The mirror of a revolutionary mystic.
As superfluous as it may seem, the best way to understand a phenomenon or figure—historical, political, or religious—is not to rely on biased narratives, nor to elevate any version distributed by the mass media to truth, but rather to approach primary sources with genuine curiosity, direct, unfiltered, and undistorted for ulterior motives. For this very reason, anyone wishing to delve deeper into the Islamic Revolution in Iran and its leader, Imam Ruhollah Khomeini, cannot avoid engaging with the latter's works, some of which have been translated into Italian over the years.
The work entitled Islamic Government. Or the Spiritual Authority of the Jurist represents a fundamental piece of understanding the geopolitics and theological-political thought that underpins the Islamic Republic of Iran. Published in Italy by Il Cerchio, the volume collects a series of lectures that Ayatollah Khomeini gave in 1969 during his exile in Najaf, Iraq, presenting itself as a true ideological manifesto that laid the foundations for the Islamic Revolution of 1979, consequently becoming a "manual" of the popular uprising that overthrew the Shah and achieved triumph. The central theme of the book is the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih, or the "guardianship or authority of the jurist", according to which, at the time of the occultation of the Imam Mahdi - the twelfth Imam of Twelver Shiism, whose return is awaited by his followers - the temporal and spiritual guidance of the community must not remain vacant nor be subjected by secular or corrupt sovereigns, but rather be exercised by the wise, or by the greatest experts in Koranic law: a vision not very dissimilar from that expressed by Plato in his Republic, where philosophers are the cornerstone of society and the only ones capable of guiding it. The State therefore has the task of applying divine law, the Sharia, in the context and contingent situation.
Sirr-us-Salah: The Secret of Prayer It is a theological treatise of extraordinary speculative complexity written in 1939. The work, published by the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of the Works of Imam Khomeini, represents a milestone in Islamic esoteric literature ('irfan) and offers a detailed map for the spiritual elevation of the believer. The central theme of the book is the exposition of the symbolic, interior and secret dimension of each single phase that makes up Islamic ritual prayer, revealing its Gnostic and esoteric meaning. The underlying thesis is that daily prayer should not be experienced as a mere fulfillment of formal precepts, but as the Mi'raj personal ascension of the believer, that is, a spiritual ascent similar to the celestial journey undertaken by the Prophet Muhammad towards the Divine Throne. To achieve this ascension, Imam Khomeini places the "presence of the heart" as an essential condition (hudur al-qalb), which requires the radical emptying of consciousness from any trace of the sensible world and from the illusions of multiplicity: as long as the heart is occupied by earthly desires, prayer remains a lifeless body.
The biggest fight, published by Irfan Edizioni, is a treatise on applied ethics and lived spirituality of fundamental importance. The text originally arose from a series of lectures and exhortative speeches that the Ayatollah addressed to students and teachers of theological schools during his exile in Najaf, Iraq, before the triumph of the Revolution. The work is placed at the heart of Islamic ethics (akhlaq), presenting itself as a practical and urgent guide for the inner reform of the individual.
The volume The Torch of Guidance to Divine Lieutenancy and Intimacy, also published by Irfan Edizioni, focuses on the in-depth and metaphysical analysis of two key concepts of Islamic Shiism: the wilāyah (spiritual intimacy or divine holiness) and the khilāfah (the divine lieutenancy or vicariate), exploring the indissoluble bond between the nature of the prophets, the essence of the Imams, and the Absolute Unity of God. The figure of the "torch" evoked in the title thus symbolizes the light of esoteric wisdom that must guide the human intellect through the veils of material reality, allowing the spiritual seeker to glimpse the divine plan and understand the cosmic function of the spiritual Guide as the supreme intermediary between the Creator and creation.
The spiritual way, published by Semar, is not a single-authored text, but rather it collects two short but dense programmatic writings extracted from the works of two of the major contemporary Shiite thinkers, offering a first theoretical and methodological approach to the search for inner and Gnostic knowledge in Islam. The first part of the text presents the Letter to his son written by Imam Khomeini (translated by Eugenio Tabano), a private and touching epistolary document in which the Guide exhorts his descendants not to be deceived by the illusions of the material world and to urgently undertake the path of inner perfection.
Selected poems is an anthology published by Il Ponte in 2004 that reveals the untold poetic and mystical dimension of Imam Khomeini, showcasing an intimate and lyrical side of the Iranian Leader. The volume, translated by V. Parisi and introduced by A. Gholi, collects verses that explore mystical themes and detachment from the material world, clearly distancing itself from the well-known political figure.
Of the Editions under the banner of the Greyhound is the Letter to Gorbachev, where Imam Khomeini openly declared that Marxist and materialist ideology had failed in its attempt to eradicate spirituality and that communism would soon end up "in the museums of world political history." The Imam warned Gorbachev against falling into the trap of Western illusions, urging him not to seek the solution to Soviet economic problems by embracing Western financial and hedonistic capitalism, but rather to propose the study of Islam not as a simple individual faith, but as a universal social, philosophical, and spiritual model, capable of filling the ideological void left by the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
The same publisher owns the Letter to the Pope, addressed by Imam Khomeini to John Paul II, who had sent his emissary (Monsignor Bugnini) to Tehran to demand the release of the U.S. embassy staff accused of espionage. In the letter, the Imam urged the Pope not to defend the actions of the U.S. government, arguing that the Catholic Church should stand with oppressed and dispossessed peoples, denouncing the crimes of Jimmy Carter's presidency rather than protecting their interests.
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