Khomeini Quotes

[Nancy Benigar]

Adebate has erupted over the merits of a grand expansion and renovation of a mausoleum to honor the late founder of Iran's Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, forcing an official defense of the project.

Angered by fresh images of the shrine, which lies on the southern outskirts of Tehran, Iranians have questioned whether the famously ascetic leader of the 1979 revolution would have approved of such an "extravagant," presumably costly facility.

Some shared the images on social media with quotes from Khomeini and his allies about living simply and modestly. There have been comparisons with palaces built under the Pahlavi regime that the 1979 revolution, led by Khomeini, brought down.

Persian Letters is a blog that offers a window into Iranian politics and society. Written primarily by Golnaz Esfandiari, Persian Letters brings you under-reported stories, insight and analysis, as well as guest Iranian bloggers -- from clerics, anarchists, feminists, Basij members, to bus drivers. Follow @GEsfandiari

INTRO Why Should We Care About the Ayatollah Khomeini, What He Wrote or What He Said?"The Imam", Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-89), is noteworthy to history for essentially one reason, his leadership of the Iranian Revolution of 1979.As mentioned elsewhere on this site, -fascism.html

_promises_kept.htmlone of the most dramatic and unexpected political events of the 20th Century was the Iranian Islamic Revolution: the overthrow of a modernizing, Westernizing Shah (monarch) of Iran, and his replacement with an anti-Western, revolutionary Islamist theocracy led by Khomeini. For those who weren't around or weren't paying attention when it happened, the Revolution was an astonishing event, above all because it lacked many the customary causes of revolution -- defeat at war (the Bolshevik Revolution), a serious financial crisis (French Revolution), peasant rebellion (Chinese Revolution), or a disgruntled military (Russian Revolution). [2A] and so many average people (Iranians) were involved ("it appears to have been the most popular revolution in history" according to one scholar [3A]) it overthrew a regime with barrels of oil money at his disposal, protected by both a huge and feared security apparatus and a large army lavished with state-of-the-art equipment. A regime that political experts -- journalists, officials, diplomats -- would almost certainly have voted least likely of any throughout the world to be deposed; [4A] the revolution progressed from strongly-worded open letters to the Shah by intellectuals calling for adherence to the constitution, (May 1977) to millions in the street and total economic paralysis from strikes (October 1978) in about a year and a half; and then in another four months (February 11 1979) to a declaration of neutrality by the military general staff (i.e. a declaration of surrender) in the face of takeovers of police armories, barracks and prisons by massive armed mobs to seize and distribute weapons. [5A]it was the first modern revolution where other ideologies -- like nationalism and populism -- took a back seat to religion, in fact a back seat to theocracy, i.e. the principle of clerical rule by divine right. Islamism -- the revolution's (ultimate) ideology -- was until then unheard of, or at least considered by outsiders too antiquated and otherwise ill-equipped to inspire a revolution [6A] The aftershocks of the revolution were many. In a matter of one or two years, the most populous and militarily powerful state in a region home to two-thirds of the worlds proven reserves of oil, had been transformed from the "future Japan" or Germany of the Mideast, into an avowedly anti-American and culturally anti-Western state. Khomeini dubbed Iran's erstwhile ally the "Great Satan," and threw his support behind the seizure of the U.S. Embassy by a revolutionary group and the 444-day-long hostage-taking of its staff. At the same time that Americans -- from the foreign policy elite to the man-in-the-street -- were aghast and angered, Islamists -- both Shia and Sunni -- were thrilled and energized by the revolution. If Iran could be taken over, what Muslim country couldn't be?! Assassinations, bombings, kidnappings and rebellions followed the revolution in the Muslim world, including a two-week-long takeover of in Mecca of Islam's holiest mosque by a messianic sect, ending only after French military assistance and the deaths of hundreds of Saudi insurgents (1979), the machine gunning of the pro-American Egyptian President during a military review by some of his own soldiers (1981), the deaths of 10,000 to 25,000 following an Islamist rebellion and subsequent merciless crackdown in Syrian city of Hama (1982), the bombing of the American Embassy and French and American barracks in Beirut, killing hundreds of peace-keeping troops (1983). 20+ years later, enthusiasm has abated both out and inside Iran. No other Muslim countries followed Iran's example and the Islamic Republic itself hasn't come close to meeting the goals of the revolution like self-sufficiency or an end to poverty.

