Here is the fifth part of the Introduction from the book titled 250 Year Old Human by Ayatullah Khamenei.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
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Introduction [Part 5]
Look in the words of the Aa’ima and you will see that, what has been said in many instances in the name of Islam [about] scholars, jurists and narrators, [has been about those] that had a relationship with the governing apparatus or the courts of the Sultans. They [Aa’ima] rebutted them and stated the truths. This was a very big and principal objective of the Aa’ima; the illumination of the Islamic laws, this was the first thing.
Okay, so this act in itself has a political nature to it. Meaning that when we know distortion has been instigated by the system of Sultanate or Caliphate and those that have been paid to write or when the workers, which are in the apparent scholars, distort for the Sultans and the rulers, it is only natural that if anyone takes steps against those distortions, they have [in fact] taken a step against the politics of the rulers and sultans.
Today in some Islamic countries, there are some people who get paid to write, some hired workers and some paid off scholars that write books for their [ruling] systems that lead to the creation of sectarian strife between Muslims, or [those books] lead to the ugly distortion of the image of brotherhood in Islam. If, in these countries, a free spirited writer comes and they write a book in which they free their pens on the topics of Islamic unity or about brotherhood inside an Islamic society, this act, in reality, is a political move; it is against the system of the ruler. [For the] Aa’ima one of the main activities of their broad pens [or writings] was this. When they expressed Islamic rulings it does not mean that [those rulings] were not being expressed in those days in the Islamic society. In every point and corner of the Islamic world there were people that were reciting the Qur’an, narrating traditions, narrating from the Prophet (pbuh), some narrators knew thousands of narrations, especially in Makah, Medina, Kufa, and not just these [places], in all the diameters of the Islamic world, you should go look in history, in Khurasan a young scholar for example compiles thousands of traditions. In Tabarestan a certain big scholar would narrate thousands of traditions form the Prophet (pbuh) or his companions. Narrations existed, Islamic laws were stated, the thing which was not being said was the correct explanation and commentary of Islam in the states and affairs of the Islamic society, and this is what the Aa’ima tried to control. This is one task, which was from amongst the most important duties of the Aa’ima (as).
Sayyid Ali studied in the seminary of Qom from 2012 to 2021, while also concurrently obtaining a M.A in Islamic Studies from the Islamic College of London in 2018. In the seminary he engaged in the study of legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophy, eventually attending the advanced kharij of Usul and Fiqh in 2018. He is currently completing his Masters of Education at the University of Toronto and is the head of a private faith-based school in Toronto, as well as an instructor at the Mizan Institute and Mufid Seminary.
