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Ruhollah Khomeini

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Anyone who will say that religion is separate from politics is a fool; he does not know Islam or politics.

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini (Persian: سید روح‌الله موسوی خمینی‎ ; 21 September 1902 – 3 June 1989) often referred as Imam Khomeini was an Iranian Islamic cleric and the political and religious leader of the Islamic Revolution which overthrew the Shah of Iran and brought an end to the Imperial State of Iran.

Quotes

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... the imperialists really have no religious belief, Christian or Islamic. Rather, throughout this long historical period, and going back to the Crusades, they felt that the major obstacle in the path of their materialistic ambitions and the chief threat to their political power was nothing but Islam and its ordinances, and the belief of the people in Islam.

1942

[edit]
  • 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.
    • 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.

1979

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  • Islam grew with blood. The great religions of the preceding prophets and the momentous religion of Islam, while clutching divine books for the guidance of the people in one hand, carried arms in the other. Abraham ... in one hand carried the books of the prophets; in the other, an ax to crush the infidels. Moses, the interlocutor of God ... in one hand carried the Pentateuch and in the other a staff, which reduced the pharoahs to the dust of ignominy, a staff that was like a dragon swallowing up the traitors.
  • The great prophet of Islam in one hand carried the Koran and in the other a sword; the sword for crushing the traitors and the Koran for guidance. For those who could be guided, the Koran was their means of guidance, while as for those who could be guided and were plotters, the sword descended on their heads. ... Islam is a religion of blood for the infidels but a religion of guidance for other people.
  • We have sacrificed much blood and many martyrs. Islam has sacrificed blood and martyrs.
  • We do not fear giving martyrs. ... Whatever we give for Islam is not enough and is too little. Our lives are not worthy. Let those who wish us ill not imagine that our youths are afraid of death or of martyrdom. Martyrdom is a legacy which we have received from our prophets. Those should fear death who consider the aftermath of death to be obliteration. We, who consider the aftermath of death a life more sublime than this one, what fear have we? The traitors should be afraid. The servants of God have no fear. Our army, our gendarmerie, our police, our guards have no fear. Our guards who were [killed] ... have achieved eternal life. ...
  • These people who want freedom, who want our youths to be free, write effusively about the freedom of our youth. What freedom do they want? ... They want the gambling casinos to remain freely open, they want heroin addicts to be free, opium addicts to be free. They want the seas to be free everywhere for the youth [i.e. mixed bathing].
    • Excerpted from "Speech at Feyziyeh Theological School" (August 24, 1979). 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.

The Little Green Book (1985)

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from "The Little Green Book: Selected Fatawah And Sayings of The Ayatollah Mosavi Khomeini" translated into English by Harold Salemson and published in 1985
book is also called "Tahrirolvasyleh"
  • To look upon the face and hair of a girl who has not reached puberty, if it is done without intention of enjoyment thereof, and if one is not afraid of succumbing to temptation, may be tolerated. It is however recommended that one not look upon her belly or thighs, which must remain covered.
    • page 57

Theology and Mysticism

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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.
  • Only God, the Exalted, is the light; everything else is darkness.
  • The essential purpose of revelation is to develop divine knowledge in man.
  • Most of the wailings of the awliya [pious believers] is caused by the pain of separation and detachment from the Beloved and His Generosity.
    • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The essence of praise accrues to none but God; your praise of a rose or an apple is [in essence] praise of God.
  • [If] you have divine motives, material benefits will follow suit but they are no longer material; they have become divine.
  • 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.
    • 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.
  • Negligence of God increases the indignation of the heart, gives the ego and Satan domination over man, and increases corruption in him daily. [On the contrary,] mindfulness and remembrance of God bestows serenity on the heart, burnishes it and makes it a mirror reflecting the Beloved. It purges and purifies the soul and saves man from the bondage of ego.
    • 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. 5.
  • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.

Interfaith

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  • (Addressed to religious leaders of Christianity:) 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.
    • 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.

