Could There Come Another Imam Khomeini?

M.S. Tajar Ph.D.

(Former Lecturer University of the Philippines)

Since the spectacular victory of the Islamic

Revolution of Iran, on Feb. 11, 1979, the most
fascinating question on my mind, and probably yours,
too, has been this: “Could there come another Imam
Khomeini?”
This question, for me, and probably for many
others, became even more profound, immediately after
the passing away of Imam Khomeini, on June 3, 1989.
The logical answers to this question may be
many yeses or no’s, as we shall see after this brief study,
yet to me, the most beautiful answer is given by that
touching song, that says:
“There may come many other summers,
But there will never come another you…!”

But, seriously speaking, could there come

another Imam Khomeini? The answer is both yes and no.
Just to explain further, let me quote here a very
well known saying, or Hadith, from the Holy Prophet
Mohammad (S.A.W.) who said:
“Allah (S.W.T.) shall raise a Grand
Reformer, in every century, to straighten the
affairs of the Muslim Ummah”. (Ref. all
major Books of Hadith).

Under the light of this futuristic Hadith (The

Prophecy, as they say, is history told in advance!), we
can see many great leaders, who came and lead the
Muslims, in the most crucial times in the life of the
Ummah.
Among those great personalities is Salahud Din
Ayyubi, also known as “Saladdin the Magnificent”

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(1138-1193 A. D.), the Kurdish/Persian leader, who
finally defeated the western Crusaders, and their local
allies, and saved the Muslims from the total annihilation,
by the European Christians, in the Holy Land, ending a
300 years of conflict, in 1887 A.D. Long before him,
came another great man, this time an extra ordinary
scholar and scientist by the name of Khawja Naseer Ad-
Din Tousi (13th century A.D.) who tamed the Mongul
Hordes, before they could turn the Islamic civilization
into another “Mongulistan”.
In recent history, there has been another great
Islamic reformer, by the name of Sayyid Jamal Ad-Din
Asad-Abadi, 1838-1897 A.D. (known as Afghani) an
outstanding Iranian cleric, intellectual, religious and
political activist, who sounded the alarm among the
Muslim Ummah, and who brought the message of
“Back-to-Islam into the Arab world, starting with Egypt,
in the early 19th century”, which is still on going until
today. (Ref. “The International Herald Tribune”, Jan.12/
2005).
The interesting thing about this great man, who
brought the Islamic awareness to the Arab world, and to
the other Muslims, too, (Muslims of the Indian
Subcontinent, etc.) is that he was not even an Arab, but a
Persian, from the town of Asad-Abad, in Hamadan
Province of Iran. (Ibid)
Then came the Ayatullah Mirza Shirazi (1815-
1890 A.D.) whose famous Fatwa against the Tobacco
Consumption in Iran, during the corrupt Qajar Dynasty,
broke the back of the British Colonial Enterprise (British
East Indies Company 1600-1858) not only in Persia, but
throughout the Middle East, and the Indian
Subcontinent, as well. We may add to this list the names
of Sheikh Mohammad Abdoh of Egypt (an outstanding
student of Jamal Ad-Din Asad-Abadi, who later on
became the Mufti of Egypt and the rector of the 1,000

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year old University of Al Azhar, in Cairo. Also Hasan
Al-Banna (1906-1949AD), the revolutionary founder of
the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, who got his ideas
from Abdoh and Asad-Abadi.).
After them came Dr. Mohammad Iqbal, the great
Indian Muslim scholar, Philosopher-poet, whose bright
idea was the creation of the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan, from the British dominated India, in 1947.
(And he was an Indian Muslim poet who wrote most of
his revolutionary poems, in Persian, rather than in his
own Urdu tongue, because, as he said: “I get these
inspirations more in Persian; and even though Hindi
language, is sweet, yet, Persian is much sweeter!)
Some other great names, like the late Ayatullah
Kashani, Nawwab Safavi (of the Faddayin Islam) as well
as Dr. Ali Shariati, etc. could be added to this glorious
list.

But Imam Khomeini was Something Else.

While we have had many visionaries of the
Islamic awareness, with the idea of the establishment of
an Islamic State, with its own laws and an independent
government, yet no other Muslim leader in recent
memory has succeeded in the realization of those ideals,
as did the late Imam Khomeini, in the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.
It was very astonishing and so unbelievable that
a religious man, with no previous experiences in
governing or the use of arms or the military training,
could defeat the strongest army in the Middle East,
which boasted of the “Peacock Throne” and the 2,500
years of the Persian Empire (the “first empire in the
world”, according to the American Historian, Mr. Philip
Groisser – see “World History” New York, 1970-p.17).