(see: _promises_kept.html),

But the revolution lives on, still a powerful force to be reckoned with in Middle East politics. Though its supporters are no longer a majority they retain power, determined as ever, financing kindred Islamists in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and elsewhere. [7A] The AyatollahKhomeini's importance to the revolution is hard to overstate. He was not just the unifying figure but its architect and emotional, spiritual touchstone. The crowds that gathered for his return from exile and for his funeral ten years later were some of the largest and most emotional in Iran's history. In between these events he ruled Iran. [8A]) A senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric (a "Grand Ayatollah"), Khomeini was from the beginning of his public life a devoted enemy of Iran's then ruler, the Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi and everything the Shah stood for: secularism and Westernization. It was Khomeini's 1963 arrest that provoked the first massive demonstrations against the Shah, and Khomeini who worked to inspire and lead clerical opposition to the Shah during his 14 years in exile. Why This Page?There is no shortage of books about Khomeini and his times. What this page endeavors to do is use Khomeini's own words (albeit translated) to tell the story of his ideas, his vision, and how he dealt with frustrations to implementing them. To do it without worrying about how not to bite the visa-providing-hand of the Iranian government, and without nostalgia or awe for the original popular enthusiasm and power of the Islamic Revolution. To put emphasis on what Khomeini said that most Iranians and outside observers were either unaware of or ignored, rather than Khomeini's life or why he became the leader of the revolution. Hopefully what you read will shed light on the person some (including the American Ambassador to the United Nations), thought was "some kind of saint." [9A] Note on translations: All quotes by Khomeini are translated by others. Some are by supporters (Hamid Algar, the IRNA) or apologists (J. Borujerdi), others by detached academic scholars (Hamid Dabashi), unsympathetic professionals (Asghar Schirazi, the FBIS U.S. government agency), or outright professional foes of Khomeini (Iranians Amir Taheri and the members of the Homa Darabi Foundation). Surprisingly, you may find it's sometimes hard to tell the point of view of the translators without knowing it ahead of time! Notes on "Intro" [1A] Khomeini is credited with dozens of books, ( lists 43 by him, and there is a 22 (16?) volume set of his letters and proclamations between 1964 and 1977 published in Sahifeh-ye Nur. (Introduction by Sayyid Ali Khamenei. 16 volumes. Tehran: Markaz-e Madarek-e Farhangi-ye Enqelab-e Islami, 1361/1982

(info from Theology of Discontent, The Ideological Foundations of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, by Hamid Dabashi, New York University Press, New York and London c1993, p.425, 581) But the six listed here are the ones most frequently described by his biographers and commentators. So far as I can tell, four of these six -- Resaleh, Velayat-e Faqih, Velayat-e Faqih (The Regency of the Theologian), Jehad-e Akbar and Political Will and Testament -- have been translated into English. [2A] Arjomand, Turban for the Crown, (1988), p.191 [3A] Massive size of the revolution:it appears to have been the most popular revolution in history in the sense that at least ten percent of the Iranian population participated, compared to little more than one percent for the 1776 American, 1789 French, or 1918 Russian revolutions. ...Numbers from Charles Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 121, quoted in "Patterns of Discontent: Will History Repeat in Iran?" by Michael Rubin and Patrick Clawson, Middle East Review of International Affairs, March 2006

[4A] Abrahamian, Iran, 1982, p.496; Harney, Priest, 1998, p.2, 179Marveling at the overthrow of the Shah, Abrahamian describes the regime as having seemed "as durable as the massive dams ... so firmly grounded that it was indestructible;" and Harney describes it as "invulnerable" and "seemingly invincible and well-armed" [5A] Abrahamian, Iran, 1982, p.502, 513, 529 [6A] Kepel, Jihad, (2002) p.194 [7A] Aid by the Islamic Republic of Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon:... Hezbollah's political rhetoric has centred on calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. Its definition of Israeli occupation has also encompassed the idea that the whole of Palestine is occupied Muslim land and it has argued that Israel has no right to exist.

