TEHRAN - A huge number of people and officials converged at Imam Khomeini’s mausoleum in Tehran on Thursday to mark the 26th anniversary of the decease of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Seyyed Rouhollah Khomeini.

Born in the central city of Khomein on September 24, 1902, Imam Khomeini led the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which culminated in the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s monarchy.

Imam Khomeini passed away on June 4, 1989 at the age of 87.

Addressing the gathering of mourners from every corner of the country at the Imam Khomeini mausoleum, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said Imam Khomeini’s school of thought was a promising roadmap drawn for the Iranian nation.

Referring to the necessity of dealing with attempts made to portray a wrong image of Imam Khomeini, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “Reviewing the documented principles of the Imam’s school of thought is the only way to tackle attempts [aimed at] distorting the personality of that great [leader]; principles like proving the pure Islam and negation of the American Islam, trust in the authenticity of the divine promise and distrust of the arrogant [powers], trust in people’s will and power and opposition to governmental centralizations, serious support for the poor and opposition to aristocracy, seriously supporting the world’s oppressed and explicit opposition to international bullying [powers], independence and rejection of submission to hegemony, and emphasis on the national unity.”

“Despite certain efforts to confine him to his time, the great Imam is manifestation of the great and history-making movement of the Iranian nation and naturally distorting his character would inflict heavy damage on the persistence of this drive. Therefore, we should be totally vigilant on this issue,” the Leader added, according to khamenei.ir.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the “intellectual, political, and social” thoughts of Imam Khomeini set the “roadmap” for the Iranian nation to achieve such lofty objectives as justice, progress and authority, emphasizing that “without an accurate and non-distorted knowledge of the Imam, persistence of this roadmap would not be possible.”

------------ Imam Khomeini’s prominent personality

Referring to the prominent jurisprudential, mystic and philosophical aspects of the late Imam’s personality, the Supreme Leader said Imam Khomeini’s character was the realization of Quranic verses describing genuine combatants of the God’s path, who have accomplished their mission of jihad.

Ayatollah Khamenei said, “The high-profile Imam of the Iranian nation overthrew the rotten and wrong regime of hereditary monarchy through a unique development in the history of this land and the Muslim world, and established the first Islamic government since the advent of Islam and wholeheartedly accomplished the mission of Jihad in the path of God.”

He said “internal jihad and profound spirituality” are complementary to political, social and intellectual jihad embarked on by the late Imam. “The mindset which set the stage for these great developments was based on an ideology relying on monotheism.”

The Supreme Leader said a second specification of the Imam Khomeini school of thought was its being up-to-date.

“By relying on his cohesive intellectual mindset, the Imam offered solutions to problems that the Iranian society and human societies were suffering from, and the nations realized the value of these solutions and that is why the Imam’s school was expanding among nations.”

He said liveliness, dynamism and practicality were among other features of Imam Khomeini school of thought.

“The Imam was not like some intellectual theorists and ideologues who utter attractive words within their circles, which are not effective in practice. “

The Supreme Leader said creating motivation, dynamism and hope among the Iranian nation are auspicious outcomes of following the Imam and his school of thought.

“The great Iranian nation is still largely distant from realizing its objectives, but the important point is that the nation and its youths continue this illuminated path with hearts filled with motivation and determination and hope.”

Stressing that the global arrogance and bullying powers continue to rivet their covetous eye on Iran as a great, rich and important country in the region, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “Deceitful powerful [governments] in the world will not abandon their insatiable greed unless the Iranian nation becomes so advanced and powerful to dash their hopes.”

Noting that the path for the progress and strength of the Iranian nation depends on moving within the framework of the principles and fundamentals of the Imam’s school of thought, the Leader said, “Having these issues in mind, the threat of distorting the venerable Imam becomes important and should serve as a serious warning for officials, ideologues of the revolution, old disciples of the Imam, followers of the Imam, and all the youths and pundits and academics and seminarians.”

“The venerable Imam showed a firm and unflinching personality against arrogant powers, but at the same time, he was a manifestation of affection and kindness, and compassion and infatuation before God and human beings, particularly the poor,” he said.

Stressing that the popularity of the Imam is lasting among people and that the enemy has failed to undermine this popularity, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “To that effect, the issue of distortion of the influential personality of the Imam in people’s minds is a big threat which can be staved off by reexamining the intellectual principles and fundaments of the Imam.”

The Supreme Leader said the intellectual principles and fundaments of the late Imam stem from his remarks during 15 years of the Islamic movement and 10 years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. “If these principles are placed together, the image of the real personality of Imam Khomeini will take shape.”

------------ Seven features of late Imam Khomeini’s school of thought

Ayatollah Khamenei then highlighted seven principles of the late Imam’s school of thought.

“Substantiation of the pure Mohammedan Islam and negation of the American-style Islam” is one of these principles and the Imam always put pure Islam against American-style Islam.

“In the Imam’s view, pure Islam is based on the Book and tradition, which is achieved through an illuminated viewpoint and in accordance with conditions of time and place, recognition of the potential needs of Islamic societies and human beings, and by taking into consideration the methods used by enemies and through scientific methods established in seminaries,” he said.

The Supreme Leader said “reliance on divine assistance and trust in the authenticity of the divine promise versus distrust of global arrogant and bullying powers” is the second principle in Imam’s school of thought.

“The venerable Imam always believed in divine promise and its authenticity and, on the contrary, he placed absolutely no trust in the promises of global arrogant powers.”

“Belief in people’s will and power, and opposition to governmental centralizations” was the third principle highlighted by Ayatollah Khamenei as another fundamental principle of the late Imam Khomeini’s school of thought.