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 The Islamic revolution shocked the super
powers of the East and the West (the U.S.A. and the
Soviet Union of the Yore).
It was a great inspiration to the suffering peoples
of the Middle East, with their helpless attitude towards
their own foreign and local oppressors, so much so that
when the Islamic Revolution succeeded in Iran, they
could not believe their own eyes!
That’s why, President Ahmad Ben Bella, the
father of the Algerian Revolution (1963 A.D.) called the
Iran’s Islamic Revolution: “The Miracle of our
age!”(Ref. The Time Magazine, Apr.16/1979. Also “The
International Herald Tribune”, Sep.4/2002 etc.)
But to me, the most meaningful statement came
from the Sheikh of Saudi Arabia (the Wahhabis, who are
the mortal enemies of the Shi-ah Islam). He was heading
the Saudi Ulama Delegation to Iran, representing the
King Khalid of Saudi Arabia, to visit and to congratulate
Imam Khomeini, in the Holy City of Qom, immediately
after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. The Saudi
Sheikh said, and I quote: “Ya Imam! Kunna azillaa, wa
a-azzanal-lahu-bik!” (O, Imam! We were all humiliated,
but Allah, through you, gave us dignity and honor!”)
(Ref. The Lecture of the Saudi Delegation to the Holy
City of Qom, to visit the late Imam Khomeini, in March
1979.)

Defeating a Big Army without any Arms?

When a naughty journalist in France asked the
late Imam Khomeini: “Your Holiness! Do you have
enough arms to defeat the strongest and biggest army in
the Middle East, i.e. the army of the Shah of Iran?” His
answer was very sharp, as he replied: “We don’t have
any arms now, and we don’t want to use any arms as
much as possible, but if need be, we know how to get
them!”

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 Thus, he was able to neutralize the army of the
Shah of Iran – the great American puppet, with the help
of the millions of the Iranian men and women and the
children, who were all demonstrating in the streets of
Iran! (The “Philippine people power of the 1986” against
Marcos dictatorship, with almost the same
circumstances, took place some eight years after the
1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran.)

A Comparison between Iran and Philippine

Revolutions
The unique similarity between the Islamic
Revolution of Iran in 1979 and the Philippines’ “People
Power Revolution” of 1986 could be that both of them
were people powers, and both of them overthrew the two
dictatorships, which were subservient to the same
American super power, and both of them had the
religious leaders and the religious masses to support
them.
But then, the similarities end up there, and the
glaring differences start to show up.
For instance, while the Islamic Revolution of
Iran started from the masses, and the religious leadership
and it took some 15 year of struggle, until it brought
down the military of the Shah, the “Philippine People
power” started by the military, and especially the same
generals and ministers who were themselves the
architects of the dictatorship, and the martial law, and its
administrators until the last minute, and they were the
direct partners in the crimes of the Marcos dictatorship-
i.e. Gen. Fidel Ramos and Minister Juan Ponce Enrile.
(That military revolt was most probably
orchestrated by the CIA and the U.S. administration,
under the Republican Roland Reagan, who even claimed
the credit for it, and his vice president George Bush Sr.,
a former CIA “Cappo Di Tutti Cappi”, who used to tell

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the Marcoses; “ We love your democracy.”) The same
George Bush, whose son, G.W. bush set the whole world
on fire, years later, by invading Afghanistan, Iraq, and he
continued to the last day in his office, threatening all
Muslims by calling them “Islamo-fascists!” and dividing
the whole world into: “Either you are with us or against
us!”).
This, plus another undeniable fact that it was
actually the U.S. helicopters from the U.S. air bases in
the Philippines, which snatched the Marcos family from
the Malacanang Palace and instead of taking them to
Paoay, they hijacked them to Hawaii! (And now they are
calling others, terrorists and hijackers! The classic
example of the pot calling the kettle, black!).
And while the Islamic Revolution of Iran turned
the old establishment upside down, by removing the
entire ruling elite, and the royal families, the top
generals and the crony capitalists, the Philippine
Revolution passed the power from one Ongpin to
another Ongpin (the Chinese capitalist families), but it
still stayed in the China town, it changed from one Ayala
to another Ayala (the remnants of the old Spanish
colonizers), but it still stayed in the hands of the same
Spanish mestiso class that have been ruling in this
country for over 400 years, both politically and
financially; it gave the power from one political dynasty
(Cojuanco) to another political dynasty (Cojuanco), and
from one corporate interest to another corporate interest,
and the real winner of the whole drama were the
American government and its multi nationals in the
Philippines, while in the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the
biggest loser was America (as well as the Soviet Union
and their camps.)

Role of Religion in the Philippine Revolution

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 Another close similarity between the two people
power revolutions could also be the important role that
the religious authorities of the two nations played in the
success of the two mass movements.
While in the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the late
Imam Khomeini and the Muslim clergy were leading the
Iranian people, in the Philippines, some 8 years later, the
Archbishop of Manila, the late Cardinal Sin, and the
Catholic Church were also active, supporting the
Military revolt of the then Gen. Ramos and the Defense
Minister Enrile. The late cardinal sin announced from
the Radio Veritas (The Catholic Church Radio Station)
that: “I ask the faithful to support General Ramos and
Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, in Camp Crame.” (Radio
VERITAS, February 1986) (Meanwhile, the U.S.
inspired Protestant Churches, like the 700 club, under
Mr. Pat Robertson, The American “Evangelist” who
came from the U.S. Air force to preach the Bible
according to the Uncle Sam! kept quiet, and the Filipino
Protestant pastors also stayed loyal to their American
mentors, by keeping quiet, and saying nothing against
the dictatorship of the Marcoses, and their U.S. backers
in the White House. Both sides claimed to believe in the
separation of the church and the state, yet the state
continued to make all the laws that violated the religion,
but the religion could not even announce any ruling that
might have violated the laws of the state! That’s how one
sided this rule has always been in favor of Caesar vs.
God! And the Mammon vs. the Masses.)
Therefore, when Cardinal Sin and some other
conscientious Catholic priests and nuns demonstrated
against the Marcoses’ dictatorship and the U.S. approved
martial law, the violations of the Human Rights, and the
U.S. military bases in the Philippines soil, etc.etc… the
good cardinal was called “the Ayatullah Khomeini of the
Philippines” and those priests and nuns were called

