SAEDNEWS: A heartwarming video of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recounting his childhood passion for reading has recently gone viral, offering a rare glimpse into his early intellectual upbringing and family life.
According to Saed News, quoting the official website for the preservation and publication of the Supreme Leader’s works, Ayatollah Khamenei recalls how he would frequently rent books—sometimes finishing each volume overnight. “It irritated the shopkeeper,” he remarked with a smile, reflecting on the voraciousness of his youthful reading habits.
In a rich and intimate recollection, the Leader describes his mother as an educated, literary woman with a love for poetry and the Quran. “She had a beautiful voice,” he said, “and would often gather us around to recite verses from the Quran, especially the stories of the prophets.” These early sessions, he added, were his first exposure to the lives of figures such as Moses and Abraham.
He also fondly remembered memorizing verses of Hafez’s poetry from his mother’s recitations—some of which he can still recall decades later. Among them:
"Sahar cho khosrow-e khāvar alam dar kuh-sārān zad
Be dast-e marhamat yāram dar omidvāran zad"
Ayatollah Khamenei spoke of his father as a devout and quiet man of learning, a contrast to his mother’s warm and talkative nature. “My father was a great cleric from Tabriz—he spoke Turkish—and my mother was Persian-speaking,” he said, adding that he grew up fluent in both languages in a modest, lively household.
These reflections, shared during a 1997 conversation with youth, offer a rare, candid portrait of the Supreme Leader’s formative years—marked by simplicity, devotion, and an enduring love for books.
