Two hours ago, I was at the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, offering my condolences in my name and on behalf of my family.
Subhan Allah, a few weeks ago, at the end of January, I rearranged my library. When I finished, I turned toward a table next to the reading sofa and was surprised to find a book there. I picked it up and read the author’s name: “Ayatollah Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Imam Ali Khamenei.” It was a collection of his speeches on issues concerning Muslim women.
I do not know why I felt a strange mixture of anxiety and comfort at the same time—a feeling difficult to describe. Immediately, I sat down and began to read.
He—may God have mercy on him—was an ocean of knowledge, and it is very difficult to summarize his path at the head of the Islamic Republic in just a few lines. As I was writing this condolence message, memories of childhood in Indonesia came back to me—how I used to sit beside my father, may God have mercy on him, Mukhtar Ouneiba, following moment by moment the early stirrings of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
I was writing while within me there stood a mountain of memories—memories that cannot be forgotten or erased.
Imam Sayyid Khamenei has departed from us in one of the darkest periods of the Muslim Ummah, leaving behind a legacy of formidable resistance. He remained faithful to his path until the moment of his passing.
Indeed, to God we belong and to Him we shall return. And God is the Avenger.
