1963
First arrest
He carried Imam Khomeini's message to Mashhad scholars and spoke in Birjand, where he was arrested for the first time.
04 - The Life
Young Adulthood
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Joining the Struggle
As a young seminary student he joined Imam Khomeini's movement against the Pahlavi government. He understood the struggle as a religious duty.
The official biography records that he described himself as a disciple of Imam Khomeini in political and revolutionary ideas and in Islamic jurisprudence.
His first exposure came at age thirteen, when Nawwab Safavi spoke at his school in Mashhad against the Shah's anti-Islamic policies.
By 1962, in Qom, he had joined the revolutionary followers of Imam Khomeini. He remained in the struggle until the victory of the Revolution in 1979, through surveillance, imprisonment, torture, and exile.
1978-1979
The movement he had joined as a seminary student grew into the Revolution.
Arrests and Teaching
Between 1963 and 1978 he was arrested repeatedly, taught publicly and in secret, and was sent into exile.
1964
Kirman and Zahedan
He exposed the Shah's referendum and American-backed policies, then was arrested again by SAVAK.
1967
Underground work
His Qur'an, hadith, and Islamic ideology classes drew youth and forced periods of clandestine activity.
1972-1975
Qur'an and Nahj al-Balagha
His lessons in Mashhad mosques attracted thousands and circulated by hand and typed copies.
1976-1978
Exile
SAVAK sentenced him to internal exile; he returned to Mashhad before the triumph of the Revolution.
"It was a movement started by the oppressed of society in order to practice divine teachings."Ayatollah Khamenei, on the Islamic Revolution