The Shi'i discourse on martyrdom changed considerably after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and particularly through the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. As the revolution unfolded, the traditional understanding of Imam Husayn’s martyrdom (680 CE) was read through a revolutionary perspective, and the concept of martyrdom was then transformed into an empowering tool for the Iranian Shi'a. The Islamic Republic’s leaders understood the importance of cultivating a culture of martyrdom among the youth. Therefore, martyrs of the revolution, along with those of the war, were praised as national heroes who sacrificed everything for the sake of the Islamic revolution. However, more-recent waves of sectarian conflict in Iraq and Syria have triggered yet another interesting turning point in the way that martyrdom is understood among the Shi'a. The Iran-led Shi'a coalition’s decisive and successful involvement in the regional sectarian conflicts in Iraq and Syria (leading to the de-facto defeat of ISIS and their fellow Salafi jihadists) symbolized this turning point. The new martyrs, known as martyred Shrine Defenders (mudafi'an-i haram), go beyond national heroes. While the Iranian Shi'a fighters and martyrs of the eight-year war with Iraq exemplified those who fought and martyred alongside Husayn in Karbala, the Shrine defenders saw themselves more like the soldiers of al-Mahdi. They acted from a position of power and assumed the same kind of responsibility that al-Mahdi is supposed to have with his promised return, i.e., avenging the blood of Husayn, restoring the legacy of the Prophet and the Imams, and making the wrongs right. With regard to Iran’s post-war period, and particularly the ongoing sectarian tensions in the region, my argument in this paper is that fighting and dying for the protection of Shi'i Shrines in Syria and Iraq heralded a new era, a kind of transition from the practice of intizar (passively awaiting the return of al-Mahdi) to pragmatic messianism. In other words, martyrdom in the form of the Iranian brand of Twelver Shi'ism is now fully understandable in terms of sacrifice for the sake of the already ongoing de-facto cosmic battle between the party of God (Hizbullah) and the forces of Satan.