The party was long supported by Iran, which provided it with arms and money.

from: "Who are Hezbollah?" Thursday, 4 April, 2002, 11:04 GMT 12:04 UK _east/1908671.stm Palestinian groups:Iran has decided to increase its financial aid to some organizations that oppose peace efforts in the Middle East. Iran has allocated a special budget for the support of some Palestinian groups who lost their sources of funding when the Soviet Union and the communist bloc collapsed, and when Libya stopped providing material support to the Palestinian organizations. A source very close to the Revolutionary Guards said that the leader of the [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad movement, Ramadhan Shalah, had visited Iran last week heading a large delegation that included the Islamic Jihad leadership, Hamas representatives, and Ahmad Jibril, leader of the PFLP - General Command, to participate in a symposium held in Tehran in support of the Intifada.

from article 'Ali Nouri Zadeh Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), June 8, 2002.

translated in "Memri Special Dispatch Series - No. 387" =subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP38702 Iraqi militia fighters:Britain accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday of supplying weapons to Shi'ite militia in Iraq used to attack British troops. ... a splinter group from the militia of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. ...

The attackers "were using technically advanced equipment that had previously been used by Lebanese Hezbollah, and they are linked with Iran. ....

Attacks in Iraq were carried out using armour-piercing explosives and infrared control mechanisms "which basically you would need specific expertise to use" and were similar to devices used by Hezbollah, the official said.

While Iran's government has publicly denied it supports Iraqi militia, "there was some suggestion that this could be elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that were involved." ...

from: "Britain blames Iran for Iraq attacks on UK troops" 05 Oct 2005 15:22:10 GMT

