Senior Iraqi clerics and Friday prayer leaders of Sunni community attended workshop on Imam Khomeini (RA) and Ayatollah Khamenei thoughts held in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad.

Gholamreza Jalali, a senior official from Islamic Research Foundation, said: “Combining schools of Najaf and Tehran, Imam Khomeini (RA) was able to lay the foundation of Islamic Revolution; however, the principal foundation of the of Islamic Revolution was nothing but mysticism”. 

Explaining Shia historical movements, Jalali said: “The Safavid dynasty could create an independent political system based on Shia Islam in Iran following long years of foreign ruling. When the Safavid dynasty came to power, Shia movements which were managed by Sufis became a little different”. 

He said: “Emergence of the Safavid dynasty is a turning point in post-Islam Iran in a way that the country became a powerful and independent nation in the Islamic East”. 

Jalali added: “During Qajar government, different Sufi schools were formed in various Iranian cities including Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Mashhad as well. Molla Hossein Hamedani was one of the salient scholars nurtured by Isfahan school of thought for example”.  

The official further reminded that the late Mohammad Ali Shahabadi was an important figure from whom Imam Khomeini (RA) received first impressions of mysticism.