General Conclusion

Summary

The research question in this book has been how to interpret and contextualise Ayatollah Khomeini's poetry. We can conclude that his poetry opens a door to the inner world of one of the most influential revolutionary leaders of the twentieth century. He promoted an Islamic form of governance, political Islam, a theocratic political system that was meant to be exported beyond the borders of Iran, but he was at the same time a convinced mystic, eschewing all forms of material possessions and worldly attachments, enjoying writing mystical poems in his spare time. While most academic works on Ayatollah Khomeini have focused on his political career, the mystical and especially the poetical side to his character have to a large extent remained unexplored. His mystical poetry enables us to form a more complete picture of his character, helping us to understand the paradox in his personality. In his poetry, one detects a strong mystical aspiration where spiritual growth is preferred over religious and even political duties. At the same time, one can also find traces of his political convictions, such as his condemnation of imperialism, his ideas on pan-Islamism and his rejection of any forms of governance not based on Islamic tenets. This study demonstrates how Ayatollah Khomeini places himself in a long literary tradition, but at the same time recycles popular mystical motifs and themes to comment on political events.

Ayatollah Khomeini's qasides, the oldest poems that he wrote during the 1920s, clearly illustrate how he used mystical motifs as political instruments. These poems are interesting as they are all written in Ayatollah Khomeini's early career, reflecting his preoccupation with a new Islamic political system, a legitimate form of temporal government that could cope with modernity and withstand European imperialist aspirations. In these panegyrics, one sees the influences of Ibn ʿArabi and Mollâ Sadrâ, where Ayatollah Khomeini projects mystical concepts of perfection onto Hâʾeri, presenting his teacher as a Perfect Man, a precursor of velâyat-e faqih. These poems demonstrate how Ayatollah Khomeini tries to model his ideal Islamic form of Governance on the ideas of several nineteenth-century mojtaheds such as Sheikh Fazl Allâh Nuri. The poems are illustrative of the ingenious way in which Ayatollah Khomeini has recycled well-known literary and mystical themes to create a new form of governance that could meet with the challenges of modernity.