Featured
Today
Browse
Authors
Topics

Ruhollah Khomeini

Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (21 September1902 – 3 June 1989) Iranian Islamic cleric, the political and religious leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. He is often referred to as the Imam Khomeini.

Sourced

  • Islam's jihad is a struggle against idolatry, sexual deviations, plunder, repression, and cruelty. The war waged by [non-Muslim] conquerors, however, aims at promoting lust and animal pleasures. They care not if whole countries are wiped out and many families left homeless. But those who study jihad will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. All the countries conquered by Islam or to be conquered in the future will be marked for everlasting salvation. For they shall live under [God's law].
    • "Islam Is Not a Religion of Pacifists" (1942), English translation in Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East (2002) by Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin, pp. 29, 32-36

  • If the religious leaders have influence, they will not permit girls and boys to wrestle together, as recently happened in Shiraz.
    • Denouncing the situation that sex segregation was not being imposed by the government.

  • The people will not rest until the Pahlavi rule has been swept away and all traces of tyranny have disappeared. As long as the Shah's satanic power prevails, not a single true representative of the people can possibly be elected.
    • Response to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's announcement of elections (August 1978); quoted in "The Shah's Divided Land" (18 September 1978) Time

  • Women are free in the Islamic Republic in the selection of their activities and their future and their clothing.
    • Interview for The Guardian in Paris (6 November 1978)


  • Personal desire, age, and my health do not allow me to personally have a role in running the country after the fall of the current system.
    • Associated Press interview in Paris (7 November 1978); repeated on several occasions before Khomeini returned to Iran

  • In Iran's future Islamic system everyone can express their opinion, and the Islamic government will respond to logic with logic.
    • Speech (9 November 1978), as quoted in The Most Truthful Individual in Recent History" in Iranshenasi, Vol. XIV, No. 4 (Winter 2003), as translated by Farhad Mafie

  • In the Islamic government all people have complete freedom to have any kind of opinion.
    • Interview with Human Rights Watch, Paris (10 November 1978)

  • After the Shah's departure from Iran, I will not become a president nor accept any other leadership role. Just like before, I limit my activities only to guiding and directing the people.
    • Le Monde interview in Paris (9 January 1979)

  • Ayatollah, would you be so kind as to tell us how you feel about being back in Iran?
    Nothing. I don't feel anything. (Hichi. Hich ehsasi nadaram)
    • Exchange between American reporter Peter Jennings and Khomeini (1 February 1979), during Khomeini's return flight to Iran; quoted in Elaine Sciolino (2001) Persian Mirrors. Khomeini's translator did not translate his response, but said only that he had no comment.

  • These people are trying to bring back the regime of the late Shah or another regime. I will strike with my fists at the mouths of this government. From now on it is I who will name the government.
  • (alternately) I shall kick their teeth in. I am appointing the government. I am appointing the government by the support of this nation!
    • Speech at Behesht Zahra cemetery (1 February 1979), condemning the government of Shapour Bakhtiar

  • 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.
    • Remarks to students and educators in Qom (13 March 1979)

  • There is no room for play in Islam ... It is deadly serious about everything.
    • Speech in Qum, as quoted in
    • Quoted in
      • We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.
        • Speech in Qom 1980, as quoted in Nest of Spies : America's Journey to Disaster in Iran (1989) by Amir Taheri, p. 269

      • If one permits an infidel to continue in his role as a corrupter of the earth, the infidel's moral suffering will be all the worse. If one kills the infidel, and this stops him from perpetrating his misdeeds, his death will be a blessing to him.
        • Speech on the day of Mohammed's birth (1984)

      • …the author of The Satanic Verses book which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Qu'ran, and all involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them wherever they find them, so that no one will dare to insult the Islamic sanctions. Whoever is killed on this path will be regarded as a martyr, God willing.
        • Fatwa against Salman Rushdie (14 February 1989)

      • All those against the revolution must disappear and quickly be executed.
        • As quoted by dissident cleric Hossein-Ali Montazeri, once in line to be Iran's supreme leader. ShiaNews.com (17 December 2000). This statement is said to have been made after the Mojahedin-e Khalgh militant organization launched an offensive against Iranian troops from bases in Iraq. There have been heavy disputes on the real position of Khomeini about this, and some people think that some of his orders were not done the way he wanted, or were misunderstood. Others claim that by keeping the people who did so in power, he was approving their actions.
        • Variant: All those against the revolution, that insist on their position, must disappear and quickly be executed.

      • This regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.

      • In the world there is no democracy better than our democracy. Such a thing has never before been seen.
        • Clive Foss, The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption, London: Quercus Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1905204965, p. 195


      • When anyone studies a little or pays a little attention to the rules of Islamic government, Islamic politics, Islamic society and Islamic economy he will realize that Islam is a very political religion. Anyone who will say that religion is separate from politics is a fool; he does not know Islam or politics.
        • Tahrīr al-Wasīla vol. 1

      Quotes about Khomeini

      Alphabetically by author
      • The freedom-lovers of the world mourn the sad demise of Imam Khomeini.
        • Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan combatant, scholar, poet, and liberation theologian

      • 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 in his Diary (6 November 1979), as quoted in Keeping Faith : Memoirs of A President (1982) p. 458

      • The name of Khomeini will always remain in the new chapter of Iranian history.
        • Erich Honecker, East German Communist Leader

      • 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

      • Imam Khomeini and the Iranian nation performed a great historical act. In my opinion, as a western and non-Muslim person, I believe, it is a miracle that a divine revolution in today's world takes place in such a manner.
        • Robert Kalson, Canadian scientist

      • Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion ... faith in the power of words.
        • Norman Mailer, at a meeting of authors regarding the fatwa against Salman Rushdie , New York City, (February 1989)

      • I thought using the Ayatollah's money to support the Nicaraguan resistance was a neat idea.
        • Oliver North


      • Since Khomeini's death, the popular appeal of an Islamic state — and of fundamentalism — has surely dimmed. Thinkers still debate and warriors kill, but no country seems prepared to emulate Iran. Perhaps revolutions happen only under majestic leaders, and no one like Khomeini has since appeared.

      • The Islamic Revolution of Iran is honourable for it is the cry which has its origin in Ayatollah Khomeini's conscience.
        • William Wersey, American author and journalist

      Video clips

 
Quoternity
SilverdaleInteractive.com © 2024. All rights reserved.