The Era of Cooperation and Assistance

The present book is a documentary of the agreeable years starting from 1940s until September 1986 marked by constructive cooperation between ayatollah Khomeini (1900-89) and ayatollah Montazeri (1922-2009). Ayatollah Montazeri played a key role in substantiation of ayatollah Khomeini’s religious authority (marjai’yyat) and was the right-hand man of his political leadership in Iran up until the victory of the revolution in February 1979. After that, ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of Islamic Republic of Iran, officially delegated many of his religious and governmental authorities to his first ranking student Montazeri. These important references prove that Khomeini considered Montazeri the most learned jurist (fal-a’lam) and a completely qualified (jāmi’ al-sharā’t) mujtahid capable of continuing the revolution and assuming the future leadership of the Islamic Republic. At that time, ayatollah Montazeri was the most prominent jurist who backed both the revolution and the establishment, and was the strongest possible supporter the then leadership could find in the seminaries and among the clergy. Moreover, Montazeri was the most sincere advocate of ayatollah Khomeini’s major policies. In July 1985, the Assembly of Experts (Majlis-i Khubrigan) rubber-stamped a single article resolution which made the identification of a future leader a requirement. In the end of the very same session (ijlāsiyah), as well as in the extraordinary session of November 1985, the Assembly hastily approved another single article resolution which introduced ayatollah Montazeri as the sole referent of the particular individual described in the first part of Article 107 of the Constitution whom the majority of Iranians overwhelmingly accepted as such. So, the members of Assembly of Experts approved and considered this choice valid. The expediency of ratifying the article eclipsed its legal problems. Over time, the hurried action proved to be detrimental to ayatollah Montazeri, and did not bear any advantage for him at all. Both resolutions are the brainchild of Seyyed Ali Khamenei which were directed and realized with the assistance of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.