia, and at the age of 35 succeeded his father, Musa Kazim, serving as Imam for 17 years in Medina until he was invited by the Abbasid Caliph Mamun to move to Tus, Khorasan, to become his crown prince in 815 AD. However, after two years and four months of being crown prince, he was reportedly poisoned by Mamun's order (817 AD) and buried next to the grave of the Abbasid Caliph Harun. From then on, the city of Tus was called Mashhad al-Reza (the place of Reza's martyrdom) and gradually just Mashhad. The first tomb of Imam Reza is at the same site as Harun al-Rashid's shrine. Sultan Sanjar Seljuk built a tiled dome for it, and the Safavids gilded it. This continued until the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, during which Abdolazim Valian, the governor of Khorasan and deputy custodian of Astan Quds Razavi, expanded the shrine and renovated the golden dome. The latest parliamentary resolution, awaiting the Guardian Council's opinion, obliges this institution, alongside several others, to pay taxes unless they have a "clear permission" from the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic for tax exemption. The intimidating sanctity of the Imam Reza shrine, the backing of political power, the complexity of the assets, and unclear auditing make it difficult to estimate the wealth of Astan Quds Razavi. Although everyone knows that Astan has a lot of wealth, few know to what extent. Nevertheless, there is enough data to provide a picture of the wealth of Astan Quds Razavi. The structure of this article follows this outline. First, we will tell the story of the Imam Reza shrine. Then we will explore the assets and income of Astan Quds. In the third section, we will address the expenses, and in the fourth section, we will report on the corruption associated with Astan Quds Razavi. Ali ibn Musa, known as Reza, is the only Shia Imam buried in Iran. He was born in 765 AD in Medina, Arabia, and at the age of 35 succeeded his father, Musa Kazim, serving as Imam for 17 years in Medina until he was invited by the Abbasid Caliph Mamun to move to Tus, Khorasan, to become his crown prince in 815 AD. However, after two years and four months of being crown prince, he was reportedly poisoned by Mamun's order (817 AD) and buried next to the grave of the Abbasid Caliph Harun. From then on, the city of Tus was called Mashhad al-Reza (the place of Reza's martyrdom) and gradually just Mashhad. The first tomb of Imam Reza is at the same site as Harun al-Rashid's shrine. Sultan Sanjar Seljuk built a tiled dome for it, and the Safavids gilded it. This continued until the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, during which Abdolazim Valian, the governor of Khorasan and deputy custodian of Astan Quds Razavi, expanded the shrine and renovated the golden dome. The lifespan of Astan Quds Razavi thus exceeds 1200 years, but its custodianship has been shorter. It seems that the tradition of appointing a custodian for the shrine began during the Safavid era. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini entrusted the custodianship to Abbas Vaez Tabasi. He participated in the founding of the Revolutionary Committee and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Khorasan. He also had a prominent presence in the Assembly of Experts for the Constitution in 1979 and the Assembly of Leadership Experts in 1987, 1993, 1999, and 2005, and by the decree of Ayatollah Khamenei, in addition to representing the Supreme Leader in Khorasan Province, he became a member of the Expediency Discernment Council in 1996. With such powerful political leverage, Ayatollah Tabasi gained many economic privileges by sidelining competition, thus making Astan Quds one of the largest economic forces in the country and even in the Middle East. When Vaez Tabasi passed away, Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi was appointed by the Supreme Leader as his successor in the custodianship of Astan Quds in 2015. His record also reflects the political leverage he holds. He began as the prosecutor of Karaj and Hamadan at the age of 20 and continued with the deputy prosecutor of Tehran during the mass executions of prisoners in the summer of 1988, presidency of the General Inspection Organization, the Attorney General of the country, special prosecutor for the clergy, membership in the board of the Assembly of Experts, and custodianship of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine until he became the custodian of Astan Quds in March 2016. The assets of Astan Quds Razavi. When Vaez Tabasi passed away, Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi was appointed by the Supreme Leader as his successor in the custodianship of Astan Quds in 2015. His record also reflects the political leverage he holds. He began as the prosecutor of Karaj and Hamadan at the age of 20 and continued with the deputy prosecutor of Tehran during the mass executions of prisoners in the summer of 1988, presidency of the General Inspection Organization, the Attorney General of the country, special prosecutor for the clergy, membership in the board of the Assembly of Experts, and custodianship of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine