A letter to Khamenei
From birth to your final breath, you lived a humble and righteous life. What more fitting departure could there be for a man of God and leader of Godly people than to fall at the hands of the most vicious savage evil forces on earth?
ATT Desk Report 
Hossein Rafiei Renani
I am writing these words as I watch with tearful eyes the live funeral procession of the martyred Leader of Iran, the late Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Like countless Iranians abroad, I wish I could stand among the millions who are gathering to bid him farewell. Distance may keep me from the funeral, but it cannot silence my grief, my respect, or my allegiance to his righteous path of antiimperial resistance and the safeguarding of Iran’s sovereignty and independence. These are my farewell words.
Dear martyred Leader,
Although I never had the honour of meeting you, my heart holds utmost respect and admiration for you. The news of your assassination by US-Israeli attacks on your residence unleashed a tsunami of grief and outrage within me unlike anything I have ever known. I will never forget that despite repeated warnings from your security team, you refused to be intimidated and take shelter, saying, “How can I take shelter when all of our people do not have shelter?”
The casket of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's granddaughter, Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani, is displayed alongside the caskets of Khamenei and other members of his family during a viewing ceremony ahead of the dayslong funeral ceremonies at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Grand Mosque in Tehran on Friday (July 3, 2026). Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP
From birth to your final breath, you lived a humble and righteous life. What more fitting departure could there be for a man of God and leader of Godly people than to fall at the hands of the most vicious savage evil forces on earth? What more sacred moment to leave this world than during the holy month of Ramadan, while fasting? What more noble time to pass away than after 86 years of steadfast service to God, the people of Iran, and all nations resisting imperial aggression?
The circumstances of your martyrdom — alongside your family members including your daughter and 14-months-old granddaughter — have poetic resemblances to those of your Islamic role models, Imam Ali and Imam Hussain, peace be upon them. God honored you and accepted your prayers for martyrdom after a long life of devotion.
From a young age, you dedicated yourself to Islamic scholarship and antiimperial resistance. You endured imprisonment, torture, and exile at the hands of the Pahlavi regime’s SAVAK secret police. You and your fellow revolutionaries persevered under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and delivered the 1979 Revolution, restoring Iran’s independence from imperial domination. You fought on the frontlines and later led the country as President during Iraq’s eight-year invasion of Iran. After Ayatollah Khomeini’s passing, the Assembly of Experts entrusted you with leading the Islamic Republic of Iran — a responsibility you accepted reluctantly yet fulfilled honorably and dutifully.
An image of the martyred Ayatollah Khamenei's grave. Beside him, his 14-month-old granddaughter, Zahra, is interred. Below the grave, his son-in-law, daughter, and daughter-in-law have also been laid to rest. Photo: Khamenei.ir
You navigated Iran through the harshest Western imperial aggressions: maximum pressure sanctions, coup and color revolution attempts, sabotage and covert operations, assassinations, terrorist attacks, separatist incursions, US occupation of neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, and military threats and assaults against Iran.
Under your leadership, Iran developed indigenous capabilities in military defence, peaceful nuclear technology, satellite engineering, civil infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, medicine, robotics, and nanotechnology, to name a few. You oversaw substantial improvements in life expectancy, literacy rate, poverty reduction, urbanization, sports, and women’s higher education, especially in medicine, science, and engineering.
You supported anti-imperial resistance and liberation movements from Nelson Mandela’s struggle in South Africa to the Axis of Resistance in West Asia. You stood with the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and other oppressed nations against U.S. imperialism and Israeli expansionism. This fulfilled our Islamic duty and moral responsibility and also simultaneously strengthened our national security and regional deterrence.
You warned, as Ayatollah Khomeini did, of the vicious untrustworthy nature and deceptive tactics of imperial forces. In your last public speech, you referred to Imam Hussain’s refusal to pledge to Yazid, the corrupt tyrant of his time, and explained that the Iranian nation does not pledge to corrupt US officials. After the US and European betrayals of the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), and after the U.S.-Israeli wars of aggression against Iran in 2025 and 2026 in the middle of diplomatic negotiations — including the assassinations, war crimes, the bombing of Minab’s elementary school, the sinking of Frigate Dena in international waters, stated desire to take over Iran’s oil, and threats to wipe out the Iranian civilization — Iranians especially the younger generations understand more clearly than ever the intentions, deceptions, and actions of Western imperialism.
An estimate of 43-45 million people attend a public farewell ceremony to pay their respects to late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 in Israeli and US airstrikes, at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, in Tehran, Iran July 4, 2026. Photo: Murad Sezer/Reuters
The apt selection of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei as your successor by the Assembly of Experts has eased the heartbreak of your departure. Tens of millions of Iranians rallying across the country, joining the Janfada (national defence volunteer) campaign, and the vast crowds attending your funeral are all paying tribute to your leadership and pledging allegiance to Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. Under his leadership, we will safeguard your legacy and continue along your path of resistance, independence, sovereignty, self-reliance, and indigenous development.
Pray for our nation and for the Muslim Ummah from heaven, our beloved martyred Leader.
* The writer, Hossein Rafiei Renani, is an academic researcher from University of Alberta. He is a consulting professional, human rights advocate, speaker, and writer based in Vancouver, Canada. He regularly contributes to Tehran Times where this open letter was first published.
