Manifestation of the Friend

Perfect Role Model

part 1

Discipline in Affairs

The Imam did not take up classes only for two days The  most  important  characteristic  of  the  Imam  was  his  discipline. Throughout my education, I never saw anybody as resolute and proficient as him. It never occurred that he give lectures without previous studies.

Ruhollah is Ruhollah

For  approximately  eight  years  I  attended  the  lectures  on  external jurisprudence and rational theology of the Imam. He would be punctual and always be present on the hour even when he was giving lectures at the Salamasi Mosque in Qom. Some of his students would attend other classes before his lecture was due and for this reason they would sometimes be a few minutes late for the start of the Imam’s class. He would get upset and would sometimes rebuke them. It is well-known that the Imam himself during his days as a seminary student was disciplined and punctual. The late Ayatollah Shahabadi (the Imam’s spiritual guide) had said thus about the discipline and attendance of the Imam at the lectures: “Ruhollah is truly Ruhollah (spirit of God); I do not recall a single day when he was not in class after I had spoken ‘in the Name of Allah’. Always before I would begin the lecture in the name of Allah, he would be present.”‌

He would not delay even for a minute

Yet another characteristic of the Imam was that he gave great importance to his classes such that he would always be punctual and would not delay even for a minute. During the years of repression he would teach at the Faydiyyah Theological School. On one of the days when the ‘SAVAK’ secret police invaded the school, all the students attended and so did the Imam as was normal. When he were confronted with this scene, we thought that the classes would not be held on that day but contrary to our expectation, the Imam sat on the floor of the courtyard of the shrine of Her Holiness Ma‘soomah and conducted the classes.

Punctuality in attending classes

At times when the students were shoddy or were unpunctual in class attendance, or were undisciplined in the affairs of their living, he would be very troubled and repeatedly on certain occasions remind the students of this point that in the world those persons would attain their objectives and earn a living that were systematic and disciplined in life.

By regulating time, the tasks become easier to handle

The Imam would quote his mentor the late Ayatollah Shahabadi who authored “Jawahir”‌ and would write a few pages of that book on every night. He had a son who was knowledgeable, virtuous and his favorite but who passed away. The burial rites were postponed by a day. At night the body was placed in a room while the writer of “Jawahir”‌ passed that night beside the body of his son and wrote the same number of pages of the book on that sorrowful night as on other nights. After narrating this incident the Imam would emphasize that men must work hard as well as regulate the tasks because with discipline and organizing the tasks became easier to handle.

We should tell him to become regular

One  summer  when  the  Imam  was  in  Tehran,  he  participated  in  the congregations prayers led by Ayatollah Sayyid Abul-Hassan Rafi‘i Qazvini. Mr. Rafi‘i was leading the dusk and night mandatory prayers in the Friday Mosque of Tehran, but he would not come regularly. One day when Mr. Rafi‘i came late, the Imam stood up and told the people who were participating in that congregation prayer that, “Come on and let us tell him to lead the prayers regularly. In this irregular manner that he comes, he wastes the time of many people. All of us together should tell him to hold the congregation prayers regularly.”‌

After that Mr. Rafi‘i came and began to hold the prayers. After the prayers were ended, a person told him that: “A young man was telling the people to tell you to be punctual. He was almost protesting your unpunctuality.”‌ Mr. Rafi‘i responded saying: “Who was that man?”‌ That man pointed to the Imam who was busy reciting prayers on the other side. As soon as Mr. Rafi‘i’s eyes fell on the Imam, he stated: “He is Haj Aqa Ruhollah. He is a man who is extremely learned, accomplished, extremely pious, disciplined and spiritually pure; he is right. If I come late again then request him to lead the prayers on my behalf.”‌

Discipline even in solitary confinement

When after the Imam was arrested on the night of June 5, 1963, and taken to Tehran, for nineteen days, he was kept at a secret location and thereafter taken to a solitary confinement cell for 24 hours. The Imam himself would state that the length of the prison cell was four and half steps long and he would walk across the cell three times daily, each time lasting from half to three hours as was his normal everyday routine.

Fourteen-year discipline in performing pilgrimage

During the period of his stay in Najaf it was the Imam’s habit that at 2.30 AM past midnight and recently at 2.00 AM he would enter the outer yard from the inner room and receive the clergy and the people. Thereafter, at 3.00 AM he would go to visit the shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, Hazrat Ali (A.S) and would read the dual supplications both standing and sitting and would return home after reciting the pilgrimage prayer. This was the program of the Imam throughout the fourteen-years of his stay in Najaf except on Friday nights in summer when after the dusk and night prayers, it was time to cleanse the shrine and on such times the Imam would not visit the shrine.

Source:

The Book "Manifestation of the Friend: A collection of memoirs about Imam Khomeini (R.A)"

Other Links:

Manifestation of the Friend: Subtle Spirit (part 14)

Manifestation of the Friend: Subtle Spirit (part 15)