The present book contains the guidances and positions adopted by a great man who transformed his divine movement into a great revolution in the Islamic world by reliance on God and faith in the great power of the people.
A study of the present anthology clearly reveals that at the height of the power of the oppressive imperial system in Iran, Imam was the divulger of the secret relations which existed between the Shah’s regime and Israel, that he considered confronting the danger posed by Israel to the Islamic world to be a very serious issue and that he continually pursued this issue.
Imam Khomeini was the first marja-i taqlid (source of religious guidance) and great religious leader to authorise the use of monies received for charitable disbursement to support the Palestinian combatants.
When the Quds-occupying regime perpetrated yet another crime in its long list of crimes and set fire to the al-Aqsa mosque, Imam Khomeini, with complete foresight and in stark contrast to the policy adopted by others on the matter, which was to endeavour to have the mosque rebuilt, stressed the need to preserve the vestiges of Israel’s crimes as a symbolic factor to incite and encourage the Muslims to rise up against the existence of the main reason for the crime, that is the occupying regime.
He said, “They set fire to the Masjid al-Aqsa. We cry out: ‘Leave the Masjid al-Aqsa half-burned to the ground; do not erase all traces of the crime!’ But the Shah’s regime opens an account, sets up a fund, and starts collecting money from the people supposedly to rebuild the Masjid al-Aqsa, but really to fill the pockets of our rulers while also covering up the crime committed by Israel.”
From the very beginning, he introduced the Islamic aspect and the ideological dimension of the struggle with Israel as the most effective factor in the movement for mobilising the oppressed Palestinian nation and attracting support for them from the Islamic ummah.
He considered other methods of struggle, such as reliance on Arab nationalism and nationalist views along with other imported and non-Islamic ideologies, as a departure from the path of struggle for the freedom of Quds.
Imam had a clear insight into the internal problems besetting the Islamic world, amongst them the weakness, inability or subordinate nature of some of the heads of Islamic states. Consequently, he emphasised the importance of public knowledge and awareness in the Islamic world stemming from the principles of belief and the ummah’s common faith and culture, and of avoiding sectarian differences.
He called on the heads of the Muslim governments to accept this approach too, and believed that as long as the governments were of the same mind as their people and went along with Muslim public opinion and demand, they were to be entrusted with the authority of leadership and with the responsibility for guiding the struggle, otherwise the Muslim nations should do to them what the Muslim nation of Iran did to the Shah.
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