The following is my translation of part of Ayatollah Jannati’s sermon in Tehran Friday Prayers on Friday, March 15, 2013.  The un-named person’s name in his sermon is the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  The sermon is about Ahmadinejad’s funeral message, which in it he claims Hugo Chavez would return to earth along Jesus Christ and the “Perfect Human”, believed to be referring to the Shia Islam’s Twelfth Imam.

"If we were not worried about this issue being repeated again, it would not have been necessary for me to bring it up.  The issue has to do with the message that was dispatched for the occasion of Chavez’s death, which was a trend setting novelty, which is his return to earth with Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him).  I do not know.  I wish the person who wanted to say something would have studied four days, would have gone to the seminary so he would have learned four words, and would have differentiated between rational and traditional issues.  Return is a traditional issue.  It is not a rational issue.  The principle of Return is proven by traditional reasoning.  Who would return?  The transitional reasoning must say so.  Who would not return?  The transitional reasoning has to say so.  If you are asking for Hadith; it is the Quran.  This is not a governmental insignia that whoever wants to, could put it on someone’s chest, and then make scholars upset, make the authorities upset, and make the vulnerable upset.  On what basis can someone say these things!  What is the reason?  Do they have to say everything that comes to their tongue?

Chavez is well-accepted politically, well-validated, well-admired, anti-American, well-liked, his popular and political character is very great; but after all he is a non-Muslim, and even if he were a Muslim; would any and all Muslims return!  Who could dare say who would return, who would not return, and name the ones!  This broadly set a novelty, which I hope won’t be repeated.  I hope they do not again affix this medal on someone else’s chest, and his masters also wanting to come and join Chavez, and things like that.  Really, this is not a right thing to do.  They must think of something to do, and know that the people would be upset.

I’ll move on from this subject..."