Islamic government

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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.
  • Only one party—and that is party of Allah[Hezbollah], party of the underprivileged.
    • Ruhollah Khomeini, Sahifeh Imam Khomeini Vol 9 Page 282[2]
  • Support Guardianship of the Jurist and no harm will come to your country.[3][4]
  • 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 the 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.
    • Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp. 41.
  • 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.
    • Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, p. 31.

Islam and the imperialists

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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.
In Iran's future Islamic system everyone can express their opinion, and the Islamic government will respond to logic with logic.
  • 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.
    • Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp. 28.
  • ... the imperialists really have no religious belief, Christian or Islamic. Rather, throughout this long historical period, and going back to the Crusades, they felt that the major obstacle in the path of their materialistic ambitions and the chief threat to their political power was nothing but Islam and its ordinances, and the belief of the people in Islam. They therefore plotted and campaigned against Islam by various means.
    • Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp. 27-28.
  • 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.
    • Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, p. 33.
  • 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.
    • Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp. 39.

Social justice

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  • Through the political agents they have placed in power over the people, the imperialists have also imposed on us an unjust economic order, and thereby divided our people into two groups: oppressors and oppressed. Hundreds of millions of Muslims are hungry and deprived of all form of health care and education, while minorities comprised of the wealthy and powerful live a life of indulgence, licentiousness, and corruption. The hungry and deprived have constantly struggled to free themselves from the oppression of their plundering overlords, and their struggle continues to this day. But their way is blocked by the ruling minorities and the oppressive governmental structures they head. It is our duty to save the oppressed and deprived... The scholars of Islam have a duty to struggle against all attempts by the oppressors to establish a monopoly over the sources of wealth or to make illicit use of them. They must not allow the masses to remain hungry and deprived while plundering oppressors usurp the sources of wealth and live in opulence. The Commander of the Faithful (upon whom be peace) says: “I have accepted the task of government because God, Exalted and Almighty, has exacted from the scholars of Islam a pledge not to sit silent and idle in the face of the gluttony and plundering of the oppressors, on the one hand, and the hunger and deprivation of the oppressed, on the other.”
    • Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp. 49-50.
  • 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.
    • 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.

Islamic law

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  • The agents of imperialism sometimes write ... that the legal provisions of Islam are too harsh ... because they originated with the Arabs, so that the “harshness” of the Arabs is reflected in the “harshness” of Islamic law! I am amazed at the way these people think. They kill people for possessing ten grams of heroin and say, “That is the law”. Inhuman laws like this are concocted in the name of a campaign against corruption, and they are not to be regarded as harsh. (I am not saying it is permissible to sell heroin, but this is not the appropriate punishment. The sale of heroin must indeed be prohibited, but the punishment must be in proportion to the crime.) When Islam, however, stipulates that the drinker of alcohol should receive eighty lashes, they consider it “too harsh.”... Many forms of corruption that have appeared in society derive from alcohol. The collisions that take place on our roads, and the murders is said to derive from addiction to alcohol. But still, some say, it is quite unobjectionable for someone to drink alcohol (after all, they do it in the West); so let alcohol be bought and sold freely. But when Islam wishes to prevent the consumption of alcohol— one of the major evils— stipulating that the drinker should receive eighty lashes, or sexual vice, decreeing that the fornicator be given one hundred lashes (and the married man or woman be stoned), then they start wailing and lamenting: “What a harsh law that is, reflecting the harshness of the Arabs!” They are not aware that these penal provisions of Islam are intended to keep great nations from being destroyed by corruption.
    • Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp 33.
  • 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?
    • Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp 33-34.
  • 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. Speech number sixteen. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, World Service (October 26, 1964).

