Background

Sayyid Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini was born around 1900. His first name, Ruhollah, means "The Spirit of God," and is a common name in the Shiite branch of Islam. Islam is the religion of the Muslims, and Shiites are members of the branch of Islam that regard Ali, one of the Prophet Muhammad's sons, as the Prophet's legitimate successor. Most Shiites live in Iran.

Khomeini was born in a poor and rural area of Persia (which changed its name to Iran in 1935), about 180 miles southwest of Tehran, the country's capital. He was the youngest of six children. His father, Mustapha Musavi, was the mullah (religious leader) of several towns, including that of Khomein - the birthplace from which the child took his name. Khomeini descended from a long line of religious leaders: his grandfather and brother were both ayatollahs, high-ranking Shiite religious and political leaders who are regarded as authorities on religious law. Most of his childhood was spent discussing religion or reading the Koran, the holy book of Islam. His mother, Hajar, also came from an important religious family. She was the daughter of Ayatollah Mirza Ahmad, a famous religious scholar from Najaf, Iraq, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.

When Khomeini was just a few months old, his father was brutally murdered and his mother, a deeply religious woman, was left to care for all six children. Tragically, she died when Khomeini was just fifteen years old, after which his brothers and sisters were left to care for him.

Education

As a young boy, Khomeini was lively, strong, and good at sports. He was even considered the leapfrog champion of his village and the surrounding area. Far from being dedicated only to games, though, Khomeini was also an intellectual. He was known for his great ability at memorizing both religious and classical poetry, and also excelled at his studies at the local maktab, a school dedicated to teaching the Qu'ran.

Because of his scholarly success, Khomeini's older brother decided to send him to the city of Arak (or Sultanabad) in 1920. There, Khomeini studied with the renowned Islamic scholar Yazdi Ha'iri. Ha'iri left Arak for the city of Qom in 1923, and Khomeini followed. There, he committed all of his efforts to furthering his own religious studies while also becoming a teacher for younger students at Ha'iri's school.

Career

When Ha'iri died in the 1930s, the Ayatollah Boroujerdi succeeded him as the most important Islamic figure in Qom. As a result, Boroujerdi gained Khomeini as a follower. It is interesting to note that both Ha'iri and Boroujerdi believed that religion should not involve itself with government affairs. So, while the leader of Iran, Reza Shah, weakened the powers of religious leaders and promoted a more secularized country, the most powerful religious figures in Iran remained silent and encouraged their followers to do the same.

Moreover, the same deference was encouraged when Reza Shah's son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, turned to the United States for help quelling protests for democratic reforms in Iran's capital, Tehran, in the 1950s. One of those who were muted by the beliefs of the senior religious leaders was Khomeini.

Unable to speak out against what he saw as a country leaving its Islamic roots and values behind, Khomeini turned his efforts toward teaching. He began to cultivate a group of dedicated pupils who became his staunchest supporters during his days as an Islamic revolutionary. On March 31, 1961, Ayatollah Boroujerdi died and Khomeini was in a position to take up the mantle left by the late religious leader. After publishing his writings on Islamic science and doctrines, many Shi'ite Iranians began to see Khomeini as Marja-e Taqlid (a person to be imitated).

In 1962, Khomeini began protesting the intentions of the Shah in earnest. His first act of defiance was to organize the ulama (religious leaders) against a proposed law of the Shah's that would effectively end the requirement for elected officials to be sworn in on the Qu'ran. This action was just the beginning in a long string of events that would change Iranian politics forever.

In June 1963, Khomeini made a speech suggesting that if the Shah did not change the political direction of Iran, the populace would be happy to see him leave the country. As a result, Khomeini was arrested and held in prison. During his incarceration, people took to the streets with cries for his release, and were met by the government with military force. Even so, it was nearly a week before the unrest was resolved. Khomeini was held in prison until April 1964, when he was allowed to return to Qom.

The Shah continued to cultivate close ties with the United States, and to be what Khomeini considered "soft" on Israel. This prompted Khomeini to pronounce his belief that Jews would take over Iran and that the United States considered all Iranians to be little more than enslaved people to America's Western ideals. After delivering another inflammatory speech in the fall of 1964, Khomeini was arrested and deported to Turkey. Prevented by Turkish law from wearing the traditional clothes of a Shi'ite cleric and scholar, Khomeini took up residence in Najaf, Iraq in September 1965. He remained there for 13 years.

