Ayatollah Sistani Stood Up as a Sign of Respect to Imam Khomeini

Did you know that Sayyid Sistani used to listen to Imam Khomeini speeches in secret during Saddam’s time?

Ijtihadnet: In his meeting with Ayatollah Sistani, Hujjat al-Islam wal-Muslimin Nasiriddin Ansari Qomi, the historian and researcher of Shia Bibliography Institute asked Ayatollah Sistani’s opinion about Imam Khomeini:

Once in a group of people, I visited Ayatollah Sistani in Najaf.

I asked him, “how many years did you participate in Imam Khomeini’s class in Qom?”

He stood up and said, “first, one should stand up as a respect for late Ayatollah Khomeini. You do not know what he did? When we were caught under Saddam’s pressure, we realized the value of his [Imam Khomeini’s] action and we do now. I listened to all lectures of Imam at night. I had a small radio; I went to my library upstairs and after the news of 8 pm, when it played Imam’s (a) lectures, I listened to them. Do you remember that in one of his lectures, Imam said, ‘one of the merchants of Tehran went to the leader of congregational prayer in his local mosque and asked, ‘if there is anything written on the back cover of the Qur’an, inform us and let us know about it.’ And then everyone cried. Now, you are in Iran. Act so that your life and actions do not contradict each other.”

Then, he said, “I participated in his class in Qom for about two years, and then I came to Najaf.”