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Ruhollah Khomeini Quotes

Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini , also known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, and cleric. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the end of the 2,500 year old Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's supreme leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989.

Khomeini was born in 1902 in Khomeyn, in what is now Iran's Markazi Province. His father was murdered in 1903 when Khomeini was five months old. He began studying the Quran and the Persian language from a young age and was assisted in his religious studies by his relatives, including his mother's cousin and older brother.

Khomeini was a marja in Twelver Shia Islam, a Mujtahid or faqih and author of more than 40 books, but he is primarily known for his political activities. He spent more than 15 years in exile for his opposition to the last shah. In his writings and preachings he expanded the theory of welayat-el faqih, the "Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist ", to include theocratic political rule by Islamic jurists. This principle , was appended to the new Iranian constitution after being put to a referendum. According to The New York Times, Khomeini called democracy the equivalent of prostitution. Whether Khomeini's ideas are compatible with democracy and whether he intended the Islamic Republic to be democratic is disputed. He was Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1979 for his international influence, and Khomeini has been described as the "virtual face of Shia Islam in Western popular culture". In 1982, he survived one military coup attempt. Khomeini was known for his support of the hostage takers during the Iran hostage crisis, his fatwa calling for the murder of British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, and for referring to the United States as the "Great Satan" and Soviet Union as the "Lesser Satan." Khomeini has been criticized for these acts and for human rights violations of Iranians .He has also been lauded as a "charismatic leader of immense popularity", a "champion of Islamic revival" by Shia scholars, who attempted to establish good relations between Sunnis and Shias, and a major innovator in political theory and religious-oriented populist political strategy. Khomeini held the title of Grand Ayatollah and is officially known as Imam Khomeini inside Iran and by his supporters internationally. He is generally referred to as Ayatollah Khomeini by others. In Iran, his gold-domed tomb in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahrāʾ cemetery has become a shrine for his adherents, and he is legally considered "inviolable", with Iranians regularly punished for insulting him. Wikipedia  

✵ 24. September 1902 – 3. June 1989
Ruhollah Khomeini photo
Ruhollah Khomeini: 57   quotes 3   likes

Famous Ruhollah Khomeini Quotes

“In the world there is no democracy better than our democracy. Such a thing has never before been seen.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Clive Foss, The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption, London: Quercus Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1905204965, p. 195
Attributed

“if you hope at this juncture to cut the Gordian knots of socialism and communism by appealing to the center of Western capitalism, you will, far from remedying any of the ills of your society, commit a mistake which those to come will have to erase. For if Marxism has come to a deadlock in its social and economic policies, capitalism has also bogged down.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Letter to Russian Premier Gorbachev, January 1989. http://politicalquotes.org/node/68478
Foreign policy

“You young people yourselves are capable of performing anything. Our inventors can invent in a high level, Our innovators can innovate in a high level, only if they keep self confidence and believe that we can.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Addressing an audience of Iranian industry workers and inventors (October 1983); quoted in "Imam's Sahife" vol. 18 p. 189,190.
Foreign policy

“From the beginning while we were engaged in these issues, I said in interviews with those who came from abroad, even in Najaf or Paris or among my personal words, I have always said that clerics have an occupation which is more important than these executive jobs, and should Islam become victorious, clerics would dedicate themselves to their own occupation. But as we went on with the revolution, we found out that if we tell all clerics to go after their mosques, this country would fall into the throat of America and Soviet Union. We experienced and saw, those who took the lead but were not clerics, even though some of them were religious people, our revolutionary path was not according to their taste, therefore… we temporarily deviate from our original word until this country could be administered by those other than clerics, then clerics will go back to their preach and their own position and they will leave executive matters to others who work for Islam.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Imam's Sahife. vol. 16, p. 349,350. (21 June 1982)
Foreign policy

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Foreign policy

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Speech on the day of Mohammed's birth (1984)
Foreign policy

Ruhollah Khomeini Quotes about God

“…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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Fatwa against Salman Rushdie (14 February 1989)
Foreign policy

“… in our domestic and foreign policy, … we have set as our goal the world-wide spread of the influence of Islam … We wish to cause the corrupt roots of Zionism, capitalism and Communism to wither throughout the world. We wish, as does God almighty, to destroy the systems which are based on these three foundations, and to promote the Islamic order of the Prophet …”

Ruhollah Khomeini

[//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_thought_and_legacy_of_Ruhollah_Khomeini#cite_ref-111]

“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”

Ruhollah Khomeini

God's law
As quoted in Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East (2002) by Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin, pp. 29, 32-36
Disputed

