Inside the Funeral of Ayatollah Khamenei: What a Scholar in Qom Saw

A procession on a vast scale

Bushra Khanum Fahad opens this Aadab News Network conversation by describing what she calls a funeral like no other in modern history. By the time of recording, the funeral prayers for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom she and her guest call a martyr, had been held and the procession in Tehran had concluded. The caravan was to travel on to Qom, then to the Iraqi shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala, and finally to Mashhad, where the last prayers would be held. Fahad cites an estimate that Iran would host some 25 to 30 million people over this period.

Her guest, an Islamic scholar and commentator on Western affairs who is introduced by first name as Aqib and was speaking from Qom, says he came as a participant rather than an observer. He spent two days in Tehran, where by his account millions of people, possibly tens of millions, filed through the mosque where the mourning was held. Emotion, he argues, does not cancel reason: alongside the grief he saw courage, determination and resolve.

What struck him most was how the event was organised. In Tehran, he says, young men on motorcycles went looking for visitors from other cities to take home and host. Food was distributed from stalls along the streets. Returning to Qom before dawn, he saw a traffic jam stretching for kilometres on the opposite carriageway, of people driving to Tehran at their own expense. It was state-supported, he says, but not a state-sponsored event, and he describes it as a family mourning together. Fahad adds that free metro services were running around the clock and that food, water and accommodation were provided for visitors.

Diplomacy and symbolism

Aqib points to the diplomatic dimension. He says delegations from more than 100 countries had come, that no European country had been invited, and that the procession was travelling on to Iraq, a country that fought an eight-year war with Iran and where, he says, people are welcoming it. In his view these are signs of a new world and a new approach. Fahad asks about the Quran recitations that accompanied arriving delegations, noting that even non-Muslim commentators had been dissecting which verses were chosen for whom. Aqib does not go through the choices, but says the scene shows the Quran playing a direct role in diplomacy, and that a society organised on Islamic principles can experience a surge of strength.

He reads the colours and slogans of the procession closely. Black, he says, is for grief; red, in the tradition of Karbala, stands for a demand for revenge, and red flags carry the cry demanding vengeance for the killers of Imam Hussain. The campaign slogan, "We must rise", is paired with a closed fist. Aqib says the fist recalls the late leader, whose right hand was disabled in an attack in 1980 or 1981, leaving his left hand functional, and whose body, he says, was found under the rubble in the shape of a closed fist, a sign of resolve. The revenge being demanded, he insists, is in reality a demand for justice, and he hopes the perpetrators are eventually brought to court and tried. He cites a statement by Iran's Chief Justice that mourners at the funeral were demanding justice.

An account of the war

Both speakers treat Iran's confrontation with the United States and Israel as a victory, and the article should be clear that this is their reading rather than an independent assessment. Fahad calls it an achievement in the space of 40 days by a country that had been under sanctions for 40 years. Aqib says Iran defeated a military superpower in an open war on a military budget of about 1 per cent of America's, using technology, and that he had said so confidently from the first day of the war.

He rejects the word "miracle". What happened, he argues, follows cause and effect: a society that prepares itself and follows God's principles, makes sacrifices and struggles, will see results. He describes cooperation between government and public, recalling that when the war began in March there were no food shortages and some prices fell because people refrained from panic buying and hoarding. The message for other oppressed communities, he says, is that the door is open to them too.

Shia and Sunni

Fahad asks whether the presence of Taliban and Saudi delegations suggests the late leader's death has bridged the Shia-Sunni divide, something he spoke about throughout his life. Aqib says it is too early to say the divide is gone but that the fissures have narrowed considerably. In his analysis the divide was never natural among ordinary people. Where it existed among rulers, he says, it reflected their fear that their power was threatened by what the Islamic Revolution represents: dignity, freedom, justice and unity. Iran's existence, he argues, raises uncomfortable questions in other countries about why they need American bases, and he claims that those bases were built to use local populations as human shields rather than to protect them.

Then and now

Comparing this funeral with Ayatollah Khomeini's in 1989, Aqib names two differences. The media environment has changed, and Iran's capacity for organising large events has grown. More fundamentally, he says, Khomeini's passing was not a martyrdom, and after 1989 Iran's attention turned to rebuilding after the war. The current moment, he says, feels different: as if the sacrifice is changing the world in a short time, and as if the war-like situation has not yet settled. He links it to a chain of events he calls the decisions of the Islamic Resistance, from 7 October and the deaths of Hassan Nasrallah and others.

Fahad raises the leader's simplicity and that of his family. She notes that his other sons do not hold official positions and that his house in Mashhad was modest, while one son is now the Supreme Leader. Aqib says a leader like this challenges the belief, which he calls the worst situation a society can accept, that leaders are inherently corrupt. But he warns against treating the late leader as an accident: it is the result of a path that can be followed by others, though not everyone can become like him.

Minab, Gaza and lessons for India

Fahad says the girls of Minab, 168 of them, were killed by American and Israeli bombing, and that Iranians will not forget them for a second, adding that she wishes someone would do the same for the children of Gaza. Aqib says the girls of Minab and of Gaza are all "our girls", that what happened in Gaza is deeply painful to Iranians as it is to Muslims in India and many non-Muslims, and that the story moves step by step until Palestine is liberated.

Turning to India, Fahad asks what Iran's example holds for Muslims who face oppression and violence. Aqib says the core lesson is to strengthen oneself and not depend on others. He cites an interview with a Russian security official who said Iran had rejected an offer of a comprehensive defence pact including a nuclear umbrella, and says he knows why: Iran works on the belief that one acts under God's umbrella and stands on one's own feet. That does not mean cutting ties, he says, since friendly relations with everyone are needed, but it does mean that after 70 or 80 years of bitter experience, communities should not wait for some party to save them. Every country's demands differ, he says, but the Quran and the Sunnah are the same everywhere.

Fahad closes by saying that questions remain about how things will proceed after the victory, the procession and the memorandum of understanding, and says Aqib will be invited back.