Ayatollah Khamenei

Three important characteristics of Salman Farsi, according to Ayatollah Khamenei

At the beginning of his Dars-e-Kharej on January 22, 2018, the Leader of the Revolution mentioned a hadith from Imam Sadegh (as) on the personality of Salman Farsi. Since this Hadith represents a behavioral and ethical model for devout, revolutionary individuals, the website of Khamenei.ir publishes the Hadith for the first time.

A companion of Imam Sadegh (as) once said to him: “We often hear you mention the name of Salman, and refer to him."

His excellency responded: "Do you know why? There are three important features of Salman's personality that lead me to refer to him often."

1. He gave more importance to the desires of Amir-al-Mu’minin (as) than to his own desires.
This has happened more than once: when Imam Ali (as) wanted one thing while Salman wanted another, in his heart and mind, Salman chose the want and desires of Imam Ali (as) over his own desires.

2. He valued the poor.
Some dislike the "underprivileged class" of society: they avoid them; they ignore them! They consider themselves as superior to the disadvantaged group. But Salman was not like this; he valued the poor. He prefered the poor over the rich. This is an important lesson. One of the main characteristics of us, as seminary students, as scholars, or clerics, from the very beginning, is that we have been close to those who are deprived. This is a great privilege… This is extremely important. We need to maintain this quality. Now that the scholarly and clerical community have reached a position in the political sphere, they should not lose their traditional, historical value.

3. Salman appreciated knowledge and science; he admired scientists and scholars.

These three features, of Salman's personality, leads Imam Sadegh (as), a man with the highest degree of dignity and knowledge, to admire Salman.