During his years in exile, Khomeini developed a theory of what a state founded on Islamic principles and led by the clergy would look like, called Velayat-e faqeeh. He taught his theory at a local Islamic school, mostly to other Iranians. He also began making videotapes of his sermons, which were smuggled into and sold in Iranian bazaars. Through these methods, Khomeini became the accepted leader of the Iranian opposition to the government of the Shah. The opposition was, indeed, picking up steam.

In 1975, crowds gathered for three days at a religious school in Qom and could only be moved by military force. In response, Khomeini released a jubilant statement in support of the protestors. He declared that "freedom and liberation from the bonds of imperialism" was imminent.

More protests occurred in 1978 in Khomeini's defense, and were again put down violently by Iranian government forces. In the wake of these protests, the Shah felt that Khomeini's exile in Iraq was too nearby for comfort. Soon thereafter, Khomeini was confronted by Iraqi soldiers and given a choice: either stay in Iraq and abandon all political activity, or leave the country. He chose the latter. Khomeini moved to Paris, which was to be his last place of residence before his triumphant return to Iran.

During his stay there, he defended himself against critics who accused him of being power-hungry with statements such as, "It is the Iranian people who have to select their own capable and trustworthy individuals and give them the responsibilities. However, personally, I can't accept any special role or responsibility."

The year of his return was 1979, mere months after his move to Paris. Students, the middle-class, self-employed businessmen, and the military all took to the street in protest. The Shah turned to the United States for help, but ultimately had to leave the country himself in the face of the revolution at his doorstep. Despite statements such as the one he made in Paris, Khomeini was widely acknowledged as the new leader of Iran, and came to be known as the Supreme Leader. He returned home to cheering crowds, and began laying the groundwork for the Islamic state he had for so long been imagining.

During this period, he put other clerics to work on writing an Islamic constitution for Iran. He also began iterating more authoritarian sentiments than before: "Don't listen to those who speak of democracy. They all are against Islam. They want to take the nation away from its mission. We will break all the poison pens of those who speak of nationalism, democracy, and such things."

Meanwhile, the Shah needed a place to serve out his exile. It became known that the Shah was ill with cancer. With this in mind, the United States reluctantly allowed the Shah to enter the country. In protest, a group of Iranians seized more than sixty American hostages at the United States Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. Khomeini saw this as a chance to demonstrate the new Iranian defiance of Western influence.

The new Iranian government and the Carter Administration of the United States. entered a standoff in that wouldn't end until after Ronald Reagan's inauguration in late January of 1981, under the pressure of sanctions and oil embargoes imposed by the United States on Iran. This is now known as the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

Moreover, Khomeini believed that the ideas on which the new Iran had been built needed to be, in his words, "exported." Iraq and Iran had long been in territorial dispute over border areas and claims on petroleum reserves. Sensing an opportunity, on September 22, 1980, Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein launched an attack by land and air against Iran. Hussein hoped to catch Iran, weakened by revolution. Though Iraq made some early gains, but June, 1982, the war wore down to a stalemate that lasted another six years. Finally, after hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars were lost, the UN brokered a cease-fire in August, 1988, which both sides accepted. Khomeini called this compromise "more deadly than taking poison."

Khomeini is also well known for releasing a fatwa (a legal document issued by a Muslim cleric) calling for the death of Indian-British author Salman Rushdie for his book The Satanic Verses in 1989. The book is a work of fiction that can be interpreted as depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a false prophet, and casts considerable doubt on many Islamic beliefs.

Shortly after the Rushdie fatwa was declared, the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died, on June 3, 1989. Iran remains a religion-based society, and Khomeini's life's work and decade of rule will no doubt continue to influence the country far into the future.

Achievements

• Ruhollah Khomeini led the revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979 (see Iranian Revolution) and who was Iran’s ultimate political and religious authority for the next 10 years. He established a theocratic rule over Iran. During his early years in power he launched the Cultural Revolution in order to Islamize the whole country.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Khomeini's The Little Green Book

    (The Little Green Book is a collection of fatawah handed d...)