[8A]Khomeini's return to Iran: "men and women sobbed openly, the joy mixed with disbelief ... Even conservative estimates numbered the crowd at no less than three million." (from: In the Name of God : The Khomeini Decade by Robin Wright c1989, p.37) [9A] "... in his first few months in power a majority of Iranian and foreign observers of the revolution were so enthusiastic about its authentic and popular basis that their judgments about Khomeini were coloured by wishful idealism. ...Clearly, both Ambassador Andrew Young, who thought of Khomeini has a kind of saint, and the State Department's Iran Country Director Henry Precht, who believed some American newspapers were misreading and exaggerating Khomeini's early writings, proved to be wrong." from: p.10Iran Since the Revolution , by Sepehr Zabih, Johns Hopkins Press, 1982 Kashf al-Asrar Khomeini's first book was Kashf al-Asrar, aka Secrets Unveiled, was published in 1942 "to little notice," while Khomeini was still a minor cleric. A short, unsigned book/pamphlet its ostensive theme was a defense of Shi'ism against theological attacks by its Islamic arch-rival the Wahhabi sect. Those who've written about Khomeini describe its actual theme as (variously): an attack on Iran's recently deposed ruler the militant anti-clerical modernizer Reza Shah, on the renegade Shi'a clergymen who had collaborated with the Shah, or on the "growing number of secular intellectuals" in Iran -- specifically a popular, influential writer by the name of Ahmad Kasravi. Kasravi was assassinated three years later by Fedayeen of Islam, an early Islamist terrorist group. According to Iranian journalist Amir Taheri, the assassins interpreted Khomeini's book as a fatwa (Islamic legal decree) calling for Kasravi's death. [1B] Khomeini on Killing and Conquest No complete English translation of the book/pamphlet has ever been published as far as I can tell, but Amir Taheri did translate a snippet of it where Khomeini explains the importance of war, violence and conquest for Muslims: Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled and 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 say: 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 Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other ayat [Qur'anic verses] and ahadith 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. [2B] Some more nuggets from Kashf al-Asrar were translated for The Little Green Book, a book of Khomeini quotes published after the 1979 Islamic Revolution as a takeoff on "The Little Red Book" of legendary Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse Tung. On the Danger of MusicWe affirm that music engenders immorality, lust, and licentiousness, and stifles courage, valor, and the chivalrous spirit; it is forbidden by Quranic laws and must not be taught in the schools.[3B]On the Danger of any Innovation in Islamic LawIf anyone, in the guise of pursuing Islamic justice, interprets the Law in a manner contrary to the divine will, he has committed the sin of innovation. Learned men are bound to condemn him or they will themselves be condemned. [4B] On the Danger of "A Thousand Varieties of Corruption"Khomeini supporter Hamid Algar translated four pages from Kashf al-Asrar [5B]. A tour de force of fury and self-pity, it rages against just about everything -- the government of the Shah's father, Reza Shah -- "idiotic and treacherous ... poisonous ... heinous... a gang to plunder the country," which allowed "women's going naked in the streets" (a reference to the Shah's father's banning of the traditional hijab covering of women's faces, not actual nudity) and the practice of "lechery, treachery, music, dancing, and a thousand other varieties of corruption." The International Time Zone system, with its ridiculous requirement that different cities in the same zone to use the same time -- "what nightmare is this into which we are plunged?" [6B]. The Iranian people were not spared a tongue lashing either -- Wherever you go and whomever you encounter, from the street sweeper to the highest official, you will see nothing but disordered thoughts, confused ideas, contradictory opinions, self-interest, lechery, immodesty, criminality, treachery, and thousands of associated vices. [Islam and Revolution, p.171]Surrounded by idiots and knaves, his wisdom unappreciated, Khomeini could only shake his head in exasperation.There is much to be said, much that is weighing on my mind, but where are the ears to listen to me, where is the perception to understand me? [Islam and Revolution, p.173]On Islamic Government (Version 1.0) -- Rule by Islamic Clerics Isn't Necessary, God's Law IsAlthough Khomeini is furious with the Shah's regime, he specifically says, "We do not say that government must be in the hands of the faqih [an Islamic jurist]; rather we say that government must be run in accordance with God's law ..."(p.170) Elsewhere he asserts that the practical power of the mujtaheds excludes the government and includes only simple matters such as legal rulings, religious judgments, and intervention to protect the property of minors and the weak. Even when rulers are oppressive and against the people, they [the mujtaheds] will not try to destroy the rulers. [7B]. [source: Kashf-i Asrar, (Secrets Revealed) (Tehran, n.d.) p.186] This statement is noteworthy because it directly contradicts the idea Khomeini is most famous for -- that not only should the faqih govern, but that their suitability for ruling is obvious to anyone who has come general awareness of the beliefs and ordinances of Islam, [Velayat-e Faqih, Hokumat-e-Eslami (Islamic Government), p.27] and prevented from coming to pass only by several centuries of malicious propaganda on the part of the imperialists. [8B]. Notes on "Kashf al-Asrar" [1B] In Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah (p.61), Baqer Moin says "the real target of Kasf al-Asrar was not Reza Shah but the renegade clergymen who in Khomeini's eyes had actively collaborated with" Reza Shah

Amir Taheri says Kashf al Asrar (Key to the Secrets)" written to rebut criticism of Islam by a growing number of secular intellectuals. ... Khomeini's pamphlet was vitriolic both in sentiment and tone and amounted to a virtual death sentence on Kasravi. Without naming the guilty intellectual, Khomeini denounced all those who criticized Islam as mahdur ad-damm, meaning that their blood must be shed by the faithful. The pamphlet was almost totally ignored. except for Fedayeen. Fedayeen of Islam member Hussein Emami, assassinated Ahmad Kasravi in 1945, He was promptly arrested and sentenced to death but pardoned after Shi'a clergy applied pressure on the Shah. (Taheri, p.101) [2B] Qom 1986. (Originally published in Qom in 1942 and reprinted in Teheran in 1980 and 1983). Translated here by an Iranian journalist and Khomeini critic Amir Taheri, from: Holy Terror, London 1987, p.226-7.] [3B] Little Green Book, p.12 (The Little Green Bookcontains quotations from Khomeini's three books: Mysteries unveiled, The Guardianship of the Jurist, The Explanation of Problems. Originally published in French as Les Principles Politiques, Philosphiques, Sociaux et Religieux de L'Ayatollah Khomeiny by Editions Libres-Hallier in 1979.) [4B] Little Green Book, p.24 [5B] Islam and Revolution (1981) p.169-173, under the title "A Warning to the Nation." [6B] Islam and Revolution, p.172

Note: prior to the International Time Zone system, every locality had its own time with 12 noon set to match the moment in that city when the sun was at highest point in the sky. This was natural for an era when travel was relatively slow and infrequent, but would have played havoc with railway timetables and general modern long-distance communications. In the decades after 1880 governments around the world replaced local time with 24 international time zones, each covering 15 degrees of the earth's latitude (with some exceptions for political boundaries).

