Khomeini, Ruhollah

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Ruhollah Khomeini

BORN: c. 1902 • Khomein, Iran

DIED: June 3, 1989 • Tehran, Iran

Iranian religious cleric, political leader

The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was an Iranian political and spiritual leader who founded the Islamic Republic of Iran. He served as its Supreme Leader until the time of his death. Opposed to Western influence and the secularization (separation of government from direct religious influences) of Iran, Khomeini joined the revolution that deposed the Shah of Iran in 1979. Officially ordained as the Leader of the Revolution, he called for Islamic revolutionaries across the Muslim world to follow Iran's example. The Iran Hostage Crisis and the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) occurred under his leadership. He was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1979 and appeared on its cover again in 1980 and in 1987.

"Islam was dead or dying for nearly fourteen centuries; we have revived it with the blood of our youth…. We shall soon liberate Jerusalem and pray there."

A Persian heritage

Ruhollah Khomeini was born in the rural town of Khomein, south of the capital city of Tehran, Iran. His exact date of birth is disputed but generally is recorded between 1900 and 1902, the same time as the birth of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran (see box). Ruhollah was the son and grandson of Shiite mullah's (Muslim religious leaders) who were minor landowners. His grandfather, Seyyid Ahmad, migrated to Khomein from India, but the family historically originated in northeastern Iran. Men in the family assumed the title of Seyyid because they claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad (571–632). Ruhollah's father, Seyyid Mostafa, died while Ruhollah was an infant. His mother, Sadiqeh, and an aunt raised Ruhollah and his four siblings in Khomein. His early education was in the local religious school with private tutors added later for special subjects such as logic and science. Before his sixteenth birthday both his mother and his aunt had died, leaving Ruhollah under the guardianship of his elder brother, Morteza.

The Constitutional Revolution in Iran

At the turn of the century, Iran was in a state of chaos with Russian influence in the north and British influence in the south of the country. The central authority of the Shah (king) in Tehran was limited by the power of rural chieftains and khans (landowners), in addition to the interference by foreign powers. In an effort to modernize the political system and end foreign influence, a group of intellectuals and high-ranking clerics proposed a written code of laws for Iran. Their stated goal was to establish a democratic government where the people would rule themselves.

Opponents viewed the reforms as the Westernization of Muslim Iran. The resulting dispute brought about the Constitutional Revolution in 1905. An elected government was established and a constitution was written in 1906. The parliamentary system limited the scope of royal power. Many clerics joined the new order as teachers and legislators. Although the constitution still relied on Islamic law, other clerics remained resentful about the events that altered their role and authority in Iranian society.

The Nationalists who supported the Shah, and the Democrats who supported the Constitution, briefly lived together peacefully. However, the Shah soon had many Democrats detained on a variety of charges. Some were killed and others sought asylum (safety) with foreign embassies. After bloody riots broke out in the streets of Tehran, the Shah dissolved the National Assembly and declared martial law (law enforcement placed in the hands of a military rather than civil authorities). The fighting ended in 1909 with the Democrats gaining complete control of the capital and the government. The Shah was forced into exile in Russia and his thirteen-year-old son was named as his successor. The National Assembly continued to struggle for control of the country throughout the difficult years of World War I and into the 1920s.

As World War I (1914–18) came to an end, Ruhollah prepared to continue his education in an Islamic (see box) seminary. In 1921, he chose the seminary in Arak in order to study under some of the most prominent clerics of his time. Seminary students wore skull caps and short jackets until they commited themselves to religious learning and were initiated at a special ceremony. Ruhollah was initiated in the summer of 1922. He exchanged his skull cap for the customary turban, which identifies a true seeker (talabeh) who has publicly committed to a new way of life. It is a symbol of respect and responsibility in Muslim society and is worn with a long cloak and tunic. Ruhollah's turban was black because he was a seyyid. Non-seyyids who are members of the clergy wear white turbans and are known as sheikhs.

After his initiation, Ruhollah followed his teacher and mentor to the emerging seminary at Qum (also spelled Qom), located ninety miles south of Tehran. Attaching oneself to a successful mentor was very important in the competitive atmosphere of a seminary because major scholars were assured monetary support from wealthy Muslim donors. Under the guidance of his mentor, Ruhollah studied law and Islamic taxation. He also took a special interest in mystical philosophy (Irfan). After graduation, Ruhollah spent many years teaching as well as writing extensively on these subjects. In 1929, he married Khadija Thaqafi, the daughter of a wealthy and respected cleric. They had several children during their sixty-year marriage.