  • Forty Hadiths: An Exposition Of Ethical And Mystical Traditions

    (Imam Khomeini's selection and exposition of Forty ahadith...)

  • Islamic Government

    (This book, Islamic Government, is one of the most influen...)

    1970

Religion

Under Imam Khomeini's rule, Sharia (Islamic law) was introduced, with the Islamic dress code enforced for both men and women. Women had to cover their hair, and men were not allowed to wear shorts.

Life for religious minorities has been mixed under Imam Khomeini and his successors. Shortly after his return from exile in 1979, Imam Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering that the Jewish and other minorities (except Bahai) be treated well. By law, several seats in the Parliament are reserved for minority religions. Imam Khomeini also called for unity between Sunni and Shia Muslims (Sunni Muslims are the largest religious minority in Iran).

Politics

In 1944 Khomeini wrote his first political text, demanding that the Iranian government be Islamicized, or reconstructed to conform more closely with Islamic religious law, or Sharia. The type of Iranian society that Khomeini wished to bring about was one where women covered themselves from head to toe in black gowns and head scarves, and where people were not allowed to gamble, drink alcohol, watch Western films, or buy Western products. He also desired to purge Iran of all of its non-Islamic elements, including members of other religious faiths, such as Jews and Christians. To bring about this revolution, however, he would have to use modern means.

Khomeini first became politically active in 1962. When the White Revolution proclaimed by the Shah's government in Iran called for land reform, nationalization of the forests, the sale of state-owned enterprises to private interests, electoral changes to enfranchise women, profit-sharing in industry, and an anti-illiteracy campaign in the nation's schools. Most of these initiatives were regarded as dangerous, Westernizing trends by traditionalists, especially the powerful and privileged religious scholars (Ulama) who felt keenly threatened. The Ulama instigated anti-government riots throughout the country. They found the White Revolution a sustainable ideological framework to support a particular relation of domination, in this case the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. This was above all a hegemonic project intended to portray the Shah as a revolutionary leader through the utilization of social and historical myths reinterpreted through the prism of contemporary, often conflicting ideological constructs, such as nationalism and modernism.

In January 1963, the Shah announced a six-point program of reform called the White Revolution, an American-inspired package of measures designed to give his regime a liberal and progressive facade. Imam Khomeini summoned a meeting of his colleagues (other Ayatollahs) in Qom to press upon them the necessity of opposing the Shah's plans. Imam Khomeini persuaded the other senior Marjas of Qom to decree a boycott of the referendum that the Shah had planned to obtain the appearance of popular approval for his White Revolution. Imam Khomeini issued on January 22, 1963, a strongly worded declaration denouncing the Shah and his plans. Two days later Shah took armored column to Qom, and he delivered a speech harshly attacking the ''ulama'' as a class. Imam Khomeini continued his denunciation of the Shah's programs, issuing a manifesto that also bore the signatures of eight other senior scholars. In it, he listed the various ways in which the Shah allegedly had violated the Constitution, condemned the spread of moral corruption in the country, and accused the Shah of comprehensive submission to America and Israel. He also decreed that the Nowruz celebrations for the Iranian year 1342 (March 21, 1963) be cancelled as a sign of protest against government policies. In the afternoon of Ashura (June 3, 1963), Imam Khomeini delivered a speech at the Feiziyeh Madreseh seminary in which he drew parallels between Yazid and the Shah and warned the Shah that if he did not change his ways, the day would come when the people would offer up thanks for his departure from the country.

In early 1970 Imam Khomeini gave a lecture series in Najaf on Islamic Government which later was published as a book titled variously Islamic Government or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists (velayat-e faqih). This was his most famous and influential work and laid out his ideas on governance (at that time):

- That the laws of society should be made up only of the laws of God (Sharia), which cover "all human affairs" and "provide instruction and establish norms" for every "topic" in "human life."

- Since Sharia, or Islamic law, is the proper law, those holding government posts should have knowledge of Sharia (Islamic jurists are such people), and that the country's ruler should be a faqih who "surpasses all others in knowledge" of Islamic law and justice, as well as having intelligence and administrative ability. Rule by monarchs and/or assemblies of "those claiming to be representatives of the majority of the people" (i.e. elected parliaments and legislatures) have been proclaimed "wrong" by Islam unless approved by the faqih.