That Khomeini could only understand this process as an example of foreigners theft of the "reason, intelligence and all other senses" of Iranian modernizers, did not bode well for country he would come to rule. [7B] Kashf-i Asrar, (Secrets Revealed) (Tehran, n.d.) p.186, quoted in Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, (1982), p.476. Full quote:The mujtaheds have never rejected the system of government nor the independence of Islamic governments. Even when they have judged certain laws to be against God's regulations and particular government to be bad, still they have not opposed the system of government. Nor will they. Why not? Because a decayed government is better than none at all. Consequently, the [practical] power of the mujtaheds excludes the government and includes only simple matters such as legal rulings, religious judgments, and intervention to protect the property of minors and the weak. Even when rulers are oppressive and against the people, they [the mujtaheds] will not try to destroy the rulers. In another of his books Ervand Abrahamian emphasises that in Kashf al-Asrar Khomeini explicitly disavowed wanting to overthrow the throne and repeatedly reaffirmed his allegiance to monarchies in general and to `good monarchs` in particular. He argued that the Shi'i clergy had never opposed the state as such, even when governments had issued anti-Islamic orders, for `bad order was better than no order at all.` He emphasized that no cleric had ever claimed the right to rule ... [Abrahamian, Khomeinism (1993), p.20] [8B] [Velayat-e Faqih, Hokumat-e-Eslami (Islamic Government), p.136] So how does the man who translated Khomeini saying "We do not say that government must be in the hands of the faqih [an Islamic jurist]; rather we say that government must be run in accordance with God's law ..." (p.170), explains away this clash with Velayat-e Faqih? In his "Imam Khomeini's Brief Biography" http:www.khomeini.org/GatewayToHeaven/Information/imamsbiography.htm Algar explains that in Kashf al-Asrar Khomeini "stopped short" of demanding the abolition of the monarchy, proposing instead that an assembly of competent mujtahids should choose `a just monarch who will not violate God's laws and will shun oppression and wrongdoing, who will not transgress against men's property, lives and honor.` Even this conditional legitimacy of monarchy was to last `only so long as a better system could not be established.` There can be no doubt that the `better system` already envisaged by Imam Khomeini in 1944 was vilayat-i faqih, which became the constitutional cornerstone of the Islamic Republic of Iran ..." [Khomeini quotes from p.186-7 of Kashf al-Asrar] So did Khomeini refrain from really saying what he thought of monarchy in Kashf al-Asrar until the time for frontal attack on monarchy was more propitious? This theory is also problematic. If he was worried about royal retribution it didn't stop him from making bitter attacks on Reza Shah and in any case Khomeini's name did not appear on Kashf al-Asrar which was published unsigned. Further, the monarchy in Iran was decidedly weak when Kashf al-Asrar came out (1942) than when his plan for abolishing monarchy -- Velayat-e Faqih, Hokumat-e-Eslami (The Regency of the Theologian, Islamic Government) -- was first promoted (1970). It was World War II and the Russians and British had just invaded and occupied Iran. Reza Shah had been deposing just a few months earlier and replaced him with his inexperienced young son, the young crown prince (not yet Shah) Muhammad Reza. One of the low points of Pahlavi dynasty, it was a time when premiers like Ahmed Qavam arguably held as much or more power (see: Iran Between Two Revolutions by Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press, 1982, pp.225-263) Resaleh Towzih al-Masa'el A decade or so following Kashf, Khomeini wrote a couple of major books on religion, (or more accurately religious law), these being part of the process of moving up the clerical ladder and establishing a reputation as a grand ayatollah. [1C]. One of the publications (Resaleh Towzih al-Masa'el, also Risaleh Towzih al Masa'il aka Questions Clarified), is available in English, translated by J. Borujerdi, with a foreword by Michael M. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi.