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Ruhollah Khomeini: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was born on the 17th of May 1900 in the small town of Khomeyn, located in what is now Iran's Markazi province, into a family of clerics and merchants who had migrated from Nishapur in northeastern Iran to the Kingdom of Awadh in India before settling in Khomeyn in 1839. His father, Mustafa Musawi, was murdered when Ruhollah was only two years old, leaving the boy to be raised by his mother, Agha Khanum, and his aunt, Sahebeth. This early trauma shaped a life of religious devotion, as he began studying the Quran and Arabic at the age of six, assisted by relatives including his mother's cousin, Ja'far, and his elder half-brother, Morteza Pasandideh, who would later become a cleric and poet himself. The family name Khomeini was actually a pen name adopted by his grandfather, Mirza Ahmad Mojtahed-e Khonsari, who had been known as Hindi due to his time in India, a name that Ruhollah would occasionally use in his own ghazals, linking his identity to a lineage of scholars who had fled British influence in the 19th century. By the time he was a teenager, Khomeini had already developed a deep interest in poetry and philosophy, composing mystic and political verses that would later be published in collections such as The Confidant and The Decanter of Love, demonstrating an intellectual range that extended far beyond the typical curriculum of a religious seminary.
The Scholar Who Defied Kings
In 1920, at the age of 20, Ruhollah Khomeini moved to the holy city of Qom to study under Ayatollah Abdolkarim Haeri Yazdi, a decision that would set him on a path to becoming one of the most influential Shia clerics of the 20th century. His education was not limited to Islamic law and jurisprudence; he also pursued philosophy and mysticism, studying under teachers like Mirza Ali Akbar Yazdi and later Mohammad Ali Shah Abadi, while drawing inspiration from historic Sufi mystics such as Mulla Sadra and Ibn Arabi. By 1928, he had published his first book, Sharh Du'a al-Sahar, a detailed commentary on a prayer recited before dawn during Ramadan, and followed it with Sirr al-Salat, a work that explored the symbolic dimensions of prayer and established him as a spiritual elite among his peers. His teaching career began at the age of 27, when he started giving private lessons on irfan and Mulla Sadra to a select circle of students, many of whom would later become leading Islamic philosophers, including Morteza Motahhari. Khomeini's early political activism emerged in the 1940s when he published Kashf al-Asrar, a book that refuted secularist ideas and condemned innovations such as the banning of the hijab by Reza Shah, whom he blamed for his father's murder. This work marked the beginning of his public opposition to secular rule, a stance that would eventually lead him to challenge the very foundations of the Pahlavi dynasty.
When was Ruhollah Khomeini born and where was he born?
Ruhollah Khomeini was born on the 17th of May 1900 in the small town of Khomeyn, located in what is now Iran's Markazi province. He was born into a family of clerics and merchants who had migrated from Nishapur in northeastern Iran to the Kingdom of Awadh in India before settling in Khomeyn in 1839.
What political theory did Ruhollah Khomeini develop during his exile in Iraq?
During his 14 years in exile, Ruhollah Khomeini developed a political theory known as Velayat-e Faqih, or the Guardianship of the Jurist. This theory argued that Islamic law should be the sole basis of governance and that the ruler of an Islamic state must be a faqih, a jurist who surpasses all others in knowledge of Islamic law and justice.
When did Ruhollah Khomeini die and how many people attended his funeral?
Ruhollah Khomeini died on the 3rd of June 1989 after suffering five heart attacks in ten days. The funeral was attended by up to 10 million people, one fifth of Iran's population, and is considered the second-largest funeral in history.
What fatwa did Ruhollah Khomeini issue in 1989 regarding Salman Rushdie?
In early 1989, Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, an India-born British author whose novel The Satanic Verses was alleged to commit blasphemy against Islam. The fatwa required not only Rushdie's execution but also the killing of all those involved in the publication of the book.
Who succeeded Ruhollah Khomeini as Supreme Leader of Iran?
Ali Khamenei was elected Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts on the 4th of June 1989, succeeding Ruhollah Khomeini. Khamenei was designated as successor after Khomeini removed the requirement that the Supreme Leader be a Marja, allowing a jurist with suitable revolutionary credentials but lacking scholarly ones to take the position.