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Pithy Aphorisms: Wise Saying and Counsels, Edited by Mansoor Limba, Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works -- International Affairs Department, p. 6.
Theology and Mysticism

“The essence of praise accrues to none but God; your praise of a rose or an apple is [in essence] praise of God.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Theology and Mysticism

“That which admits man to God's Threshold is his separation from all that is not of God—a thing which is not attainable by all.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Theology and Mysticism

Ruhollah Khomeini Quotes about the world

“Give them Islam, proclaim to the world the program of Islamic government; maybe the kings and presidents of the Muslim countries will understand the truth of what we say and accept it. We would not want to take anything away from them; we will leave anyone in his place who faithfully follows Islam.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Tahrir al-Vasileh, 1970. http://politicalquotes.org/node/54102
Foreign policy

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

As quoted in Nest of Spies : America's Journey to Disaster in Iran (1989) by Amir Taheri, p. 269. Disputed by historian Shaul Bakhash.
Disputed

“Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled or incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of [other] countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world.... But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world.... Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them [the non-Muslims], put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]. Does this mean sitting back until [non-Muslims] overcome us? Islam says: Kill in the service of Allah those who may want to kill you! Does this mean that we should surrender [to the enemy]? Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur'anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

As quoted in Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism (1987) by Amir Taheri, pp. 241-3.
Disputed

“As the imperialist countries attained a high degree of wealth and affluence— the result both of scientific and technical progress and of their plunder of the nations of Asia and Africa— these individuals lost all self-confidence and imagined that the only way to achieve technical progress was to abandon their own laws and beliefs. When the moon landings took place, for instance, they concluded that Muslims should jettison their laws! But what is the connection between going to the moon and the laws of Islam? Do they not see that countries having opposing laws and social systems compete with each other in technical and scientific progress and the conquest of space? Let them go all the way to Mars or beyond the Milky Way; they will still be deprived of true happiness, moral virtue, and spiritual advancement and be unable to solve their own social problems. For the solution of social problems and the relief of human misery require foundations in faith and morals; merely acquiring material power and wealth, conquering nature and space, have no effect in this regard. They must be supplemented by, and balanced with, the faith, the conviction, and the morality of Islam in order truly to serve humanity instead of endangering it. This conviction, this morality, these laws that are needed, we already possess. So as soon as someone goes somewhere or invents something, we should not hurry to abandon our religion and its laws, which regulate the life of man and provide for his well-being in this world and the hereafter.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp 36.
Islam and civilization

“If you pay no attention to the policies of the imperialists, and consider Islam to be simply the few topics you are always studying and never go beyond them, then the imperialists will leave you alone. Pray as much as you like; it is your oil they are after— why should they worry about your prayers? They are after our minerals, and want to turn our country into a market for their goods. That is the reason the puppet governments they have installed prevent us from industrializing, and instead, establish only assembly plants and industry that is dependent on the outside world.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp. 39.
Islam and the imperialists

“The Sunna and path of the Prophet constitute a proof of the necessity for establishing government. First, he himself established a government, as history testifies. He engaged in the implementation of laws, the establishment of the ordinances of Islam, and the administration of society. He sent out governors to different regions; both sat in judgment himself and appointed judges; dispatched emissaries to foreign states, tribal chieftains, and kings; concluded treaties and pacts; and took command in battle. In short, he fulfilled all the functions of government. Second, he designated a ruler to succeed him, in accordance with divine command. If God Almighty, through the Prophet, designated a man who was to rule over Muslim society after him, this is in itself an indication that government remains a necessity after the departure of the Prophet from this world. Again, since the Most Noble Messenger promulgated the divine command through his act of appointing a successor, he also implicitly stated the necessity for establishing a government.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp. 41.
Islamic government

Ruhollah Khomeini: Trending quotes

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

Ruhollah Khomeini

Just How Far Did They Go, Those Words Against Israel?, The New York Times, June 11, 2006, 2007-08-13 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/weekinreview/11bronner.html?ex=1307678400&en=efa2bd266224e880&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss,
Foreign policy

Time

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Response to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's announcement of elections (August 1978); quoted in "The Shah's Divided Land" (18 September 1978) Time
Foreign policy

People

“With people's revolutionary rage, the king will be ousted and a democratic state, Islamic Republic, will be established.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

"Imam's Sahife" vol. 4 p. 244 (1 November 1978).
Foreign policy

People , Rage

Ruhollah Khomeini Quotes

“In the Islamic government all people have complete freedom to have any kind of opinion.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Foreign policy
Source: Interview with Human Rights Watch, Paris (10 November 1978)

