There is a lot to say about Ayatollah Khamenei. His life had many dimensions that go far beyond what I can describe. But from my limited perspective, and as someone who has lived in the West and also spent years in Iran, I would like to share what I think.
To truly value what he did and said, we must first understand who he was. The best way to know him is to look at those who knew him personally. What did they think of him? How did they speak of him?
The love and reverence people showed for him was remarkable. It makes us wonder who this person was that so many people loved. Is there any other leader in history who has been held in such high regard, with so many willing to sacrifice for him? If you had asked many Iranians before his martyrdom whether they would give their lives for him, they would have said yes without hesitation. That kind of devotion does not happen automatically. Clearly, this man held a special place in people’s hearts, and that deserves our attention.
He was, above all, an exceptional individual. You can see this in different aspects of his life: his speeches, his reactions, and his meetings. In every meeting, his brilliance showed in new ways. He was one of the finest poets in the Persian language. He held annual gatherings with poets, and by many accounts, he was the best poet in that meeting. He remembered poets who had attended his gatherings twenty or thirty years earlier, and he could recall their poetry. He also memorized poetry in Turkish and Arabic.
He read many novels in different languages, including French and English, possibly in translation. He remembered them well, drew lessons from them, and often referred to them. All of this went beyond his deep knowledge of Islam and other religions, their texts, and scriptures. So we see a man who was brilliant, well-read, widely learned, and gifted with an extraordinary memory. At the same time, he lived simply, like an ordinary person, with no attachment to material things. These are not my words alone; they come from those who lived with him and knew him closely. Anyone who claims otherwise has not provided a credible source.
Because of who he was, he was able to reach the hearts of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, even a billion people. If the rest of the world truly knew him, I believe many South Americans, Africans, and Westerners would also come to love him.
I encourage everyone to read about him through those who really knew him, and through his own words and speeches. The volume of his transcribed speeches available online in various languages is among the largest of any leader in history. He was consistently active and spoke regularly, often at length. His speeches rarely repeated themselves; he always offered something new. Over time, his speeches were compiled into books. There is a website where all of them are transcribed and searchable in multiple languages. So we can begin by learning who he was, and only then can we fully appreciate what he said.
His martyrdom awakened the people of Iran and perhaps others around the world. One reason for this was that people loved him more than anything else: more than themselves, their families, their possessions, even their own lives. This created a state where attachments faded. People thought, “Our beloved leader is gone. What else matters now?”
In Islam, we are taught that martyrs do not truly die, but remain alive. I do not fully understand what that means, but I believe it points to a kind of life that martyrs possess, one that ordinary people do not. I hope this means he is still with us, still present to humanity. In that sense, martyrdom did not take him away; it gave him eternal life.
I pray that his path is continued by people everywhere. I pray that oppression and imperialism come to an end, and that everyone has the right to live freely and choose their own path, free from the biases and imposed narratives of the media or the powerful.
If true freedom and freedom of thought are established, many things would change. Without propaganda, lies, and threats, many more people would see the truth.