The turban and the crown

In 1921, Reza Khan Mirpanj (1878–1944) led a coup (surprise overthrow of the government) in Iran that eventually gave him supreme power as the King of Kings. He became Shah and founded the Pahlavi dynasty to carry on his line of descent. Reza Khan believed that adopting Western institutions and creating a modern economy was the only way for the country to rid itself of poverty and foreign interference. He pursued a secular (not related to religion) campaign with a dress code which required men to wear European suits and hats. Mullahs had to apply for a permit in order to keep their religious dress and traditional turbans. Ruhollah helped his students with their exams to ensure they qualified to keep their clerical dress. Ultimately, Reza Khan introduced a controversial law forbidding women to wear veils. The religious community resisted Reza Khan's move toward republicanism (a government run by representatives elected by the public) and fought any legal changes that might weaken Islam. In 1941, British and Soviet troops occupied Iran forcing Reza Khan into exile in South Africa. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was sworn in as the Shah while still in his early twenties.

Ruhollah led a delegation of mullahs to Tehran in order to protest the continuation of the Pahlavi dynasty when Mohammad-Reza was sworn in. However, he returned to Qum without having experienced much support. The following year he published the first version of his booklet Kahf-ol-Asrar (Key to the Secrets), which condemned anyone who criticized Islam. Three years later, an author he had specifically mentioned in his booklet was murdered by the terrorist group Fedayin-e-Islam (Martyrs of Islam) for criticizing the faith and therefore betraying Islam.

Islam

Islam is the youngest of the world's great universal religions in the twenty-first century. A follower of Islam is called a Muslim (one who submits). The founding of the Muslim community began under Muhammad the Messenger, born around 571 ce in the stony valley of Mecca, in current day Saudi Arabia. The final word of Allah (God) given to his prophet Mohammed is recorded in the Qur'an (also known as the Koran). This divine revelation of commands, rewards, and punishments was originally written in Arabic. Its central article of faith states that "There is no God but Allah."

After the Qur'an, the next most important Islamic text is the Hadith. It is a record of the acts and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and his Companions. The Hadith transmits the sunna, the traditions and practices of the Prophet, to illustrate what he would approve of even into modern times. Islam emphasizes the brotherhood of men in fulfilling the will of Allah. So it is a matter of great concern that a clear direction specifically outlines the moral and social regulations for living a good life. A Muslim communes (intimately communicates) with Allah at all times. Therefore, there is no separation between faith and life, including politics and business, to a believer. Mecca remains the most holy city in Islam. It is a focal point for all Muslims as well as the center of the hajj, the foremost of all Muslim rituals. The hajj is a compulsory pilgrimage to Mecca that is undertaken by over two million Muslims each year.

Muslims conceive of their religion as a community that obeys Allah not with passive acceptance, but in the joyful performance of the Sharia (Way), which is the Law of Islam. The Sharia is seen as a comprehensive legal system that governs all phases of Islamic life. For the first four centuries of Islam, the collecting of the Hadith and the codification of the Law were the chief activities of Muslim scholars. Of the various law schools that formed, four survived as the main body of Sunni (Traditional) Muslims. The four accepted schools that define religious duties and interpretations of the law are the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii, and Hanbali. Branching off of the main body of Muslims are a variety of sects, Shiites, who feel they are set apart from all other Muslims and regard Sunnis as enemies of the faith.

In the 1950s, Ruhollah was acclaimed as an ayatollah (major religious leader). He changed his surname to the town of his birth in accordance with clerical tradition. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had long been interested in politics. He was widely read on the subject but now took an active role in the process. Initially, like his mentor before him, Khomeini viewed the clergy's role in politics as supervisory rather than as outright rule. He was reluctant to claim personal leadership. Ultimately, he would side with the activist faction of Islam to promote an Islamic state.