On the 4th of November 1964, Khomeini was expelled from Iran after denouncing the Shah's capitulation law, which granted diplomatic immunity to American military personnel in Iran, a move he labeled as a capitulation to foreign powers. He was first sent to Turkey, where he stayed in Bursa in the home of Colonel Ali Cetiner of the Turkish Military Intelligence, before being allowed to move to Najaf, Iraq, in October 1965, where he remained until 1978 when he was expelled by then-Vice President Saddam Hussein. During his 14 years in exile, Khomeini developed a political theory known as Velayat-e Faqih, or the Guardianship of the Jurist, which argued that Islamic law should be the sole basis of governance and that the ruler of an Islamic state must be a faqih, a jurist who surpasses all others in knowledge of Islamic law and justice. This theory, which he first outlined in a series of lectures in Najaf in 1970 and later published as Islamic Government, was kept from the public eye until the revolution, as Khomeini feared it would alienate secular allies. Despite his distance from Iran, he became the most influential leader of the opposition to the Shah, using cassette tapes of his lectures to spread his message across the country, with one source claiming that over 100,000 copies of these tapes were in circulation. His return to Iran on the 1st of February 1979 was met by a crowd of up to five million people, and his famous response to a journalist's question about how he felt about being back was simply
The Architect Of A Theocracy
Upon returning to Iran, Khomeini immediately began to consolidate power, appointing his own interim prime minister, Mehdi Bazargan, and declaring that disobedience to him or Bazargan was a revolt against God. He moved quickly to suppress opposition, establishing Islamic Revolutionary courts, replacing the military and police forces, and placing top theologians in charge of writing a theocratic constitution that enshrined the principle of Velayat-e Faqih. The new constitution, adopted by national referendum in November 1979, created the position of Supreme Leader, which Khomeini himself assumed, officially becoming known as the Leader of the Revolution. He also began to purge his former allies, including the National Democratic Front and the Provisional Government, and neutralized or punished top theologians whose ideas conflicted with his own, such as Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari and Hossein Ali Montazeri. The Iran-Iraq War, which began in September 1980, further solidified his power, as he refused an Iraqi offer of a truce and instead demanded reparations and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. During the war, Khomeini promised that those who died in battle would automatically go to paradise, a message that encouraged the use of human wave attacks, including child soldiers, and led to the emigration of two to four million Iranians, including entrepreneurs, professionals, and skilled craftspeople. The war, which cost Iran between 450,000 and 950,000 casualties and US$300 billion, ended in August 1988, but Khomeini insisted that extending the war had not been a mistake, stating in a letter to clergy that they did not repent for their performance during the war.
The Fatwa And The Fury
In early 1989, Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, an India-born British author whose novel The Satanic Verses was alleged to commit blasphemy against Islam. The fatwa required not only Rushdie's execution but also the killing of all those involved in the publication of the book, a ruling that was condemned across the Western world for violating universal human rights of free speech and freedom of religion. The fatwa led to a number of killings and attempted killings, including the stabbing death of Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of the book, in 1991, and multiple attempts on Rushdie's life, the last of which occurred in August 2022. The fatwa also coincided with a surge in sales for Rushdie's work, and it became a symbol of the global clash between religious orthodoxy and secular values. In the same year, Khomeini also issued orders for the execution of thousands of political prisoners, including members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, in what has been described as a genocide of Iran's political and religious minorities. These executions, which took place between 1981 and 1985, and again in 1988, involved the loading of prisoners into forklift trucks in groups of six and hanging them from cranes in half-hour intervals, a method that has been documented by journalists and human rights organizations. The fatwa and the executions marked a turning point in Khomeini's legacy, as they demonstrated the extent of his willingness to use violence to enforce his vision of an Islamic state.
The Death Of A Saint
Ruhollah Khomeini died on the 3rd of June 1989 after suffering five heart attacks in ten days, following an eleven-day stay in Jamaran hospital. His death was mourned by large numbers of Iranians, with at least 10 mourners trampled to death and more than 400 badly hurt in the ensuing pandemonium. The coffin with Khomeini's body was put on display in north Tehran on the 5th of June, allowing hundreds of thousands of mourners to see the body, but the planned funeral procession to the cemetery was impossible because several million mourners had gathered and blocked the streets. The body was eventually flown by helicopter to the cemetery, where the crowd surged past the makeshift barriers and the authorities lost control of the events. A second funeral was held under much tighter security five hours later, with Khomeini's casket made of steel and in accordance with Islamic tradition, the casket was only to carry the body to the burial site. His grave is now housed within a larger mausoleum complex in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, which has become a shrine for his adherents. The funeral, which was attended by up to 10 million people, one fifth of Iran's population, is considered the second-largest funeral in history, and Khomeini is legally considered inviolable inside Iran, with insulting him punishable by imprisonment.
The Successor And The Silence
Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri, a former student of Khomeini and a major figure of the Revolution, was chosen by Khomeini to be his successor as Supreme Leader and approved as such by the Assembly of Experts in November 1985. However, following the execution of thousands of political prisoners and Montazeri's criticism of the regime, Khomeini ousted him in March 1989 from his position as official successor, removing his portraits from offices and mosques. To deal with the disqualification of the only suitable marja, Khomeini called for an Assembly for Revising the Constitution to be convened, and an amendment was made to Iran's constitution removing the requirement that the Supreme Leader be a Marja. This allowed Ali Khamenei, the new favored jurist who had suitable revolutionary credentials but lacked scholarly ones and who was not a Grand Ayatollah, to be designated as successor. Khamenei was elected Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts on the 4th of June 1989, and Montazeri continued his criticism of the regime, eventually being put under house arrest in 1997 for questioning what he regarded to be an unaccountable rule exercised by the supreme leader. The succession process marked the end of Khomeini's direct influence over Iran, but his legacy continued to shape the country's political and religious landscape, with his death anniversary becoming a public holiday and his mausoleum a place of pilgrimage for his followers.