On the night when Ayatollah Hakim (a renowned Shiite religious authority) passed away, the news was announced through loudspeakers.
As it was a hot summer night, Imam Khomeini was on the roof of his residence. A member of the staff recalls that he heard the sound of expression of grief and crying and noticed that the Imam was sitting and crying.
Next day the Imam asked me to gather everybody and to tell them that they had no right to promote him and mention him (the Imam) by name at any get-together even if Mustafa (his elder son) was slapped on the face or the Imam was insulted–again they should not speak a word (in protest).
The Imam made it clear to us that he was not willing that we conduct a campaign to promote him as head of the ‘Marjaiyat’ Shiite religious establishment (after the demise of Ayatollah Hakim).
This was at a time when people would come from (the Iraqi cities of) Mosul and Kirkuk to seek the Imam’s opinion on which Shiite religious authority to follow and in turn, the Imam would ask them which Shiite religious authority they were emulating until then.
When they would mention the name of Ayatollah Hakim the Imam would then say to them: “Continue to follow Mr. Hakim’s prudential opinion.”
It requires a lot of greatness of spirit for a ‘marja’ religious authority to make such a statement to persons who sought for his opinion concerning religious authority.
Narrated by Hujjat al-Islam Mohammad Reza Naseri
Taken from Exclusive Memoirs from Imam Khomeini’s Life, vol. 4, p. 131