Imam Khomeini’s Last Will and Testament

My last word to all is to march towards a better knowledge of ourselves and towards self-sufficiency and independence in their full scope, and no doubt as long as you are at the service of God and as long as you contribute to the progress and exaltation of this Islamic country with a spirit of cooperation the hand of God will be with you, and based on my observations of our people’s vigilance, wakefulness, self-commitment, self-sacrifice and of the spirit of firmness and resistance in the cause of God, I believe there is hope that this same spirit is inherited and improved upon by all future generations.
With a tranquil and confident heart and a conscience hopeful God’s beneficence, I now take leave of my sisters and brothers for a journey to my eternal abode while I very greatly need your blessing, and supplication of the Blessed and Supreme Lord to accept my pleas for His pardoning of my negligence, my faults and my failings, and I hope the nation, too, will pardon my shortcomings, my negligence and faults and march on firmly and resolutely, assured that the absence of one servant will not cause a crack in the iron like ranks of the nation, for there are better and more noble servants among you, and Allah will protect this nation and the oppressed masses of the world.
Ruhollah al-Mousavi al-Khomeini
February 15, 1983
1. Originally toghut, a post-revolutionary term and expression adopted from the Holy Qur’an and descriptive of the nature of monarchy in Iran. (T).
2. National Construction Corps originally formed upon Imam Khomeini’s decree after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution. Volunteers for performing basic services in development, health, agriculture and related fields in rural areas and less-privileges areas in Iran comprise it. It expanded and undertook diversified tasks shortly after the outbreak of the Iraq-Iran war in 1980. (T).
3. A title used for the outlawed Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO).
4. According to Shi’ism, the fourteen are Prophet Muhammad(S.A.W ), his daughter her Holiness Fatimah (A.S ) and the twelve Imams (A.S ). (T).
5. A communist-Marxist party officially disbanded in Iran sometime after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution.
6. Communist party of Iran leaning towards Moscow, now disbanded.
7. The Islamic Revolution in Iran culminated on Feb. II, 1979, and Imam Khomeini’s last will and testament has been written in 1982.
8. A paramilitary force with various disciplinary and peace¬keeping duties formed immediately after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Feb. 1979. (T).
9. Literally, ‘Party of God’ as referred to in the Holy Qur’an, and by extension ardent and militant supporters of the Islamic Revolution.
10. The document was written when Afghanistan was under the Soviet occupation.
11. A city in northern Iran, Mazandaram Province.
12. Leftist Party in Kurdestan Province of Iran.
13. A Muslim scholar, a majlis deputy and political activist, and outspoken critic of the policies of Reza Shah died in Kash mar, in 1937.
14. Reference is to the clash between Bani-Sadr’s supporters and the members of the party of God in 1982.
15. Reference to the words of Ali Asghar, son of Imam Hussein (A.S.) in the eve of Ashura in Karbala.
The Last Will
In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate
Let Ahmad Khomeini read this last will and testament of mine to the people after my death, or if pardonable the respectable President or majlis speaker or Chief Justice, and if pardonable a member of the respectable jurisprudents of the Council of Guardians.
Ruhollah al-Mousavi al-Khomeini
Postscript
In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate
Postscript: In this postscript to my twenty-nine page last Will and Testament1 and its prologue I would like to state a few points.
1. During my life I have at times been quoted as saying things which I never said, and it is likely that more misquotations will be attributed to me after my death. Therefore. I need to say that nothing attributed to me is true unless it is my own voice or my own handwriting and has my own signature, and is authenticated as such by experts, or unless it is based on my own words, as broadcast on the I.R.I.B. (The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) during my lifetime.
2. During my lifetime certain people have pretended that they have written my messages, which I definitely deny, and I declare that none of my messages were written by any one but myself.
3. I hear that some people have said that they were responsible for my trip to Paris [in the winter of 1978], which is totally untrue. After I was denied [permission to] stay in Kuwait I decided to proceed to Paris after consultation with my son Ahmad, because it was thought that Muslim states would not give us entry visas since the governments in those countries were influenced by the shah, but Paris did not seem to be so.
4. During the Islamic Revolution on certain occasions I happened to speak highly of certain individuals, though later on I realized that I had been deluded by their sanctimonious behavior and their Islamic pretensions into believing them to be as they pretended to be. At that time they pretended allegiance and commitment to the Islamic Republic, but allegations should not be allowed to be a basis for taking undue advantages. The criteria with which to judge the people is their present-day character.
Ruhollah al-Mousavi al-Khomeini
1. The manuscript of the document (in Persian) is in 29 pages.