Imam Khomeini always advised believers and faithful people to adopt the infallible members of the holy prophet of Islam’s household as their role-model.
Although during this scholarly phase of his life Imam Khomeini was not politically active, the nature of his studies, teachings, and writings revealed that he firmly believed from the beginning in political activism by clerics.
Imam Khomeini, the contemporary leader of the Muslim world is well-known for changing political landscape of the world.
Three factors support this suggestion. First, his interest in Islamic studies surpassed the bounds of traditional subjects of Islamic law (Sharia), jurisprudence (Fiqh), and principles (Usul) and the like.
He was keenly interested in philosophy and ethics. Second, his teaching focused often on the overriding relevance of religion to practical social and political issues of the day.
Third, he was the first Iranian cleric to try to refute the outspoken advocacy of secularism in the 1940s.
His now well-known book, Kashf-e Asrar (Discovery of Secrets) was a point by point refutation of Asrar-e Hezar Saleh (Secrets of a Thousand Years), a tract written by a disciple of Iran's leading anti-clerical historian, Ahmad Kasravi.
Also he went from Qom to Tehran to listen to Ayatollah Hassan Modarres —the leader of the opposition majority in Iran's parliament during 1920s.
Imam Khomeini became a Marja in 1963, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi.
With regards to earlier life, in 1921, Imam Khomeini commenced his studies in Arak. The following year, Ayatollah Haeri-Yazdi transferred the Islamic seminary to the holy city of Qom, and invited his students to follow. Imam Khomeini accepted the invitation, moved, and took up residence at the Dar al-Shafa school in Qom before being exiled to the holy city of Najaf in Iraq. After graduation, he taught Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia), Islamic philosophy and mysticism (Irfan) for many years and wrote numerous books on these subjects.
Imam Ayatollah Seyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (May 17, 1900 – June 3, 1989) was a Muslim cleric and Marja, and the political leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran which overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Following the Revolution, Imam Khomeini became Grand Leader of Iran — the paramount figure in the political system of the new Islamic Republic — until his demise.
Imam Khomeini was considered a Marja-e taqlid to many Muslims, and in Iran was officially addressed as Imam rather than Grand Ayatollah; his supporters adhere to this convention. Imam Khomeini was also a highly-influential and innovative Islamic political theorist, most noted for his development of the theory of velayat-e faqih, the "guardianship of the jurisconsult."
Ruhollah Mousavi was born to Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Musavi and Hajieh Agha Khanum, also called Hajar, in the town of Khomein, about 300 kilometers south of the capital Tehran, Iran, possibly on May 17, 1900 or September 24, 1902.
He was a Seyyed from a religious family that are descendants of Prophet Mohammad, through the seventh Imam, (Imam Mousa Kazem). His paternal grandfather was Seyyed Ahmad Musavi.
Imam Khomeini's maternal grandfather was Mirza Ahmad Mojtahed-e Khonsari, a high-ranking cleric in central Iran whose Fatwa for banning usage of Tobacco in opposition to a monopoly granted by Shah to a British company, led to cancellation of the concession.
Imam Khomeini's father was murdered when he was five months old, and he was raised by his mother and one of his aunts.
Later, when he was 15, his mother and aunt died in the same year. At the age of six he began to study the Quran, Islam's holy book. He received his early education at home and at the local school, under the supervision of Mullah Abdul-Qassem and Sheikh Jaffar, and was under the guardianship of his elder brother, Ayatollah Pasandideh, until he was 18 years old.
Arrangements were made for him to study at the Islamic seminary in Esfahan, but he was attracted, instead, to the seminary in Arak, which was renowned for its scholastic brilliance under the leadership of Ayatollah Sheikh Abdol-Karim Haeri-Yazdi (himself a pupil of some of the greatest scholars of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq).
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