Islam and civilization

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

Foreign policy

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  • ... 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 ...
  • 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
  • With people's revolutionary rage, the king will be ousted and a democratic state, Islamic Republic, will be established.
    • "Imam's Sahife" vol. 4 p. 244 (1 November 1978).
  • 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
  • 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.
    • Addressing an audience of Iranian industry workers and inventors (October 1983); quoted in "Imam's Sahife" vol. 18 p. 189,190.
  • 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)
  • 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.
    • Imam's Sahife. vol. 16, p. 349,350. (21 June 1982)
  • 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.
    • Imam's Sahife. vol. 18, p. 241. (11 December 1983)
  • 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.
  • Variant: 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)
  • Islamic state means a state based on justice and democracy and structured upon Islamic rules and laws.
    • Imam's Sahife, vol. 5, p. 133. (17 December 1978)
  • 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.
    • Imam's Sahife, vol. 5, p. 468. (15 January 1979)
  • 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)
  • 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.
    • Announcement of ceasefire with Iraq (20 July 1988), quoted in The Iran-Iraq War (2002) by Efraim Karsh
  • …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.
  • 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

Attributed

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  • All those against the revolution must disappear and quickly be executed.
  • Variant: All those against the revolution, that insist on their position, must disappear and quickly be executed.
  • 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

Misattributed

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  • A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However, he should not penetrate vaginally, but sodomising the child is acceptable. If a man does penetrate and damage the child then, he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl will not count as one of his four permanent wives and the man will not be eligible to marry the girl’s sister,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.
    • attributed in page 85 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
  • It is not illegal for an adult male to 'thigh' or enjoy a young girl who is still in the age of weaning; meaning to place his penis between her thighs, and to kiss her.
    • 26 February 2008 in page 105/493 of "Thirty-Three Secrets Arab Men Never Tell American Women" by Cassandra via Xlibris
    • 4 January 2009 in page 57, during chapter "The Marriage Contract: The Lock on the Golden Cage" of "Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law" by Nonie Darwish
    • 3 June 2011 in page 397/424 of "Annie and the Man from Cairo" by Elizabeth Jenan-Dickman
  • A man can have sex with animals such as sheeps, cows, camels and so on. However, he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village; however, selling the meat to the next door village should be fine.


Disputed

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  • 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].
    • As quoted in Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East (2002) by Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin, pp. 29, 32-36
  • 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.
    • As quoted in Nest of Spies : America's Journey to Disaster in Iran (1989) by Amir Taheri, p. 269. Disputed by historian Shaul Bakhash.
  • 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.
    • As quoted in Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism (1987) by Amir Taheri, pp. 241-3.

Quotes about Khomeini

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In alphabetically order by by author or source.