People , Freedom

“Before the revolution I thought there are appropriate individuals who would do the job according to Islam, therefore I repeatedly said that clerics would go after their own job. Then I saw that most of them were inappropriate individuals and I found out that what I said was not true, so I came and clearly announced that I was wrong.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Imam's Sahife. vol. 18, p. 241. (11 December 1983)
Foreign policy

“Variant: I shall kick their teeth in. I am appointing the government. I am appointing the government by the support of this nation!”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Speech at Behesht Zahra cemetery (1 February 1979), condemning the government of Shapour Bakhtiar

Support

“All those against the revolution must disappear and quickly be executed.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Quoted by dissident cleric Hossein-Ali Montazeri, once in line to be Iran's supreme leader. ShiaNews.com (17 December 2000) http://www.shianews.com/hi/asia/news_id/0000573.php. 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.
Attributed
Variant: Variant: All those against the revolution, that insist on their position, must disappear and quickly be executed.

“In Islam, democracy is included and people are free in Islam, both in expressing their opinions and their actions, until there is no conspiracy and they don't bring up ideas which would deviate Iranian generation.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Imam's Sahife, vol. 5, p. 468. (15 January 1979)
Foreign policy

People , Democracy , Idea

“In the Islamic Republic the rights of the religious minorities are respectfully regarded.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Interview for Austrian television, Paris, (6 November 1978), as quoted in "Democracy? I meant theocracy — The most truthful individual in recent history" by Dr. Jalal Matini,and Farhad Mafie, in The Iranian (5 August 2003) http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2003/August/Khomeini/
Foreign policy

“Ayatollah, would you be so kind as to tell us how you feel about being back in Iran?
Nothing. I don't feel anything.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

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.

Feeling

“Women are free in the Islamic Republic in the selection of their activities and their future and their clothing.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Interview for The Guardian in Paris (6 November 1978)
Foreign policy

Women , Future , Clothes

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Le Monde interview in Paris (9 January 1979)
Foreign policy

People , Departure

“There is no room for play in Islam … It is deadly serious about everything.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Speech in Qum, as quoted in Portrait of an Ascetic Despot, Time, January 7, 1980, 2007-02-02 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923857,00.html,
Attributed

“Islamic state means a state based on justice and democracy and structured upon Islamic rules and laws.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Imam's Sahife, vol. 5, p. 133. (17 December 1978)
Foreign policy

Justice , Law , Democracy

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Tahrīr al-Wasīla vol. 1
Foreign policy

Religion , Fools , Study

“If the religious leaders have influence, they will not permit girls and boys to wrestle together, as recently happened in Shiraz.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Denouncing the situation that sex segregation was not being imposed by the government. Speech number sixteen, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, World Service, October 26, 1964 http://www.irib.ir/worldservice/imam/speech/,
Islamic law

Girl , Boy

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Associated Press interview in Paris (7 November 1978); repeated on several occasions before Khomeini returned to Iran
Foreign policy

Health , Age , Personality , Country

“Islam is politics or it is nothing.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Islamic Revolution, Bernard Lewis, The New York Review of Books, April 28, 1988, 2011-12-26 http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1988/jan/21/islamic-revolution/?pagination=false,
Attributed

“Happy are those who have departed through martyrdom. Unhappy am I that I still survive.… Taking this decision is more deadly than drinking from a poisoned chalice. I submitted myself to Allah's will and took this drink for His satisfaction.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Announcement of ceasefire with Iraq (20 July 1988), quoted in The Iran-Iraq War (2002) by Efraim Karsh
Foreign policy

Drink , Decision , Happiness

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Foreign policy
Source: Remarks to students and educators in Qom (13 March 1979)

Democracy

“In Iran's future Islamic system everyone can express their opinion, and the Islamic government will respond to logic with logic.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

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
Foreign policy

Future

“Sexual vice has now reached such proportions that it is destroying entire generations, corrupting our youth, and causing them to neglect all forms of work. They are all rushing to enjoy the various forms of vice that have become so freely available and so enthusiastically promoted. Why should it be regarded as harsh if Islam stipulates that an offender should be publicly flogged in order to protect the younger generation from corruption?”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp 33-34.
Islamic law

Youth

“At the start of their mission, the prophets first confronted the upper class; Hadrat Moses, confronted the Pharaoh. The upper class enjoys the priority of being confronted and guided first.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Pithy Aphorisms: Wise Saying and Counsels, Edited by Mansoor Limba, Tehra: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works -- International Affairs Department. p. 9.
Social justice

