He was a true believer but his religiosity did not force him to stay in a house or a mosque; he led society towards Islam and an Islamic movement.
What comes below is a summary of remarks made by the head of the Islamic Center of England Hojat-ol-Islam Seyed Hashem Mousavi about the character and thoughts of late Imam Khomeini:
Innovation is one of the prominent features of God Almighty, and divine prophets are among the first innovators after Him. The phenomenon of the Islamic Revolution led by Imam Khomeini and the establishment of a government based on Islamic jurisprudence was one of the greatest innovations of this era that has challenged many thinkers and rulers of the world.
With the theory of religious government, Imam Khomeini managed to take religion out of the scope of individual life and into the social life of human beings. Many of the rules of Islam are the source of political and social services. Islamic worship is part of the political, social, and ideological foundations. For example, congregational prayers, marches, Hajj, and Friday prayers, have political and social aspects in addition to their spiritual and moral effects.
Having strong faith in God and trying to make the country independent of world powers is one of the characteristics of Imam Khomeini. Among the essential elements of Imam's political thought, one can point to opposition to any sort of political, economic, and cultural dependency.
According to Imam Khomeini, cultural dependency is more dangerous than all kinds of dependencies and is more harmful to Islamic societies. The manifestation of Imam's opposition to political dependence is the famous slogan which reads “independence, freedom, Islamic Republic” and the policy of “neither East, nor West".
Due to the Islamic and Quranic nature of the latter policy, it went beyond the borders of Iran and was received by a large part of the Muslim world and even the oppressed nations. Imam Khomeini would always urge the nations to remain vigilant against the efforts of the colonialists to force the countries into all kinds of dependencies.
Ayatollah Seyed Rouhollah Mousavi Khomeini (1902-1989), better known as Imam Khomeini, was the leader of the Islamic Revolution, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and a Shia Marja. He has penned various works on Fiqh, Islamic philosophy, and mysticism.
(Source: IQNA news agency)