Ayatollah ʿAli Hosseini Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is one of the most controversial and influential Muslim leaders in the world today. As Iran’s main decision-maker, his theocratic ideology and decisions carry global consequences. The Political Ideology of Ayatollah Khamenei is the first book to identify and analyze the development and evolution of the theocratic ideology of the Supreme Leader from 1962 to 2014, using his own writings, speeches, and biographies, as well as literature published in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This work provides new insights into Khamenei’s political thought and behavior and their impact on Iran’s domestic, regional, and international policies. Correlating the development of Khamenei’s personality, character, and political behavior with Iran’s internal and external challenges, this study explores key issues of the Middle East region, in particular Iran’s political posture toward Israel, the United States, and the Muslim world, and the diplomatic crises unfolding over Iran’s nuclear development program. This work provides a comprehensive chronological and thematic survey of Khamenei’s life. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, researchers, diplomats, and policymakers focusing on Middle Eastern politics, Iranian affairs, Islamic studies, and international relations; and could serve as an essential resource for those striving to understand Iran’s policies toward Israel, the United States, and the Muslim world, as shaped by its supreme autocrat.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was born into a family of strict piety and moderate poverty. As a serious-minded religious student, he soon caught the eye of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Upon Khomeini's death, Khamenei was named his successor and became the Grand Ayatollah of Iran. This biography tells his story.

It is now more than forty years since these sermons were delivered, but throughout all these years, this great valuable work “The General pattern of Islamic thought In the Quran” remained unpublished! When the young Hojjat-al-Islam sayyed Ali Khamenei began these series of sermons at the half-built Imam Hassan Mojtaba Mosque in Mash-had for 28 sessions in the month of Ramadan 1394 (1975), the city of Mash-had acquired a different atmosphere: The sessions were held following noon-prayers in the heat of summertime when people usually went to their houses to rest for a couple of hours; yet, in a locality in this city many people , young and old, were on the way to attend Khamenei’s unique lectures; if you could look at the audience, you would notice that many people belonging to different social strata: Theology students, high school pupils, university students, shop- keepers, local residents, both men and women, especially young ones, all attended these sessions; medical students had managed to hire two buses to transfer them from the vicinity of the university to this mosque. In Khamenei’s lectures, everything is different from traditional, spiritual sermons: everyone is given one or two photocopied pages containing a summary of topics to be discussed in the session, the lecturer delivers his speech while standing g on a fasting day and after the end of the lecture, a fine-sounding Quran reciter chants the relevant Quranic verses discussed already. Khamenei’s sessions really resembles an educational class-room rather than a traditional preaching

“Without patience truth and steadfast logic of exalted school of religion wouldn’t have been understood. Divine learning of Islam, which blessed humanity, would have lost its color with the passage of time. Ultimate hope of victory of truth over falsehood, which provides life-giving fresh blood for the powerful hands and steadfast steps of believers, would have been silenced forever. Without patience existence of Monotheism, prophet-hood, and prophetic mission would haven’t been possible and produced any fruits. Rights of deprived people couldn’t have been obtained from the tyrants. Also, prayers, fasting, and other deeds would have lost their meanings. During his limited span of life in this world, a human being between his birth and death is a traveler on the road towards final destination. He has been fundamentally created to endeavor as much as possible to bring himself close to final destination. The primary aim of divine religions and great prophets was to build an Islamic society providing a suitable field in which human beings could travel, ultimately reaching their desired goal.” *** “The present book contains a detailed commentary about the philosophy of daily ritual prayer in Islam. The writer describes Prayer of Islam like a siren for awakening us; a warning at different hours of day and night which provides a program for human beings, requiring their commitment for its execution. Thus, it bestows meanings to spent days and nights and makes them accountable for passing moments. Prayer of Islam by inspiration and repetition of God’s remembrance connects limited vulnerable human beings to infinite and absolute source of power and thus, makes him rely upon that supreme source. Therefore, a believer or a society of believers through establishing prayer burns the roots of deviations, sins, corruptions within themselves and their social environments; as well as at the same time neutralizes completely all kind of sinful thoughts and internal and external motives of wickedness be individual or collective, whatsoever. Certainly prayer protects individual as well as a society from all sorts of undesirable and shameful acts.”

This book is a portrait of the current Supreme Leader and the cultural and intellectual milieu in which he came to power. It offers details about his character, including his interest in literature, and demonstrates how he became a master of consolidating power and adopted an aggressive regional posture and strategic hedging on the nuclear issue.

Seeking Forgiveness and Repentance One of the great blessings of God the Almighty to us is that He put the Infallible Imams (P.B.U.T.) among us to learn how to live a God-centered life through observing their lifestyle and to achieve eternal bliss through practicing their useful guidelines. It is the time that the call of Islam is going not only to return the people, who have fallen from their origin in every corner of the world, to the truth but also to return Islam-seeking and truth-seeking hearts to [Islamic] sublime and magnanimous teachings which are spreading in the world. It is hoped that in such days, reading this book would be found useful for the truth seekers and it would be regarded as a forward step for giving insight to the pilgrims and lovers of the Infallibles (P.B.U.T.) as well as gaining the satisfaction of God.

Understanding the foreign policy agenda and behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a critical challenge for the world. But where do the principal Iranian regime actors come from in terms of political background, experiences and interests? Which types of ambitions or policy conflicts have dominated and shaped foreign policy debates since 1979? This book explains the internal policy process in Tehran by following two regime personalities, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who before his death in January 2017 held some of the most powerful political positions in Iran. No two men have been more influential in dictating the regime's decision-making processes since 1979. Yet little is known about how their competing worldviews and interests, their key moments of dispute – both personal or policy-based – or their personal ambitions have informed the trajectory of Iranian politics. The book analyzes Khamenei and Rafsanjani's own words and writings - and accounts of them given by others - to reveal how the domestic policy contest has shaped Tehran's actions on the regional and international stage. Comprising primary and secondary Iranian sources - including untapped memoirs, newspaper reports, and Iranian electronic media and personal interviews - the book highlights the principal rivalries over the lifespan of the Islamic Republic and offers new insights into the present and future of Iranian foreign policy.