Ayatollah Khomeini: Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist

Ayatollah Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini's Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist (in Persian, Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih, which is sometimes translated as “Islamic Government: Guardianship of the Jurist”) is a book arguing for the establishment of Islamic law in the ayatollah's native Iran and elsewhere. The essence of Khomeini's belief is that because the laws of God govern society, all government leaders should be knowledgeable in Islamic law. And since Islamic jurists, called faqih have studied Islamic law, any ruler should also be a faqih and thus able to counter anti-Islamic influences emanating from non-Muslim sources, a role that Khomeini calls “guardianship.”

Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist had its origins in a series of speeches given by Khomeini in January and February 1970 to students in An Najaf, Iraq. An Najaf remains an important center of Islamic scholarship and the spiritual center of Shia Islam, the second-largest branch of the religion, behind Sunni Islam. The city is the location of a shrine to Imam ‘Ali, the first Shia leader and a son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. It was also where the ayatollah (a title meaning “signs of God,” given to high-ranking Shia clerics) spent thirteen years as a teacher at the Shaykh Murtaza Ansari madrassa, a religious school. Later that year, the speeches, which had been recorded and transcribed by a student, were collected and published in Beirut, Lebanon.

In the 1970s the book had to be smuggled into Iran under different titles, including Authority of the Jurist and A Letter from Imam Musavi Kashef al-Qita, the latter using a fake name to deceive government censors. At that time, Iran was under the control of a secular regime headed by a shah (or king), Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who enforced his rule through his notorious and feared secret police, the SAVAK, short for Sazeman-e Ettela'at va Amniyat-e Keshvar, or National Intelligence and Security Organization. In the face of growing revolutionary activity, the shah instituted repressive measures again militant Muslims, including Khomeini. In 1964 Khomeini was exiled from Iran in an effort to lessen his domestic influence. In 1977 Khomeini's son died under mysterious circumstances; many Iranians believed that his death was the work of SAVAK. Despite the shah's efforts to retain power, his regime was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist became an important text in the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, when Khomeini was proclaimed the nation's supreme leader. Khomeini was a revered figure in Iran, acquiring the title imam, which means “guide” or “one who walks in front”; the title had previously been reserved for Shia Islam's original twelve infallible leaders, the rightful successors to the prophet Muhammad. During the revolution, Khomeini's name and face became familiar to westerners primarily for his support of the seizure of fifty-three Americans who were held hostage at the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981.