During the Iraqi missile attacks, Mr. Ansari came and told the Imam that: “I have received a letter from Mr. Reyshahri stating that they had reliable report of the imminent aerial bombardment of this area tonight. It is our request to you to change your location for tonight.” The Imam asked him with a smile: “What does it mean? Why are you saying this to me?” Mr. Ansari was deeply perturbed and pleaded and implored the Imam saying: “In the name of your ancestor her holiness Fatimah Zahra (AS) I beg you to change your room at least for tonight. Just a single strike will cause this room to collapse.” The Imam came out of his room and entered mine and with a smile on his face told me that: “Mr. Ansari had come and was asking me to leave this place and relocate!” I asked the Imam what was the reason for it to which the Imam replied: “I don’t know. They have received information that they are going to bomb this place tonight.” I then said: “Well, sir, then why are you not listening?” with a laugh he replied: “What’s all this nonsense! Even if this place is to be bombed, I shall remain seated on this very chair and in this very room. Have all the people sought refuge in bomb shelters?” I said: “Sir, all the people are other than you; the homes of all people have not been targeted by the enemy.” He replied: “What difference does it make? The revolutionary guard who is standing on duty at the entrance of our street is not in a bomb shelter; is it right that he is standing out there in the open and I should go inside a bomb shelter!?” I told him that everybody would ultimately go and now bomb shelters had been built in Jamaran as well as this was a government directive. He responded: “No, it is not so, that revolutionary guard who is standing on duty for my sake is not going to a bomb shelter. I will not go out of my room; you people can go for your own protection!” In order to convince him I tried using another trick and said: “If you don’t go then neither shall we; so at least for our sake go to the bomb shelter.” He asserted: “No. I do not consider it my duty to do so but you do have a duty to protect yourself whereas I do not consider it my duty to come out of my room”—and indeed he did not come out of his room! The next morning when I saw Mr. Reyshahri’s letter, I noticed that the Imam had written a mystical couplet at the back of it and thought to myself as to where we stood in this sea of thought and as to where the Imam was standing.
Name of the narrator: Fatemeh Tabatabaie, Neda journal, no.1
Title of the Book: Impressions and Memoirs about Imam Khomeini's Practical Behaviour, vol. 1, chapter two, pages 111 & 112