[2C]. This book is a collection of (almost 2900) questions by, and answers for, pious traditional Shi'a on how to be good Muslims. Almost all of them (80%) are about personal behavior, ritual purity, or the five pillars of Islam, (rather than public issues like business, commerce, contracts, employment, politics, etc.). [3C] Non-Muslim or non-traditionalist outsiders will probably find the answers (a.k.a. fatwas) vary in tone. some seem to be straightforward religious advise, (e.g. who can go on hajj to Mecca, when can a body be exhumed from a grave).some seem commonsense, but outside the realm of the sacred or spiritual, (e.g. wash your hands before eating, don't eat after you are full (#2637), don't eat anything "harmful" (#2630)).some seem arbitrary, (wine is unclean, hashish is not (#111), don't cut bread with a knife or peel fruit (#2637), make sure any locust you eat has grown wings and can fly (#2632)).many seem picayune to the point of obsessiveness, (wash a container 3X if contaminated by a dog, but 7X if by a pig (#150,152), when urinating or defecating don't squat in the direction of Mecca (#59) and be sure to follow these (surprisingly) detailed instructions ... After urination, one must first wash the anus if it has been soiled by urine; then one must press three times with the middle finger and the base of the penis; then one must put his thumb on top of the penis and his index finger on the bottom and pull the skin forward three times as far as the circumcision ring; and after that three times squeeze the tip of the penis. (#72, (Resaleh p.42))A few deal with situations or questions that don't make a whole lot of sense - A body is allowed to exhumed from its grave for (among other reasons), if "they want to take out a living child from the belly of a buried pregnant woman." (#643.) The traditional Muslim practice of establishing kinship relations through the breast feeding of a nursemaid requires that "the child drinks the milk of a woman who is alive. Thus it is useless to drink from the breast of a dead woman." (#2472) It's okay to eat a piece of fish even if the remaining part of the fish "falls into the water [and is] still alive." (#2621).... still others sound like they make sense more as pre-scientific village folk wisdom than sacred truths, Women who are descended from the Prophet Muhammad have menopause "after they finish sixty years of age .... Others who are not of Mohammed's descent enter menopause when they finish the age of fifty." (#435. (Resaleh p.54) But whether straightforward or weird, not one of Khomeini's answers includes an explanations of WHY a rule must be followed, or why Khomeini answered the question the way he did. The closest Khomeini ever comes to offering an explanation is this run-on sentence in question #2633 on the danger of drinking alcoholic beverages.Wine is the root of evils and the source of sins and whoever drinks wine loses his sanity and does not recognize God at that time and has no fear of committing any sin and has no respect for anyone and does not respect the rights of his close relatives and does not turn away from flagrant indecencies and the spirit of faith and piety exits from his body and a defective spirit of devilishness, which is distant from God's mercy, will remain in him and God and the angels and the prophets and the faithful will curse him and his prayer will not be accepted for 40 days and on the judgment day his face is black and his tongue is lolling out and his saliva is running over his chest, loudly crying of thirst. Finally, readers may be surprised to learn is that almost all of Resaleh Towzih al-Masa'el was copied, not written by Khomeini. Resaleh Towzih al-Masa'el is a sort of template, the original having been written by the revered Ayatollah Sayyid Hossein Borujerdi a decade earlier. Borujerdi's book in turn was based on a turn-of-the-century text by Sayyid Kazem Yazdi's (d.1919) `Urwat al-wuthqa ("The Handle of Trust"), making Resaleh ... a relatively newfangled work by the standards of Shi'a clerics. Khomeini was one of many mujtahid clerics who published copies of the work with slight variations on the original,[4C] though which parts are Borujerdi's original fatwas and which are Khomeini's input is not explained. (Note: in the citations below, the numbers refer to those found in J. Borujerdi's translation, the page numbers refer to the Little Green Book, whose translations are more readable.) Khomeini on Cleanliness More t