- This system of clerical rule is necessary to prevent injustice: corruption, oppression by the powerful over the poor and weak, innovation and deviation of Islam and Sharia law; and also to destroy anti-Islamic influence and conspiracies by non-Muslim foreign powers.

A modified form of this Velayat-e Faqih system was adopted after Imam Khomeini and his followers took power, and he became the Islamic Republic's first "Guardian" or Grand Leader.

Views

Imam Khomeini intended to reconstruct Muslim unity and solidarity, so he declared the birth week of Prophet of Islam (the week between 12th to 17th of Rabi'al-Awwal in Islamic Hegira calendar) as the Unity Week. Then he declared the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan as the International Day of Quds in 1979.

But because of Islamic ideology of Islamic Republic of Iran, most rulers of other Muslim nations turned against him and supported Iraq in the imposed war against Iran, even though most of Islamic parties and organizations supported his idea.

Shortly after his accession as supreme leader in February 1979, Khomeini imposed capital punishment on homosexuals.

Later in his life, Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (a statement of religious law issued by an Islamic cleric) ordering that all Muslims hunt down and kill author Salman Rushdie (1947–), whose book The Satanic Verses Khomeini considered blasphemous (profane and disrespectful). Rushdie was forced into hiding in London for several years. Khomeini's last important decision was to order a review of his 1979 constitution that had concentrated power in the hands of the executive president. He wanted new rules drafted for the selection of a new president, but his wishes were not carried out.

Quotations: "Only God, the Exalted, is the light; everything else is darkness."

"Apprise your veiled and drooping hearts that the universe, from the highest heavens [ala al-illiyyin] to the lowest in hell [asfal as-safilin], is a manifestation of God, the Blessed and Exalted, and all are in the threshold of His Power."

"Only one party - and that is party of Allah [Hezbollah], party of the underprivileged."

"Islam is the religion of militant individuals who are committed to truth and justice. It is the religion of those who desire freedom and independence. It is the school of those who struggle against imperialism. But the servants of imperialism have presented Islam in a totally different light. They have created in men’s minds a false notion of Islam. The defective version of Islam, which they have presented in the religious teaching institution, is intended to deprive Islam of its vital, revolutionary aspect and to prevent Muslims from arousing themselves in order to gain their freedom, fulfill the ordinances of Islam, and create a government that will secure their happiness and allow them to live lives worthy of human beings."

Personality

Although Khomeini was never described as a brilliant speaker, the passion with which he spoke inspired people to rally around him.

Quotes from others about the person

• "It's almost impossible to deal with a crazy man, except that he does have religious beliefs, and the world of Islam will be damaged if a fanatic like him should commit murder in the name of religion against 60 innocent people." - Jimmy Carter
  
  "Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion … faith in the power of words." - Norman Mailer
  
  "One should express his viewpoint regarding what he performed in his country and in a vast part of the world with great respect and deep thought." - Pope John Paul II

Connections

In 1929, Imam Khomeini married Batol Saqafi Khomeini, the daughter of a cleric in Tehran. They had seven children, though only five survived infancy, 3 daughters and 2 sons. His sons entered into religious life. The elder son, Mostafa, was murdered in 1977 while in exile with his father in Najaf, Iraq and SAVAK (the Imperial-era secret police) was accused of his death by Imam Khomeini. Ahmad Khomeini, the younger son, died in 1995.

Mother:

Hajieh Agha Khanum

Wife:

Batol Saqafi Khomeini

Son:

Mostafa Khomeini

Daughter:

Zahra Mostafavi Khomeini

Daughter:

Farideh Mostafavi Khomeini

Son:

Ahmad Khomeini

teacher:

Hossein Borujerdi

opponent:

Mohammad Pahlavi

Mohammad Pahlavi's regime was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979.

References

• Khomeini: Icon or Iconoclast?
• Ayatollah Khomeini & the Anatomy of the Islamic Revolution in Iran This book attempts to explain how and why Ayatollah Khomeini was able to lead the Iranian people in their successful revolution against the Shah of Iran.