[Thread]

In this thread I will tell you about earlier life of Hazrat e Ayatollah Khamenei that is not widely known about, and through this I will hopefully shine a light on the true colors of our leader.

On the 19th of April 1939, the future Leader of Islamic Iran was born in the holy city of Mashhad, Seyyed Ali was the second son of Seyyed Javad Khamenei, a humble and poor Islamic scholar who taught all members of his family how to lead a simple, humble way of life.

At the age of four Seyyed Ali and his older brother Mohammad, were sent to maktab, the traditional primary-schools of that time, in order to learn the alphabet and the Holy Quran. Later, he was transferred to a newly established Islamic school to continue his learning.

After this primary schooling, Hazrat e Agha pursued his studies at the theological seminary in Mashhad. He started his advanced level studies called darse kharij with such eminent scholars and instructors as Grand Ayatollah Milani.

At the age of 18, he decided to make a pilgrimage to the holy shrines in Iraq, and so he left Iran for Najaf in 1957. He was fascinated by the theological and academic instructions of such eminent scholars such as Ayatollah Hakim and Ayatollah Shahrudi.

He attended their lessons and was willing to stay there and continue his studies in order to profit from these excellent teachers. However his father made it known that he preferred his son continue his advanced studies in the holy city of Qum. Thus, respecting his father's...

wish he returned to Iran in 1958. Diligently and enthusiastically he followed his advanced studies in Qum from 1958 to 1964 and benefited from the teachings of great scholars and grand ayatollahs such as Ayat. Borujerdi, Imam Khomeini, Ayat. Haeri Yazdi and Allameh Tabatabai.

He wanted to seek further knowledge from Ayatollah Milani and other important scholars residing in Mashhad. The young Sayyed Ali, who had now become a mujtahid by having completed his advanced level studies, began to teach religious subjects to seminary and university students .

Recalling this important point of departure in his life, the Leader says, "If there have been any successes in my life, they all go back to God's blessings favored upon me because of my dutiful caring for parents." It was in Qom in 1962, that Seyyed Ali joined the ranks...

of the revolutionary followers of Imam Khomeini who opposed the pro-American, anti-Islamic policies of the Shah's regime. Dedicated and fearless, he followed this path for the next 16 years which ultimately led to the downfall of the Shah's brutal regime persecution, torture...

imprisonment and exile could not make him waver for a moment. May of 1963, Imam Khomeini honored the young, brave cleric Seyyed Ali, with the mission of taking a secret message to Ayatollah Milani and other clergymen in Mashhad, on the ways and tactics of exposing the true nature

of the Shah's regime. He fulfilled this mission properly and traveled to the city of Birjand for further spread of Imam Khomeini's views. He was arrested for the first time and spent one night in jail. The following the authorities ordered him not to speak at the pulpit again

From that moment he knew that he would be under police surveillance all the time. Of course he did not submit to police threats, and as a result of his activities relating to the bloody June 1963 Uprising, he was again arrested and transferred to Mashhad to spend ten days in...

prison under severe conditions. On January 1964, according to a well-organized plan, Ayatollah Khamenei and a few close friends traveled to Kerman and Zahedan in southern Iran, to expose the phony referendum the Shah was holding for his so-called reforms.

There in the course of many public speeches, he exposed the American policies of the Pahlavi regime. This time, the Shah’s feared intelligence agency, SAVAK, stepped in and arrested him one late evening. He spent two months in solitary confinement and was constantly tortured.

Once freed, he started holding lessons on the exegeses of the Holy Quran, the Prophetic Traditions and Islamic ideology in Mashhad and Tehran. These lessons were most appreciated by the revolutionary Iranian youth. As he was sure now that SAVAK was watching him closely...

he was forced to go underground in 1967. However, he was arrested again for holding such classes and Islamic discussions. Throughout the years 1972-1975, Ayatollah Khamenei was holding classes on the Holy Quran and Islamic ideology in three different mosques in Mashhad.

These classes together with his lectures on Imam Ali's (as) Nahjul Balagha attracted thousands of conscious, politically-minded youth and students. The lectures were circulated among the people in hand-written or typed forms, in most towns and cities.

His students traveled to distant cities to spread his lessons and ideas. All this frightened the Shah's SAVAK agents and so, in the winter of 1975, they broke into his home in Mashhad and arrested him for the 6th time and confiscated all his books and notes.

Now he was detained in Tehran's notorious "Police-SAVAK Joint Prison" for many months. This had been his most trying imprisonment, with extremely barbaric conditions. In the autumn of 1975, he was freed and sent back to Mashhad and he was now completely banned from delivering...

lectures or holding classes. His clandestine activities, however, prompted SAVAK to apprehend him in the winter of 1976 and sentence him to exile for three years. This difficult period came to an end in the latter part of 1978 due to the prevailing political conditions...

and Ayatollah Khamenei returned to Mashhad a few months before the triumph of the Islamic revolution. He diligently continued his political-religious activities in this momentous period of civil unrest and mass demonstrations throughout Iran.

Thus, after nearly 15 years of bearing all sorts of torture and maltreatment at the hands of the agents of the Shah's bloodthirsty regime, he could now witness the fall of the tyrannical Pahlavi regime and the rise of an Islamic Republic in Iran.

The Islamic Revolution (February 11, 1979) eventually triumphed thanks to the diligent efforts of the likes of Hazrat e Ayatollah Khamenei.

Ultimately the early years of Hazrat e Agha Khamenei shaped what would become one of the greatest leaders this world has seen, may God prolong the life of this man who is dear to all of us as he is truly our leader and will continue to be so.