until he became the custodian of Astan Quds in March 2016. Many Imamzadehs such as Shah Abdolazim, Hazrat Masoumeh, Shah Cheragh, and especially Imam Reza have a lot of land and buildings in trust. In jurisprudential terms, a waqf is the endowment of land and property for charitable purposes. Thus, the endower (the custodian of the waqf) builds schools, clinics, shrines, caravanserais, and guesthouses to assist the needy and destitute. No waqf can be sold. Therefore, the holdings of waqfs always accumulate. Waqfs can be movable (manuscripts, jewels, etc.) and immovable (land, gardens, buildings, etc.) and income-generating (shops) and cost-bearing (schools, hospitals). Waqfs cannot be revoked. Therefore, the custodianship (tawlit) of managing waqfs is eternal and, in many cases, hereditary unless one of the parties breaks the covenant or exits Islam. The assets of Astan are mostly land and buildings that believers have endowed to Imam Reza by their own choice. Astan Quds has land and water throughout Iran, not just in Khorasan. It seems that more than 43% of the area of the 31,000-hectare city of Mashhad is endowed to the Reza shrine. However, Astan Razavi has forcibly acquired many lands in Sarakhs, Ziaran of Qazvin, and Abik of Tehran. Citizens of Sarakhs protested several times between 2009 and 2013 against the confiscation of lands in the region by Astan Quds Razavi in front of government offices. However, despite the issuance of a court ruling, the Sarakhs registration office refused to issue ownership documents in the name of its citizens. Citizens also protested against the ownership of lands in Abik by Astan Quds Razavi, but the court ultimately ruled in favor of Astan. It is worth mentioning that Ayatollah Khomeini supported Abbas Vaez Tabasi, the then custodian of Astan, with decrees while he was alive. Based on estimates, Astan Quds' wealth at the beginning of the 2000s was over $15 billion and more than that was estimated. This was the story of the assets. However, to understand the nature and mechanism of wealth accumulation of Astan Quds Razavi, one must distinguish between assets and revenues. Revenues of Astan Quds Razavi. The custodian of Astan Quds does not own the waqfs, but by renting and utilizing them, he generates substantial income. It seems that Astan has 320,000 tenants throughout Iran. Besides rent, pilgrimage, vows, charity, and donations are other sources of income for Astan. Pilgrimage is the sustainable income of the Imam Reza shrine. 20 million pilgrims annually spend on tourism, hotels, restaurants, and shops, most of which are dependent on the shrine and thus generate income for Astan. The vows and donations from believers to the eighth Imam are also significant sources of income for Astan Razavi, ranging from cash and gold and jewels to livestock and food and even cars and motorcycles. No one accurately knows the monetary value of vows and donations. However, if we assume the average value of each pilgrim's vow is only $10, then Astan Quds' income from vows would reach $200 million a year. Perhaps the estimate of $10 is less than reality, as livestock, cars, and jewels are also among the donations. In addition to rental, pilgrimage, vows, and donations, Astan Quds Razavi also established the "Razavi Economic Organization" in 2004 to manage other exclusive money-making activities. The "Razavi Economic Organization" has been able to acquire large government projects away from competition due to its religious and political power. It seems that the Razavi Oil and Gas Development Company was one of the first non-governmental companies to receive a quota for crude oil sales from the Iranian Oil Trading Company at the end of 2010 and then a quota for purchasing crude oil from the National Iranian Oil Company. The Razavi Oil and Gas Company is also active in producing liquefied gas (LPG) and super gasoline in the Sarakhs Special Economic Zone. In November 2016, the Khorasan Razavi governorate granted five large construction projects to Astan Quds without holding a tender or auction based on a mutual agreement: transferring water from the Oman Sea to the three provinces of Khorasan Razavi, Khorasan South, and Sistan and Baluchestan, the Mashhad-Zahidan railway, the Mashhad-Gorgan railway, the Mashhad-Chenaran-Quchan highway, and the allocation of five hectares of land for the construction of a 540-bed hospital. The "Makaseb" story is another sign of Astan Quds' rent-seeking economic power, which caused a lot of noise in its time. The story was that the National Bank of Iran established a company named Al-Makaseb in Dubai in 1984. The Special Economic Zone of Sarakhs, affiliated with Astan Quds Razavi, bought about 50% of the shares of this company, and several commanders of the IRGC and high-ranking security officials also bought shares in this company. After a while, Nasser Vaez Tabasi, the son of Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabasi, the then custodian of Astan Quds and executive manager of economic and infrastructure affairs in the Sarakhs Free Zone, decided to pledge Astan Quds' share in this company to the National Bank and 30 million.