Sometimes thrown as an insult – figuratively, “ayatollah” meaning “person with retrograde ideas who uses the extensive powers at his disposal in an arbitrary and tyrannical manner”according to Larousse – this term is more usually attached to Ali Khamenei. The Supreme Leader of Iran perfectly embodies the double meaning of the word. Both religious dignitary and political leader, Ali Khamenei concentrates power without equivalent in the Muslim world.
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The word, from Arabic ayat allāh – “sign of God” – designates a religious person who has reached an exceptional level of erudition. To achieve this, decades of study are necessary, in theological schools (hawza) from Qom or Najaf. Islamic law (fiqh), theology, philosophy, Koranic exegesis: the ayatollah is a scholar, recognized by his peers, authorized to issue fatwas and to be followed as a spiritual authority by the faithful.
How do you become an Ayatollah?
However, not all are equal. At the top of this pyramid is the marja-e taqlidthe “source of imitation”, a status reserved for a few great ayatollahs whose religious decisions guide the daily lives of millions of Shiites around the world. Rouhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic in 1979, combined this spiritual legitimacy and absolute political power, lastingly sealing the fusion of religion and state in Iran.
It is this heritage that Ali Khamenei collected. Having become Supreme Guide in 1989, he is not only a religious leader: he is the ultimate arbiter of institutions, the armed forces and justice. There remains the word, and its slippage. By being associated with ideological rigidity, censorship and repression, “ayatollah” has left religious seminaries to enter everyday language, loaded with an authoritarian connotation. Thus, we sometimes speak of “ayatollah of ecology” or “ayatollah of secularism” to designate, with irony or criticism, an intransigent person in a given area.