  • "Every aspect of life was better then," my father loves to say, "everyone was happier." When he comes to visit Iran he blames every imperfection personally on Khomeini. The teller at the bank is rude? Khomeini. The metro is late? Khomeini. The internet is slow? Khomeini. When he was growing up, people were nicer, food tasted better, the Azadi Tower looked bigger.
    • Anonymous, "Why Iranians are lapping up Shah memorabilia", The Guardian (17 June, 2015)
  • In practice, opposition by the new Iranian regime to the Americans did not necessarily extend to support for the Soviet Union. Two days after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Soviet envoy in Iran promised Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution and Guardian of the Islamic Republic, assistance in any conflict with the USA; only to be told that there could be no mutual understanding between a Muslim nation and a non-Muslim government. Nevertheless, as a result of American backing for the Shah and for Israel (with whom the Shah had co-operated), and its identification with liberalism and consumerism, Khomeini saw America as ‘the Great Satan’. He instigated the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran by student radicals on 4 November 1979, an act that created a hostage crisis lasting until 20 January 1981. This crisis, and the failed American attempt to rescue the hostages in April 1980, discredited Carter and helped Khomeini sustain a highly-charged atmosphere in Iran. It was clear that America’s loss of a strategic partner had altered the Cold War even if Iran had not joined the Soviet Union, which Khomeini described as ‘the other Great Satan’. Thus, there was no equivalent for the Soviet Union to the now-closer relations between the USA and both China and Egypt.
  • 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.
  • Most important in determining the precise ideological direction of the antimonarchal revolution was the fact that the movement’s primary leader was a fundamentalist, Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini’s adamant refusal to compromise with the shah, despite the monarch’s massive military and economic power, appealed to the Iranian Shia faithful, schooled in the legendary martyrdom of Imam Hussein. Khomeini rewarded their loyalty by developing a successful “technology of revolution” tailored to the culture and psychology of Shia Iran. The ayatollah instructed the faithful to use the forty-day-interval mourning processions for the martyrs of previous demonstrations and those religious holidays commemorating sacrifice or heroic deeds as opportunities for new and ever larger protests. He called on his followers to offer themselves in martyrdom before the shah’s soldiers, knowing the shared religious significance of resulting deaths would gradually demoralize the armed forces and ultimately destroy the coercive capacity of the monarchal regime. When Khomeini’s tactics worked, many Iranians concluded that to defeat the shah’s worldly might, the ayatollah must indeed be endowed with divine powers. Having witnessed or even participated in this fantastic achievement, many of the faithful were thereafter much inclined to seek out Khomeini’s point of view on important post-revolutionary matters and follow his advice. Consequently, when conflicts developed among former revolutionary allies, Khomeini’s advocacy of a political system in which both parties and candidates had to be approved by clerical leaders and in which final authority rested in the hands of the clergy ensured the defeat of alternative revolutionary elites.
    • James DeFronzo, Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements (2018), pp. 288-289
  • Ayatollah Khomeini was a learned theologian who believed that only a wise Islamic Jurist could bring justice to a deeply divided Iran. He opposed foreign influence and became a bitter critic of the reigning monarch, Reza Shah, whom his followers overturned in 1979. In power, Khomeini replaced a dictatorship disguised as a monarchy with one lurking behind the facade of republican government. He established a unique regime based on Islam that long survived him.
    • Clive Foss, The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption, London: Quercus Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1905204965, p. 196
  • There is an irony lodged deep in the heart of the revolution that turned Iran from a Persian kingdom into an Islamic theocracy, a revolution cheered and organized by secular leftists and Islamist modernists. The irony is that the Iran of the fundamentalist ayatollahs owes its ultimate birth pang to cities of sin and freedom: Beirut, capital of Arabic modernity, once known as the Paris of the Middle East; and Paris, birthplace of the Age of Enlightenment. If not for the permissive freedoms in both, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini—a patient man with a cunning mind—might have died forgotten in a two-story mudbrick house down a narrow cul-de-sac in the holy city of Najaf, in Iraq. The Iranian cleric had agitated against the shah of Iran for over a decade and spent time in prison in Tehran. He was sent into exile and arrived in Najaf in 1965, where he languished in anonymity for thirteen years, popular among his circle of disciples but shunned by most of the Iraqi Shia clergy. In Najaf, clerics stayed out of politics and disapproved of the firebrand ayatollah who thought he had a special relationship with God. Outside the cities that busied themselves with theology, there were those who saw in Khomeini a useful political tool, someone who could rouse crowds in the battle against oppression. Different people with different dreams, from Tehran to Jerusalem, from Paris to Beirut, looked to Khomeini and saw a man who could serve their agenda, not realizing they were serving his.
    • Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East (2020)
  • You think that Mr Khomeini, [an] uneducated person … could have planned all this? Masterminded all this, set up all the organization? I know that one man alone could not have done it … I know that a tremendous amount of money was spent … I know that top experts in propaganda were used to show us like tyrants and monsters, and the other side as democratic liberal revolutionaries who want to save the country.
