TEHRAN -- Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Saturday issued a condolence message, addressed to the family and relatives of Dr. Yadollah Sahabi who died on Friday.

The full text of Leader's condolence message received here at IRNA late Saturday night is as follows:

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate the Merciful

I console all the esteemed children and the whole family of the late noble Dr. Yadollah Sahabi, on the occasion of his demise.

That old scientific, cultural and political personality spent long years of his prolific life painstakingly, perseveringly and faithfully in the path of realization of what he believed in.

His main efforts were aimed, firstly at annihilation of the erroneous accusation that religion and sciences are two contradictory subjects, that was propagated by certain figures with diverted temptations, repeatedly. He also opposed the idea that propagated secularism.

During some chapters of that consecutive, long and holy struggle, he resorted to cultural methods as his means, and during other chapters, to political maneuvers.

The years he spent in prison of the despotic Iranian monarchy, was the expense he paid for those valuable deeds.

The late Dr. Sahabi had a pious, truthful, and resistant personality and was gifted also with high spirits.

During the era of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after the period when he got out of the executive and law making bodies, his differences of opinion with some official authorities did not push him into the realms of injustice or spiteful deeds.

He was a pious, acting Muslim, and his righteous deeds were based on his beliefs.

I pray to exalted Allah to embrace his soul in His endless blessings most generously, and to make the sphere in which he dwells now, an era of relaxation and being emerged in Allah's forgiveness by His utmost generosity and benevolence;

Seyed Ali Khamenei

Hundreds of people attended the funeral procession held for Yadollah Sahabi, a senior member and co-founder of the now-banned Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI), on Sunday morning.

According to the report, some 2,000 people including a great number of university students participated in the funeral cortege of the 96-year old activist at Tehran University Campus.

After the funeral ceremony, the body of late Sahabi was delivered to Emamzadeh Abdollah Cemetery, in south Tehran to be buried.