Draft:The Forty Day Cycle in the 1979 Islamic Revolution

In Shi'ism, it is customary for mourning rituals to be held on the fortieth day after the deceased's passing. Arba'in marks the fortieth day after Ashura, which marks the killing of Husayn.

Commemorations on the forty day anniversaries of the deaths of important figures became politicized in the years leading up to and during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Mourning rituals, along with prayer meetings and holy day observances, were ways in which religion became something for a mass movement to be built around.

Examples
The burial of ideologue Ali Shariati  in 1977 was officiated by cleric Musa Sadr. Forty days later, Sadr held a memorial service for Shariati in Beirut, where cleric Mohammad Montazeri pressured him to put up a portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

When Khomeini's eldest son, Mostafa Khomeini, died unexpectedly in exile in October 1977, Islamist supporters of Khomeini spent weeks spreading awareness to Qom seminary students. On the fortieth day after Mostafa's passing, speakers gave explicitly political speeches, including a fourteen-point resolution which called for Khomeini's return, the release of political prisoners, the protection of free speech, and the return of the Islamic calendar, among other points.

On the fortieth day of mourning for the demonstrators killed on January 9, 1978 in Qom, the deceased were commemorated with public ceremonies, which led to further protests and more killings in Tabriz on February 18. This in turn led to more ceremonies and protests in Yazd and subsequent martyrs from March 28 to March 31. These killings, too, were commemorated, leading to protests and killings in Qom from May 6 to May 11.