Sometime before the sorrowful demise of His Holiness the Imam enquired about one of the erudite personalities of the Qom theological Seminary who although was a great erudite as well as an ethical and spiritual figure among the scholars, regarded by the general public as an unknown and forgotten personality. The Imam gave instructions to send him a certain sum of money.
It was agreed that I should pay him a visit in Qom and handover the sum to him. The blessed fasting month of Ramadan and the problem of travelling with the intent to fast caused me to delay my trip. Meanwhile, the Imam’s illness worsened and he was hospitalized and subsequently passed away from this world for the Highest Kingdom but again I did not succeed in sending the money to him. For settling of accounts and delivering the sums of money to the management of the Qom Theological Seminary and in keeping with the Imam’s last will, I converted the aforesaid cash into a banker’s cheque and finally had the honour of journeying to the blessed city of Qom, but on reaching, I found out that he was not in Qom and had gone on a journey. I tried for the second and third time until finally after a few months I managed to nail him down. First I called him on the phone and introduced myself. With regard to his past favours to my humble self and my close friendship with him dating back to the year 1963, he was pleased to hear from me. When I told him that I had a packet for him from the Imam, it seemed he heard it wrong and I knew that he had not understood what I had meant. So I repeated myself and told him that I had a packet for him from the Imam and apologized for the delay. Although he had a soft and eloquent speech, yet he replied with difficulty and stammered: “From the Imam; what packet?”
His throat was choked with emotion and as he was crying, he was unable to speak. As was arranged, I left for his home with some amount of delay and when I reached, I saw him standing in the street and waiting anxiously. I entered his humble dwelling and waited in the small drawing room. It was around three in the afternoon in the hot summer of Qom. The small and out of order portable fan of his was neither able to reduce the scorching heat nor the warmth of the cordial atmosphere. He could still not believe that I had come to see him on behalf of the Imam; he could still not believe that he was to receive a packet from the Imam three months after the Imam’s passing away and he still did not know what the packet was all about. Tears had replaced the usual protocol of inquiring about his health and well-being. In whatever way I could, I narrated the incident to him and he wept profusely. I felt that his tears were abnormal and there should be a specific reason for it as well. Finally and gradually he was able to speak and then it became clear that he was sick and had spent the summer in the holy city of Mashhad and had just returned from the journey. He was intensely moved by the fact that the Imam had been thinking about him without having any apparent reason and this deepened his grief at the sad loss of the Imam. The Imam’s favour was one side of the issue and that he had instructed that such and such amount be sent to him and the delay in sending it until after his demise while he was away from Qom and finally, receiving the amount on that day which was close to the end of the month and at that particular hour was the other side of the issue.
Later and in a subtle manner I came to know that the family of that erudite scholar were living in utter poverty and did not have anything to eat on that day!
Name of the narrator: Mohammd Hassan Rahimian, In Light of Sun, page 222.
Title of the Book: Impressions and Memoirs about Imam Khomeini's Practical Behaviour, vol. 1, chapter six, pages 254 & 255