  • 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.
  • The second liberal gripe against Carter is that he lost to Reagan. As the saying went, Carter was defeated by the three Ks — Khomeini, Kennedy and Koch. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Iranian revolution led to the hostage crisis that was a millstone round Carter’s neck. After 444 days in captivity, the US hostages were released a few minutes after Carter left office. It has not been proved that Reagan struck a back channel deal with Khomeini’s government to keep the hostages until after the 1980 election. But the evidence is very strong. Carter believes that William Casey, Reagan’s campaign manager, did strike a bargain. Such an unnatural Rolodex would also explain Reagan’s Iran-Contra shenanigans a few years later. Ted Kennedy’s primary challenge also damaged Carter. Though Kennedy infamously could not explain why he wanted to be president, Carter had his own theory: Kennedy saw it as his birthright. The gap between the rural Georgian farmer who grew up without shoes and the Boston aristocrat is a faultline that still hobbles the Democratic party. Biden is on Carter’s side of it. Ed Koch was New York’s Democratic mayor who thought Carter was biased against Israel. Carter’s Camp David deal neutralised Egypt — Israel’s most potent enemy — and thus did more for Israel’s security than any US president since. No good deed goes unpunished. Carter was the only Democratic president to get less than half of the Jewish vote. Paul Volcker’s last name does not start with a K. However, the then chair of the US Federal Reserve is probably the largest contributor to Carter’s defeat. With interest rates at 20 per cent, Carter stood little chance at the ballot box. It is worth noting that Carter picked Volcker in full knowledge of his anti-inflation credentials. On that, as so much else, Carter did the right thing but got no credit. The left hated him for it. The right pretended it was Reagan’s doing. Much the same can be said of how America won the cold war. The moral of Carter’s story is that virtue must be its own reward. History is a biased judge.
  • Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion … faith in the power of words.
  • Much of the land once ruled by Nader Shah today forms the Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 1979 following the popular revolution that forced the abdication of the shah, Reza Pahlavi. His fall and exile saw the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who oversaw the creation of a Shi'a-dominated theocracy that fused a populist socio-economic programme with fundamentalist Islamism. Virulent hatred of 'The Great Satan' America and the West (as demonstrated by the 1979-81 US embassy hostage crisis in Tehran and the death-penalty fatwa issued in 1989 against British author Salman Rushdie for his supposedly blasphemous work, The Satanic Verses), and anti-Zionism, provided the glue that held together the Republic. Whilst adhering to some democratic forms, Khomeini established a rigid theocratic leadership which ruthlessly stamped out opposition, establishing a vice-like grip over political activity that has never been relinquished. The Supreme Leader, an ayatollah, backed by the elite Revolutionary Guard and a vicious secret police, controls all policy and outranks the elected president and assembly.
  • The grand ayatollah Khomeini led the 1979 revolution that overthrew the last shah of Iran and became the supreme leader of a theocracy, the Islamic Republic of Iran, that has become an often disruptive power across the Near East. This aged, white-bearded Shiite cleric proved to be a dynamic, shrewd and unforgiving revolutionary leader who created a totally new system with his own power protected in a constitution that has proved surprisingly enduring, thanks to the brutal suppression of any opposition. Today’s resurgent, bold Iran, pursuing a nuclear arsenal and regional hegemony, threatening war against the ‘Great Satan’ America and annihilation of the ‘Little Satan’ Israel, backing the Hamas and Hezbollah militias in Gaza and Lebanon, murdering and terrorizing its own people, is the Iran of Khomeini.
  • The people of Iran are very talented people. They're heirs to one of the world's great civilizations. But in 1979, they were hijacked by religious zealots; religious zealots who imposed on them immediately a dark and brutal dictatorship. That year, the zealots drafted a constitution, a new one for Iran. It directed the revolutionary guards not only to protect Iran's borders, but also to fulfill the ideological mission of jihad. The regime's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, exhorted his followers to "export the revolution throughout the world." I'm standing here in Washington, D.C. and the difference is so stark. America's founding document promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Iran's founding document pledges death, tyranny, and the pursuit of jihad. And as states are collapsing across the Middle East, Iran is charging into the void to do just that.
  • 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.

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  1. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/25/archives/khomeini-accuses-us-and-israel-of-attempt-to-take-over-mosques.html
  2. ↑ https://farsi.rouhollah.ir/library/sahifeh-imam-khomeini/vol/9/page/282
  3. ↑ https://www.mehrnews.com/news/1427592/%D9%BE%D8%B4%D8%AA%DB%8C%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%82%DB%8C%D9%87-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B4%DB%8C%D8%AF-%D8%AA%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D9%85%D9%85%D9%84%DA%A9%D8%AA-%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7-%D8%A2%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%A8%DB%8C-%D9%86%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AF
  4. ↑ https://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news/147664/%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D8%AC%D9%85%D9%84%D9%87-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%87-%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%82%D9%87-%DA%86%D9%87-%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AF
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