Imam Khomeini’s Last Will and Testament

It is necessary to preserve these curses, and it is necessary to include elegies in the memory of the Imams (A.S.) and also the condemnation of the oppressors of each epoch. The present era, which is the epoch of the oppression against the Muslim world by America, the Soviets and their lackeys, such as the Saudis, may God’s curse go to them, these conspirators against the House of God: they should be condemned firmly. We should all know that what will unite Muslims is this political ceremony [the Friday prayer], which will protect the dignity and preserve the identity of Muslims, particularly the Twelver Shi’is.
What I need to remind everyone here is that my politico¬ religious testament is not written solely for the noble people of Iran, but it is an advice for all Muslim nations as well as the oppressed people of the world, regardless of nationality and creed.
I humbly appeal to the glorious and magnificent God never to neglect us and not to deny the children of Islam and our beloved combatants His divine blessings.
Ruhollah al-Musavi al-Khomeini
1. For an account of this important tradition for the Shi’i Muslims see Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai. Shi’ite in Islam. Translated by Sayyid Husayn Nasr. (Albany: The State University of NewYork Press, 1975) and the Sources cited therein.
Based on this tradition, the Shi is consider these” two great and precious things” (thaqalayn) as the two cardinal foundations of their faith. Since the great interpreters of the Shi’i traditions and faith have also called them “the trusts” (amanat) of the prophet, in Imam Khomeini’s testament wherever reference is given to it, we will translate it “the two trusts”. (T).
2. Imam Khomeini simply quotes “the pool” without bothering with the name Kawthar. The latter literally means “abundance” but here it refers to what the Prophet has described as a river in Practise (lbn Hisham, p. 261) and as a pool intended for him personally (al-Tabari. Tafsir. Vol. XXX, p. 180), and also described in the Holy Qur’an (XLVII: 15). (T).
3. Reference is to the six collections of traditions compiled in the third century A.H, by the following great Sunni jurists and scholars: 1) al-Bukhari (d. 256/870); 2) Muslim (d. 261/875); 3) Abu Dawud (d. 275/888); 4) al-Tirmidhi (d. 279/892); 5) al¬ Nasa’i (d. 303/915); 6) lbn Madja (d. 273/886). (T).
4. Martyrdom of Imam Hussein (A.S.) in the wake of his struggle against Yazid b. Mu’awiya in Karbala on the tenth day of the month of Moharram in the lunar in the year 61 of Islamic calendar. (T).
The Testament
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The magnificent Islamic Revolution in Iran, which has been the accomplishment of millions of estimable people and the product of the effort of thousands of memorable martyrs and disabled citizens -the Living Martyrs- and which is the hope of millions of world Muslims and oppressed masses, is so great an achievement whose description defies the power of pen and speech.
I, Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, who, despite the bulk of my faults, am not hopeless about the great benevolence of the Supreme Lord, and who am setting out to the next world with a travel kit for this perilous journey solely of my trust in the benevolence of the Generous Supreme Being, take this opportunity to mention a few items -repetitious as they may seem- in my capacity as a humble student of religion, placing my hope, like my brothers-in-faith, on this revolution and on the permanency of its fruits and its further fruition, doing so as my last will and testament to the present generation and to our dear future generations, and imploring God, the Merciful, to inspire me with absolute sincerity in my so doing.
1. We understand that this Great Revolution which curtailed influences of world-devourers and tyrants1 from the great Iran triumphed with the Invisible Help of His Divinity. In the face of the vast propaganda against Islam and the ulama, especially during the present century; of the bulk of the divisive insinuations by publicists, and silver-tongued people in the print media and in public meetings disguised as expressions of nationalistic sentiments; of the bulk of the facetious poetry and derisive witticisms, of the number and variety of quarters for prostitution, gambling, immoral amusements, drinking and narcotics aimed at attracting the young generation -a generation with an inherent commitment to the progress of our beloved country- towards corruption and indifference towards the treacherous acts of the corrupt Shah and his uncultured father; of the governments and puppet parliaments imposed on the nation by foreign embassies in Iran; of the status of colleges, universities, high schools and educational institutions with their West-struck or East-struck (gharbzadeh ya sharqzadeh) teachers and professors hostile to Islam, to the Islamic and national culture, for that matter, posing themselves as promoters of nationalism, against the presence in their circles of committed and very concerned people who could not do anything because of their being only a hard-pressed small minority; of tens of other problems, such as the government led isolation of the scholars (ulama) and the adulteration of the ideology of many of them by force of the state propaganda machinery, this nation of 36 million could not possibly have succeeded in their solid uprising with a unity of purpose and with the call of God is Great (Allahu Akbar) relying solely on their own miraculous self-sacrifices, sweeping out the ruling powers in the country and doing away with the foreign powers, making themselves the master of their own fate.
No doubt, therefore, the Islamic Revolution in Iran stands out from all other revolutions for its origin, for the features of its struggle and for the motive behind it. Doubtless the Revolution in this country has been a gift of God and a favor from the Invisible bestowed on this ravaged and tyrannized nation.
2. Islam and the Islamic government are divine entities, the fulfillment of which guarantee prosperity in this world and salvation in the Hereafter in its optimum form. It is capable of nullifying injustices, tyrannies, ravages and corruption, and of helping humanity attain its loft y goal. It is an ideology which, unlike irreligious ideologies, has guidelines for and oversees every aspect of the private life of the people as well as the social, material, spiritual, cultural, political, military and economic system of the society without overlooking any point, however trivial it may seem in connection with the education of men, and the society and their material and spiritual progress, reminding man of stumbling blocks and impediments on the road to perfection and offering solutions to those problems.
Now that with the grace of God the Islamic Republic has been instituted with the mighty hands of the committed people of this country, and bearing in mind the supremacy of Islam and Islamic edicts as far as it concerns the Islamic Republic, it is the obligation of the noble people of Iran to strive for the fulfillment of all aspects of the system, since the preservation of Islam takes precedent over all other obligations.
The great prophets, starting from Adam (A.S) to Seal of the Prophets (S.A.W), performed acts of self¬ sacrifice and struggled untiringly for that cause without allowing themselves to be hampered by any stumbling block for this cause, and their struggle was upheld later by their self-committed disciples, and by the Imams (A.S) who did their utmost for the promotion of that cause without hesitating to shed their blood for it.