Manifestation of the Friend
Perfect Role Model
part 7
Daily program of the Imam in Paris
The daily program of the life of the Imam in Paris was that he would rest and sleep between four to six hours while the rest of the time he was constantly involved with his job.
Normally, after the dawn prayers, he would begin recitation of the glorious Qur’an and studying the reports and news that continued until 8am. The Imam even replied to letters that poured in from all over the country.
After taking lunch, he would rest for two hours and then get busy with work again and would continue until it was time for reciting the dusk and night prayers. After the mandatory prayers, he would work until midnight and according to those close to him, the Imam would go to bed to sleep and rest after 1 a.m. past midnight.
He would work day and night while in France
The Imam would work day and night while in France. Not a single day passed without him either giving a speech or declaration. Sometimes the interviewers would comment that they had never witnessed a clergyman give a speech in a 2 x 3 meter room without protocol and formality and without table and a chair and for an Iran to rally round him.2
At midnight, one could hear the sound of pen and paper
In France, as necessitated, the Imam slept no more than four hours every night. Sometimes when at 11 o’clock at night he would go to bed but at three past midnight we would hear the sound of pen and paper coming out from his room. He would not find the time during the day to read the translated newspapers because of heavy workload and so in the wee hours of the night, he would wake up to read the translated newspapers and to present his views about the news reports.
I never saw the Imam idle even once
The follow-up ability of the Imam despite his old age was to such an extent that none of those close to him could claim to have seen the Imam idle or disengaged even once and wasting his time.
In this period when we were in the presence of the Imam, we observed that there was no such thing as taking off from working for the people and the Islamic Revolution. For the Imam it made no difference whether it was summer or winter, Saturday or Friday, feast day and non-feast day. At all times he was busy either reading or worshipping or studying the various reports that he would receive.
Investigate this matter
At the beginning of the Revolution when each group and party had its own newspaper, the Imam stated: “Bring me all of them” and contrary to newspaper reading norm when normally, individuals paid more attention to headings and sub-titles rather than the contents, the Imam before anything else gave importance to the way of thinking of the newspaper journalists and their political tendencies. Thus, every morning, the dailies “Mizan”, Jumhuri-ye Islami, Azadegan and in the evenings, the evening dailies “Inqilab-e Islami”, “Ittila‘at” and “Keyhan” would be delivered to him on time. In many instances when they were delivered late, the Imam would personally come out and enquire about the late delivery of the newspapers. Although sometimes the news was disagreeable and we could not deliver them to the Imam, however, his intense persistence to read the newspapers would prevail over us. In many instances, he would send newspaper cuttings to the office and write a note asking us to “investigate the matter” and “ask the authorities for clarification” or he would want to know “why the newspaper had printed such a subject.”
The blessed life of the Imam
We repeatedly witnessed that while taking the evening stroll as a physical exercise which was important and critical for safeguarding his health, the Imam would hold a rosary in one hand and invoke the Names of Allah while holding a small radio set in the other hand by means of which he kept himself of all the events taking place inside and outside the country. Thus one can say that the actual age of the Imam was not eighty-seven years whereas it was twice as much in terms of function and application.
Source:
The Book "Manifestation of the Friend: A collection of memoirs about Imam Khomeini (R.A)"
Other Links:
Manifestation of the Friend: Perfect Role Model (part 1)
Manifestation of the Friend: Perfect Role Model (part 2)
