GRAND AYATOLLAH RUHOLLAH KHOMEINI

THE SPIRIT OF GOD

People believe that when dust goes down

When guns are silenced and children play with joy

...that would be the day of peace,

But when asked Imam Khomeini, he said:

"When oppressed people rise together against oppression, the days of peace are very near".

"I am surrounded by forces and the sound of shattering of communism is all what I hear.

Today I wish that I would have heard the old man who sits on the ground of his simple house and serves nothing by tea to his guests".

Gorbachev (President of the Soviet Union)

Prophet's (PBUH) words echoed again when Imam Khomeini said:

"If they place the East on my right and West on my left and open the treasures of this world for me, by Allah, Khomeini would not accept silence".

In a world that saw the likes of men such as Abraham Lincoln, Lenin, Churchill, Hilter, and Mussolini; also glimpsing over Abdul Nasser, Nehru, Castro and Che Guevara; Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was different, he led the only Islamic revolution in the 20th century that was destined to succeed. He was not a Communist, Capitalist or Nationalist, rather he was an Islamic Leader before anything else, his slogan was 'No East and no West, Islam is for us'.

More than 100 years have passed since the birth of Imam Khomeini. In this time, his name has spread far and wide amongst peoples mindsets for his leadership in a revolution that was the first to bring an Islamic government in the 20th century and arguably since the early advent of Islam 1400 years ago. It would seem his character as a revolutionary was the most known factor in his personality, whilst other aspects did not attain as much emphasis. Imam Khomeini is known amongst Islamic circles as a reforming jurist, and through his movement he was able to revolt against 1400 years of a tendecy for Jurists of Islam to abstain from political activism, as opposed to dealing soley with religious enquiries, distributing finances and awaiting the return of the Saviour (atf). Imam Khomeini revived the importance of one of the disputed jurisprudential theories in the history of the Islamic Seminaries - Wilayat Al-Faqih; the theory which invests power in the Islamic jurists defining them as guardians of the affairs of the people, and scraping the idea that political affairs can be administered without the acceptance of Islamic Jurists. Imam Khomeini abolished unequivocally any idea of separating Religion and State, such that it has become unacceptable in today's world for Islamic Jurists not to partake in giving guidelines in the political affairs of the people.

Imam Khomeini succeeded where many others failed, such that for the first time in almost 1300 years, since the occultation of Imam Mahdi, the 12th Imam of Shi'a Islam, Imam Khomeini through the concept of Wilayat Al-Faqih was able to establish a government led by the Islamic jurists - it is the Islamic Government, the Government which was a dream. A Government which Islamists have tried to establish for centuries. This government is but the biggest heritage and achievement of Imam Khomeini. Source: www.www.aimislam.com

Relevant links:

	Imam Khomeini Documentary 'Ruhollah' with English Subtitles   Ten part documentary series depicting the life of Ayatullah Khomeini		TIME Magazine 100 Leaders & Revolutionaries Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini Brazenly defying the West, he revived Islam's faithful and authored a new form of religious government. By MILTON VIORST
	Imam Khomeini: A Short Biography "..the pre-eminent figure of recent Islamic history...and helped to transform the worldview and consciousness of many Muslims" By: Hamid Algar		Rays of the Sun: 83 Stories from the Life of Imam Khomeini (ra) "With the demise of Imam Khomeini on June 4rd, 1989, the world lost a great revolutionary and an unparalleled leader who awakened the Muslims..."

Ayatullah Khomeini's Childhood:

Rouhollah Mousavi Khomeini was born on 24 September 1902 (20 Jamadi al-Akhir 1320), the anniversary of the birth of Hazrat Fatima, in the small town of Khomein, some 160 kilometres to the southwest of Qom. He was the child of a family with a long tradition of religious scholarship. His ancestors, descendants of Imam Mousa al-Kazim, the seventh Imam of the Ahl al-Bayt, had migrated towards the end of the eighteenth century from their original home in Neishapour (in Khorasan province of Iran) to the Lucknow region of northern India. There they settled and began devoting themselves to the religious instruction and guidance of the region's predominantly Shi'i population.

Khomeini's grandfather, Seyed Ahmad, left Lucknow (according to a statement of Khomeini's elder brother, Seyed Morteza Pasandideh, his point of departure was Kashmir, not Lucknow) some time in the middle of the nineteenth century on pilgrimage to the tomb of Hazrat 'Ali in Najaf. While in Najaf, Seyed Ahmad met Yousef Khan, a prominent citizen of Khomein. Accepting his invitation, he decided to settle in Khomein to assume responsibility for the religious needs of its citizens and also took Yousef Khan's daughter in marriage.

Seyed Ahmad, by the time of death, the date of which is unknown, had two children: a daughter by the name of Sahiba, and Seyed Moustafa Hindi, born in 1865, the father of Khomeini. Seyed Moustafa began his religious education in Esfahan and continued his advanced studies in Najaf and Samarra (this corresponded to a pattern of preliminary study in Iran followed by advanced study in the "Atabat", the shrine cities of Iraq; Ayatollah Khomeini was in fact the first religious leader of prominence whose formation took place entirely in Iran). After accomplishing his advanced studies he returned to Khomein, and then married with Hajar (mother of Rouhollah Khomeini).

In March 1903, Khomeini when was just 5 months old lost his father. And in 1918, Khomeini lost both his aunt, Sahiba, who had played a great role in his early upbringing, and his mother, Hajar. Responsibility for the family then devolved on his eldest brother, Seyed Mourteza (later to be known as Ayatollah Pasandideh).

Khomeini began his education by memorizing the Quran at a maktab (traditional religious school). In 1920-21, Seyed Mourteza sent the Rouhollah Khomeini to the city of Arak (or Sultanabad, as it was then known) in order for him to benefit from the more ample educational resources available there.

In 1923, Khomeini arrived in Qom and devoted himself to completing the preliminary stage of madreseh (school or academy) education.

Ayatollah Khomeini, on June 4, 1989, after eleven days in hospital for an operation to stop internal bleeding, lapsed into a critical condition and died.

Source: http://www.iranchamber.com

For more details please read the following book: Imam Khomeini: A Short Biography                                 Young Rouhollah Khomeini