A
s we’ve seen, even before the Pahlavi era, some members of
the ulema looked with skepticism and eventually with open
contempt toward the regime in Tehran. Islamic law, they felt,
should be central to government. The Pahlavi government,
however, seemed to be sidestepping the ancient traditions and
relegating Islamic authority to a secondary or separate role in
Iranian society.
Ruhollah Khomeini agreed with the ulema. By the end of
World War II, he had become recognized as a teacher of the
hojatalislamrank. “This meant that he could now collect his
own circle of disciples, who would accept his interpretation of
the Sharia and hadith (the sayings and actions of Prophet
Muhammad),” wrote Dilip Hiro. “A way was now prepared for
his elevation to the next level: an ayatollah.”^17
Students marveled at his knowledge and his austere lifestyle,
and wondered at his unfathomable character. He lectured, by
one account, “without looking at his audience, and his aloofness
while teaching was part and parcel of the aloofness that was
variously regarded with admiration, fear, or dislike by other
teachers at Qom.”^18 Outside class, he was essentially a very
private individual, usually unsociable and at times unapproach-
able. He often sought solitude. This aspect of his personality
contributed a magnetic mystique to his emerging popularity.
Khomeini was becoming evermore opposed to the Pahlavi
regime. He had criticized the early reform measures of
Reza Shah Pahlavi in the 1930s, claiming they were part of a
Westernizing process that undermined the people’s Islamic
identity. He considered the younger Pahlavi an even greater
threat to Islam because of the close ties the shah forged with
Great Britain and the United States. By 1953, Khomeini’s
contempt for the government was deeply set, although he abided
by the wishes of his school’s director, Ayatollah Borujerdi,
that the Muslim leaders and students in Qom refrain from
political activism. When Pahlavi made a trip that year to Qom,
Khomeini refused to pay him formal respect. Across the
Middle East, Israeli-Arab tensions were at a dangerous stage
Setting the Stage for Revolution 35