Sayyed Mortaza Pasandideh

Ayatollah Sayyed Mortaza Pasandideh is the elder brother of Imam Khomeini (ra). He was born in Khomein in 1895. Sayyed Mortaza was the third child of Sayyed Mostafa’s family, and after him, two sons and a daughter were born.

He was seven years old when his father was killed by the khan of their hometown and hence his aunt and mother took care of him and his other brothers and sisters. At the age of ten when Sayyed Mortaza’s family could finally prove that his father’s murderers are guilty, he started studying and learned reading and writing, astrology, astronomy and arithmetic in Khomein under Mr. Mirza Mahmoud Eftikhar al-Olama and his mother known as “Akhound.” In 1948, he went to Esfahan with his brother Sayyed Nouroddin and settled in Molla Abdollah School, where he studied various subjects of Islamic studies under scholars such as Haj Reza Najafi, Mirza Ali Yazdi, Haj Sadeq Khatounabadi and Haj Mirza Rahim Arbab. Then he went to Iraq to stay for some time. Sayyed Mortaza returned to Iran and settled in Khomein and taught religious sciences. Imam Khomeini (ra) was one of his students in that period. Sayyed Mortaza also had the responsibility of taking care of the family during that period.

Ayatollah Pasandideh’s return to Iran coincided with the reign of Reza Shah. The local people were respecting him. At the same time as the Uniform Dress Law was passed, clerics were also forced to change their clothes and only those whose qualification to perform Ijtihad had been proven by the maraje’ (sources of emulation) were allowed to wear clerical clothes. Sayyed Mortaza was one of those whose ability to perform ijtihad was approved by Agha Zia Iraqi and Shaykh Abdolkarim Haeri-Yazdi. But in 1935, when the issue of the Unveiling Law for women was raised during the reign of Reza Shah, Ayatollah Pasandideh opposed it. He was forced to change his clothes due to the pressure exerted by the regime but continued to fight against the authoritarian Pahlavi regime. Simultaneously with the occupation of Iran by British and Soviet forces in World War II, Ayatollah Pasandideh was sentenced to exile by the order of the Minister of Interior on the charge of opposing and preventing the efforts to supply the occupying force with food the cost of which was the poverty and hunger of the Iranian people. However, this sentence was cancelled. During the Movement of Nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, he was one of the companions of Ayatollah Sayyed Abol-Qasem Kashani. Although Ayatollah Pasandideh was not present in Tehran, in some cases, he would give consultation to and help Ayatollah Kashani. Ayatollah Pasandideh who was also in charge of a notary office in Khomein, after the approval of the Land Reform Bill, refused to officially draw up the documents related to transferring the agricultural lands based on this law believing that this is against shari’ah law.

Simultaneously with the beginning of the Islamic movement under the leadership of Imam Khomeini (ra) in 1962, Ayatollah Pasandideh also joined this movement and began organizing popular protests and demonstrations in Khomein in such a way that according to the SAVAK reports, he was among the main causes of the unrest in Khomein whose arrest would put an end to the unstable situation. After Imam Khomeini’s exile, Ayatollah Pasandideh took the responsibility of distributing the salaries of the students in the Islamic Seminaries on behalf of Imam Khomeini (ra), because he had come to Qom and expanded the scope of his activities. As a result, he was arrested and sent into exile, a sentence which did not last long and was ignored by Ayatollah Pasandideh. The same thing happened several more times until the end of the Pahlavi regime, and every time the regime sent him into exile, he would return to Qom after a while and before the end of his sentence. Finally, in 1979 when the popular struggle against the Shah’s regime reached its peak, Ayatollah Pasandideh was exiled to Anarak for a period of three years, and nearly a month later he went to Esfahan due to illness. He was exiled to Esfahan again, and this time, as in the past, he went to Qom without paying attention to that sentence. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he was the representative of Imam Khomeini (ra) in Qom, and despite his fraternal relationship with the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, he did not interfere in the political and executive affairs of the country. Ayatollah Pasandideh was always honoured and respected by his younger brother, Imam Khomeini (ra) who believed that the reason for such respect is that he acted not only as the older brother but also as a father and teacher. In this regard, Imam Khomeini (ra) stated: “It is because of Mr. Pasandideh that I had been able to continue my studies so easily because he managed the family affairs without me having to worry about them.” Ayatollah Sayyed Mortaza Pasandideh passed away on November 12, 1996, and was buried in the holy shrine of Lady Fatimah al-Ma’sumah (s) in Qom.

Memoirs of Ayatollah Pasandideh which include parts of the contemporary history of Iran and a description of the life of Imam Khomeini’s family have been published by Hozeh Honari.

Reference: The Encyclopedia of Islamic Revolution.