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“liberals, communists, etc. who are trying to bring the
Liberation Theology of Latin America, into the country.”
There were many other religious leaders (both
Muslims and non-Muslims) around the world, who were
labeled as the Ayatullah Khomeinis of their own
countries (like Seyyid Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon,
today) but I still continue asking myself the same
question: could there come another Imam Khomeini?
My own answer is: If you mean of the same
mind and attitude, maybe; but of that stature, probably
never. The reasons are many, but the most important
reason to me is this: Imam Khomeini was the best
product of a school of thought, which is the Shi-ah
Islam, that believes in the Supremacy of God Almighty
and the leadership of the spiritual personalities, with no
separation of the church and the state. That’s exactly the
teaching and the beliefs of all the Devine religions (not
materialism, humanism and other man-made isms), from
the time of the Prophet Moses (A.S.) the Law Giver, up
to the Prophet Solomon (A.S.) the Just Ruler, and many
other righteous judges after them, down to the Prophet
Mohammad (S.A.W.) who combined all those virtues
and excellent qualities in himself.
Therefore, in those countries that don’t believe
in the Union of the Spiritual and the material world,
symbolized by the State, God and His people, heaven
and the House of Representatives, there is no way to
have another Imam Khomeini, even if once in a while
some priests carried a cross here and there for a few
tempestuous days, to help some rebellious soldiers or
disgruntled generals of the army or ministers, who got
lesser shares of the looting of the nation, etc. and after a
few days, those priests went back again to their own
churches to pray and once more let a new group of the
old politicians plunder the population, and play the same

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old politics as they used to, while what the nation needed
very badly was a true change!

How about in the Muslim World?

Well, if the Muslim countries also followed the
true traditions of the Godly Prophets like Moses (A.S.)
Solomon (A.S.) and our own beloved Prophet
Mohammad (S.A.W.) and they also established the rule
of Imamate (the continuity of the Spiritual leadership
after the Holy Prophet, as the Shi-ah Muslims believe
and do) then it is possible. But if they would insist on the
separation of the church and the state (as the Christians
say), or the Khilafat (like the Othomans of Turkey did)
then there will be nothing more than the politicians who
also will be practicing the separation of the Spiritual
from the Practical, as their peers in the western world are
doing, today.
So, I believe that in no Sunni Muslim State like
in, Pakistan, Malaysia or even Indonesia up to Egypt and
Saudi Arabia and beyond, there are any possibilities of
another Imam Khomeini or another Islamic Revolution.
However, it may be possible that in the Shi-ah
dominated regions of the Muslim world like in Lebanon,
Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Yemen, etc. there could come
another Imam, to lead the Muslims into the
establishment of an Islamic government, as did the late
Imam Khomeini in Iran, but still there will never be
another Imam Khomeini!
Let me repeat my favorite line, once more:
“There may come many other summers,
But, there will never come another you!”

I may also add my own line, by saying:

“How true, how true, how true!”

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References:
*Ameed Dictionary (Persian) Iran 1975
*Al-maurid Dictionary (Arabic) Lebanon, 1980
*Webster Dictionary (English) USA, 1957
*Time Magazine, USA, 1980
*International Herald Tribune USA< 2005/2008
*Al-Kafi by Kolaini (the Shi-ah Book of Hadith)
*Al-Bukhari, by Al-Bukhari (Sunni Book of Hadith)
*World History, by Philip Groisser, USA, 1970
*The Glorious Qur’an, Yosuf Ali, English translation /
Transliteration by: M.S. Tajar, 1982
*The Holy Qur’an, Prof. Mir Ahmad Ali / Tafseer: H.I.
Aqa Puya / Transliteration by M.S. Tajar, National
Bookstore of the Philippines 3rd Ed., 2010.
*Imamate and Khalifate, by the Palestinian author Dr.
As-ad Qasim.
*Nass wal Ijtihad, by H.I. Sheikh Sharafud-Din of
Lebanon, Beirut, 1970.
*Al-Mura’ji-aat, by H.I. Sheikh Sharafud-Din of
Lebanon, Beirut, 1970.
*Then I was Guided by Dr. Mohammad Tijani, of
Tunisia, Ansarian Books, Qom, 2004
*Ask Those Who Know by Dr. Mohammad Tijani, of
Tunisia, Ansarian Books, Qom, 2006
*Nah’jul Balagha by Sayyid Ar-Radhi – Beirut, 1992.

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