“Their plan is to keep us backward, to keep us in our present miserable state so they can exploit our riches, our underground wealth, our lands, and our human resources. They want us to remain afflicted and wretched, and our poor to be trapped in their misery. Instead of surrendering to the injunctions of Islam, which provide a solution for the problem of poverty, they and their agents wish to go on living in huge palaces and enjoying lives of abominable luxury.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, p. 33.
Islam and the imperialists

Problem , Wealth , Affliction

“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.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp. 28.
Islam and the imperialists

School , Religion , Justice , Freedom

“Islam proclaims monarchy and hereditary succession wrong and invalid. When Islam first appeared in Iran, the Byzantine Empire, Egypt, and the Yemen, the entire institution of monarchy was abolished. In the blessed letters that the Most Noble Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius and the Shahanshah of Iran, he called upon them to abandon the monarchical and imperial form of government, to cease compelling the servants of God to worship them with absolute obedience, and to permit men to worship God, Who has no partner and is the True Monarch. Monarchy and hereditary succession represent the same sinister, evil system of government that prompted the Lord of the Martyrs (Hussain bin Ali -- peace be upon him) to rise up in revolt and seek martyrdom in an effort to prevent its establishment. He revolted in repudiation of the hereditary succession of Yazid, to refuse it his recognition.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, p. 31.
Islamic government

God , Peace , Success , Appearance

“The prophetic mission created a scientific-gnostic change in the world that converted the insipid Greek philosophies, which were formulated with all their past and present worth by the Greeks themselves into an objective mysticism and a veritable intuitive perception for masters of divine insight.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Pithy Aphorisms: Wise Saying and Counsels, Edited by Mansoor Limba, Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works -- International Affairs Department. p. 8.
Theology and Mysticism

World , Past , Change

“That which eases calamities is the fact that all are departing mortals. All of us will pass away; so, it is better to be sacrificed in His path.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Pithy Aphorisms: Wise Saying and Counsels, Edited by Mansoor Limba, Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works -- International Affairs Department. p. 7.
Theology and Mysticism

“O nation, wake up! O government, wake up! Everybody wake up! You are all in the Presence of God. Tomorrow (in the next world), you will be called to account. Do not ignore the blood of our martyrs, and do not quarrel over position or status.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Theology and Mysticism

World , God

“You were invigorated by mindfulness of God, migration from oneself to God—which is the greatest migration—migration from ego to the truth, and from this world to the unseen world.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Pithy Aphorisms: Wise Saying and Counsels, Edited by Mansoor Limba, Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works -- International Affairs Department, p. 4.
Theology and Mysticism

World , Truth , God

“Evidently, adoration, worship and sanctification of God require knowledge and awareness of His Most Exalted Station as well as the Attributes of His Glory and Grandeur; without due knowledge and awareness, these cannot be fulfilled.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Theology and Mysticism

Knowledge , God

“It is better for a girl to marry in such a time when she would begin menstruation at her husband's house rather than her father's home.
Any father marrying his daughter so young will have a permanent place in heaven.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

attributed in page 85 https://books.google.ca/books?id=QSk0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 of 2017 book by Doreen Chilia-Jones "Say What?: 670 Quotes That Should Never Have Been Said"

although no further source details are presence in the above book, its presence in the fourth (1990) edition of the "Tahrirolvasyleh" was alleged since December 2004 https://web.archive.org/web/20050106170121/http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/348
Attributed

Home , Time , Housing , Girl

“To please the Lord and carry out the decrees of the Holy Christ, let the bells in your churches peal out in favor of the oppressed Iranians, and in condemnation of the oppressors.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

(Addressed to religious leaders of Christianity:)

Pithy Aphorisms: Wise Saying and Counsels, Edited by Mansoor Limba, Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works -- International Affairs Department. p. 9.
Interfaith

Christ

“[If] you have divine motives, material benefits will follow suit but they are no longer material; they have become divine.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Theology and Mysticism

Motivation

“Most of the wailings of the awliya [pious believers] is caused by the pain of separation and detachment from the Beloved and His Generosity.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Pithy Aphorisms: Wise Saying and Counsels, Edited by Mansoor Limba, Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works -- International Affairs Department, p. 3.
Theology and Mysticism

Pain

“There are hundreds of other [Koranic] psalms and hadiths urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”

Ruhollah Khomeini

Source: Excerpted from "Islam Is Not a Religion of Pacifists" (1942), English translation in Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin, Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 29, 32-36.

Soul , War , Religion , Fight

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