The Shah had already indicated he no longer needed the support of the clerics as he proceeded with his father's secular modernization throughout the 1950s. The government announced a legislative bill in 1962 that would allow women to vote for the first time. It also did not require candidates for local councils to be Muslims. Khomeini considered this an attack on traditional Islam and began a political campaign against the Shah. His power base was among the bazaar (a market place where many kinds of goods are sold) merchants, guilds (an association of people in the same trade or business), and lower clergy of Iran who were not opposed to Islamic reform but traditionally resisted challenging government power because of the possible financial penalties. This group was now open to disputing the authorities because they felt their livelihood was threatened by the Shah's attempt to shift power toward the new commercial and industrial middle class.

With the passing of time, it became evident that there was a need for a new style of leadership in the clergy if the mullahs were to fight secularization and the narrowing of their powers. People were looking for an individual leader to unite the faithful and bring together all the diverse views of Islam, especially in Iran and Iraq. With his position of leadership established, Khomeini easily found followers among the devout. His black turban ensured financial contributions could be counted on. Muslims believed a donation tax to Khomeini would gain Allah's favor because he was a descendant of the prophet Muhammad. The money he brought in allowed Khomeini to increase his influence among the clergy by spending it in the theological centers. In 1963, Khomeini began to use his position as a spiritual leader in Iran to publicly denounce the government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He went on to condemn the United States and Israel as co-conspirators with the Shah in their efforts to erase Islam. The Shah responded by forcing Khomeini into exile in 1964. He first went to Turkey, then Iraq, and finally to France in 1978.

The rule of the Ayatollah

During his exile, Khomeini continued to agitate for revolution. He sent tapes of his sermons to circulate in bazaars and homes in Iran. Over time, he became the acknowledged leader of the opposition. Khomeini wrote a book titled Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists that outlined his plan for an Islamic republic in Iran. When the Shah was deposed in January 1979, he fled to the West for safety. Khomeini was invited to return to Iran, where he declared a provisional (temporary) government while elections were prepared. Former members of the overthrown monarchy faced vigilante (groups of people administering punishment outside the law) bands who were merciless in the wake of the revolution. Human rights violations included mass interrogations (questioning) and executions of anyone who opposed the revolutionary government.

The Iranian people voted overwhelmingly to replace the monarchy with an Islamic republic and a new constitution. Every eight years, the citizens of Iran would elect a group of clerics called the Assembly of Experts. This assembly would select and monitor the Supreme Leader, who would have absolute authority in the theocratic system (government ruled by religious authority). The constitution also required that a president be elected every four years from a group of approved candidates. Khomeini was officially ordained as the Leader of the Revolution and initiated as the Supreme Leader for life in the new Islamic Republic of Iran.

Anti-American sentiment was running high in Iran. In reaction to the American refusal to return the Shah to Iran for trial, Khomeini supporters seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, taking hostages. Additional hostages were taken at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Khomeini announced that Iran's Parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages. Before long, the Americans launched a failed rescue mission. Fifty men and two women were held hostage for 444 days before their release was finally negotiated.

Islamic revolution

Sharia (Islamic law) was introduced under the Ayatollah Khomeini's rule with a dress code for both men and women. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were allowed only as long as they did not contradict Islamic law. Opposition to the religious rule of the clergy or Islam was not tolerated at any level. Those who disliked post-revolutionary Iran were allowed to leave the country.

Khomeini called for Islamic revolutionaries across the Muslim world to follow Iran's example. He called his campaign an effort to export the revolution. The secular state of neighboring Iraq viewed Khomeini's campaign as dangerous because it threatened to incite Iraq's majority Shiites as it had done in Iran. Believing Iran to be in a weakened position, Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of Iran in September 1980, an act which started the Iran-Iraq War. Iraq's aggression was supported by the West, who feared the possibility of the spread of Islamic revolutions throughout the oil-rich Persian Gulf states. The high costs of the eight-year war finally convinced the involved parties to accept a truce negotiated by the United Nations (an international organization founded in 1945 composed of most of the countries in the world). Nothing was gained by either party.

In early 1989, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious decree) against a British Muslim author named Salman Rushdie. Although Rushdie had no ties to Iran, Khomeini considered his novel, The Satanic Verses, offensive to Islam and to the prophet Muhammad. Khomeini called for Muslims everywhere to kill Rushdie if given the opportunity, as it was their religious duty. Rushdie went into hiding and eluded capture. Suffering from cancer, Khomeini died a few months later. However, the fatwa lived on, contributing to the bitterness existing between Iran and the West. Millions of Iranians mourned the loss of their leader, who was buried at Behesht Zahra cemetery in Tehran.