Ruhollah Khomeini

Only God, the Exalted, is the light; everything else is darkness.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

The essential purpose of revelation is to develop divine knowledge in man.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Most of the wailings of the awliya [pious believers] is caused by the pain of separation and detachment from the Beloved and His Generosity.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

That which admits man to God's Threshold is his separation from all that is not of God—a thing which is not attainable by all.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Evidently, adoration, worship and sanctification of God require knowledge and awareness of His Most Exalted Station as well as the Attributes of His Glory and Grandeur; without due knowledge and awareness, these cannot be fulfilled.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

The essence of praise accrues to none but God; your praise of a rose or an apple is [in essence] praise of God.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

[If] you have divine motives, material benefits will follow suit but they are no longer material; they have become divine.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

You were invigorated by mindfulness of God, migration from oneself to God—which is the greatest migration—migration from ego to the truth, and from this world to the unseen world.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Negligence of God increases the indignation of the heart, gives the ego and Satan domination over man, and increases corruption in him daily. [On the contrary,] mindfulness and remembrance of God bestows serenity on the heart, burnishes it and makes it a mirror reflecting the Beloved. It purges and purifies the soul and saves man from the bondage of ego.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Apprise your veiled and drooping hearts that the universe, from the highest heavens [ala al-illiyyin] to the lowest in hell [asfal as-safilin], is a manifestation of God, the Blessed and Exalted, and all are in the threshold of His Power.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

O nation, wake up! O government, wake up! Everybody wake up! You are all in the Presence of God. Tomorrow (in the next world), you will be called to account. Do not ignore the blood of our martyrs, and do not quarrel over position or status.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

That which eases calamities is the fact that all are departing mortals. All of us will pass away; so, it is better to be sacrificed in His path.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

The prophetic mission created a scientific-gnostic change in the world that converted the insipid Greek philosophies, which were formulated with all their past and present worth by the Greeks themselves into an objective mysticism and a veritable intuitive perception for masters of divine insight.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

(Addressed to religious leaders of Christianity:) To please the Lord and carry out the decrees of the Holy Christ, let the bells in your churches peal out in favor of the oppressed Iranians, and in condemnation of the oppressors.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

... the imperialists really have no religious belief, Christian or Islamic. Rather, throughout this long historical period, and going back to the Crusades, they felt that the major obstacle in the path of their materialistic ambitions and the chief threat to their political power was nothing but Islam and its ordinances, and the belief of the people in Islam. They therefore plotted and campaigned against Islam by various means.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Their plan is to keep us backward, to keep us in our present miserable state so they can exploit our riches, our underground wealth, our lands, and our human resources. They want us to remain afflicted and wretched, and our poor to be trapped in their misery. Instead of surrendering to the injunctions of Islam, which provide a solution for the problem of poverty, they and their agents wish to go on living in huge palaces and enjoying lives of abominable luxury.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

At the start of their mission, the prophets first confronted the upper class; Hadrat Moses, confronted the Pharaoh. The upper class enjoys the priority of being confronted and guided first.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Sexual vice has now reached such proportions that it is destroying entire generations, corrupting our youth, and causing them to neglect all forms of work. They are all rushing to enjoy the various forms of vice that have become so freely available and so enthusiastically promoted. Why should it be regarded as harsh if Islam stipulates that an offender should be publicly flogged in order to protect the younger generation from corruption?

— Ruhollah Khomeini

If the religious leaders have influence, they will not permit girls and boys to wrestle together, as recently happened in Shiraz.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Give them Islam, proclaim to the world the program of Islamic government; maybe the kings and presidents of the Muslim countries will understand the truth of what we say and accept it. We would not want to take anything away from them; we will leave anyone in his place who faithfully follows Islam.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

... in our domestic and foreign policy, ... we have set as our goal the world-wide spread of the influence of Islam ... We wish to cause the corrupt roots of Zionism, capitalism and Communism to wither throughout the world. We wish, as does God almighty, to destroy the systems which are based on these three foundations, and to promote the Islamic order of the Prophet ...

— Ruhollah Khomeini

if you hope at this juncture to cut the Gordian knots of socialism and communism by appealing to the center of Western capitalism, you will, far from remedying any of the ills of your society, commit a mistake which those to come will have to erase. For if Marxism has come to a deadlock in its social and economic policies, capitalism has also bogged down.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

The people will not rest until the Pahlavi rule has been swept away and all traces of tyranny have disappeared. As long as the Shah's satanic power prevails, not a single true representative of the people can possibly be elected.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

With people's revolutionary rage, the king will be ousted and a democratic state, Islamic Republic, will be established.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

In the Islamic Republic the rights of the religious minorities are respectfully regarded.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

You young people yourselves are capable of performing anything. Our inventors can invent in a high level, Our innovators can innovate in a high level, only if they keep self confidence and believe that we can.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

In Iran's future Islamic system everyone can express their opinion, and the Islamic government will respond to logic with logic.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

In the Islamic government all people have complete freedom to have any kind of opinion.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

After the Shah's departure from Iran, I will not become a president nor accept any other leadership role. Just like before, I limit my activities only to guiding and directing the people.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Before the revolution I thought there are appropriate individuals who would do the job according to Islam, therefore I repeatedly said that clerics would go after their own job. Then I saw that most of them were inappropriate individuals and I found out that what I said was not true, so I came and clearly announced that I was wrong.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Ayatollah, would you be so kind as to tell us how you feel about being back in Iran?Nothing. I don't feel anything. (Hichi. Hich ehsasi nadaram)

— Ruhollah Khomeini

These people are trying to bring back the regime of the late Shah or another regime. I will strike with my fists at the mouths of this government. From now on it is I who will name the government.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Variant: I shall kick their teeth in. I am appointing the government. I am appointing the government by the support of this nation!

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Don't listen to those who speak of democracy. They all are against Islam. They want to take the nation away from its mission. We will break all the poison pens of those who speak of nationalism, democracy, and such things.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Islamic state means a state based on justice and democracy and structured upon Islamic rules and laws.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

In Islam, democracy is included and people are free in Islam, both in expressing their opinions and their actions, until there is no conspiracy and they don't bring up ideas which would deviate Iranian generation.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Happy are those who have departed through martyrdom. Unhappy am I that I still survive.… Taking this decision is more deadly than drinking from a poisoned chalice. I submitted myself to Allah's will and took this drink for His satisfaction.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

…the author of The Satanic Verses book which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Qu'ran, and all involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them wherever they find them, so that no one will dare to insult the Islamic sanctions. Whoever is killed on this path will be regarded as a martyr, God willing.

— Ruhollah Khomeini

Americans are the great Satan, the wounded snake.

— Ruhollah Khomeini