Emphasizing that the venerable Imam really believed in people’s power and vote in different economic, military, reconstruction, publicity and above all electoral issues, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “During the 10-year of the Imam’s life after the revolution, eight years of which coincided with the imposed war [with Iraq (1980-1988)], around 10 elections were held without being postponed even for a single day and they were all held on time because the Imam respected the vote, thoughts and views of people in the proper sense of the word.”

The Supreme Leader went on to highlight the fourth principle of the late Imam’s school of thought, saying, “As far as domestic issues [were concerned], the Imam was a serious supporter of the poor and the oppressed and he forcefully and bitterly rejected economic inequality and aristocracy.”

On the fifth principle of the late Imam’s intellectual fundaments, the Supreme Leader said, “Regarding foreign relations, the Imam was openly in the camp opposed to international bullying and arrogant [powers] and he did not hesitate in supporting the oppressed.”

Stressing the point that the late Imam showed no sign of being willing to reconcile with the arrogant powers, Ayatollah Khamenei said the “Great Satan” allusion to the United States was a stunning invention by the late imam.

“The ideological and scientific interpretation of the “Great Satan” attribution is very extended because when someone is called as the Satan, the behavior and treatment and sentiments toward him should fall within framework of his “satanic nature,” the Leader added.

He said, “Until the last days of his life, the Imam held the same feeling vis-à-vis America and while using the “Great Satan” attribute, be believed it from the bottom of his heart.”

“Emphasis on independence and negation of submission to hegemony” was the sixth principle of the late Imam’s school of thought, which Ayatollah Khamenei highlighted in his speech.

Defining independence as “freedom on a national scale,” Ayatollah Khamenei drew attention to unacceptable contradiction that certain individuals claim to be advocating individual liberties, but speak against the independence of the country and the liberties of a nation.

He added, “Unfortunately, some are fabricating theories in order to negate independence and describe independence as ‘isolation’ or an issue of low significance, which is a very important and dangerous error.”

He referred to the late Imam’s firm belief in independence and his dismissal of hegemony, saying that most activities of enemies like threats and sanctions are designed to damage this principle. The Leader added, “The enemy is targeting the independence of the country and everyone should know the enemy’s objectives and be vigilant.”

The principle of “national unity and confronting the divisive conspiracies of the enemy” was the last principle in the late Imam Khomeini’s school of thought, which was highlighted by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

He said religious and ethnic division was among the major policies of enemies.

“From the very beginning of the victory of the revolution, our venerable Imam showed a unique reliance on national unity and unity among all people in the face of this conspiracy.”

Pointing to the persistence of the policy of division, the Supreme Leader said sowing division in the Muslim world is a major policy of the U.S. and arrogant powers.

“In the face of this conspiracy, the Islamic Republic’s view is an ‘Ummah-building’ one and is in compliance with the realization of Islamic Ummah and based on this, Iran has maintained relations with the Shia brethren of Hezbollah and the Sunni brethren in Palestine alike.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said the talk about “Shia Crescent” by the United States’ second-hand stooges as well as the U.S. tolerance or assistance for terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, like Daesh [ISIL], are evidence to the arrogant powers’ policy of sowing discord, adding, “Everyone, either Sunni or Shia, should watch out not to play into the hands of the enemy.”

He said, “Both the U.S.-backed Sunnism and the Shiaism exported to the world from London are Devil’s brothers and are agents of arrogant [powers] and the West.”

The Supreme Leader said from this viewpoint, the choice of ‘empathy and rapport’ as the motto for the current Iranian year, and emphasis on that motto were aimed at foiling enemy’s divisive policies. He added, “The enemy is threatening the very existence of Islam and all ethnic groups and denominations [of Islam] should close ranks and join hands in order to block the enemy’s infiltration into the vast Muslim world.”

Summing up this part of his speech, Ayatollah Khamenei said these fundamental principles form the basis of Imam Khomeini’s views. He added, “The Imam’s principles are not limited to these items and experts can conduct research on this issue. However, nobody should attribute whatever he desires to the Imam, but their remarks should be based on principles which exist in sources related to Imam and that in a persistent and repeated manner.”

--------- Enemies efforts to dominate Iran

In the final part of his speech, the Supreme Leader highlighted an important fact, saying, “Everyone must know that the enemy’s objective is the return of its unconditional domination on this country, and its frowns, smiles, promises and threats are all aimed at achieving this objective.”

He said the basis of enmity to Islam is opposition [of Islam] to the restoration of this hegemony, adding, “The enemy is opposed to Islam because Islam resists this conspiracy. They are also opposed to the Iranian nation because the nation is standing as firm as a mountain against them.”

Ayatollah Khamenei then referred to remarks by a veteran American politician that takfiri terrorist groups are not important for the West and that Iran, which is seeking to establish a great Islamic civilization, should be considered as enemy. The Leader added, “This policy shows the significance and necessity of Ummah-building in the Muslim world, and everybody must know that the enemy is doing its utmost to block the Islamic movement and the progress and prosperity of the Iranian nation.”

He said, “Among the [Iranian] nation, the enemy shows more opposition to anyone who is more steadfast. They are more opposed to faithful and religious elements and revolutionary organizations and institutions because they know that these elements are strong and fortified obstacles to infiltration by the enemy.”

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[highlights]


1: “In the face of this conspiracy, the Islamic Republic’s view is an ‘Ummah-building’ one and is in compliance with the realization of Islamic Ummah and based on this, Iran has maintained relations with the Shia brethren of Hezbollah and the Sunni brethren in Palestine alike.”


2: “Everyone, either Sunni or Shia, should watch out not to play into the hands of the enemy.”


3: “Deceitful powerful [governments] in the world will not abandon their insatiable greed unless the Iranian nation becomes so advanced and powerful to dash their hopes.