DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 June) As soon as I learned of the US bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites early this morning — June 22, 2025 — the Sage of Jamaran immediately came to my mind.
Long before he became “Imam” to a nation or “Ayatollah” to the world, Ruhollah Khomeini was simply a seeker of the Real. A young mystic in the quiet courtyards of Qum, he sat at the feet of masters of ‘irfān—the Islamic science of inner unveiling. Among his spiritual guides were luminaries such as Āqā Mīrzā Muhammad ‘Alī Shahābādī, the renowned gnostic who taught him the subtleties of divine presence, and Mīrzā Jawād Malikī Tabrīzī, whose teachings on self-purification left indelible marks on his soul. Alongside these spiritual studies, he excelled in the Islamic seminary (hawzah al-‘ilmiyyah), mastering logic, jurisprudence, philosophy, and poetry.
He was not merely a jurist issuing legal verdicts. He was a marja‘ al-taqlīd with a mystic’s heart. At the tender age of 27, he authored Sharḥ Du‘ā al-Saḥar, a dense philosophical exegesis on a dawn supplication attributed to Imam Muhammad al-Bāqir. The du‘ā is whispered before the break of dawn in Ramadān. It speaks of light, of names, of secrets, of the One who is closer than breath. For Khomeini, these were not metaphors. They were realities—ḥaqā’iq—to be lived.
And yet, the same man who delved into esoteric mysteries would later call out political realities with chilling clarity. The US regime, he declared, is ash-Shayṭān al-Akbar—the Great Satan. Not a metaphor. A reality. Not in the sense of supernatural rebellion but in the structures, logics, and rituals of domination that define its global conduct.
The collective West, he argued, behaves under the spell of istikbār jahānī—Global Arrogance. Arrogance, here, is not merely pride. It is a civilizational posture, a refusal to recognize the ḥaqq—the truth and right—of the other. It is the insistence that only one way of being, of governing, of producing knowledge, is valid: theirs.
And today, this arrogance has once again torn the sky.
The bombs that struck Iranian nuclear research centers in Natanz, Arak, and Fordow this morning were not just military operations. They were performative acts of power, meant to discipline, humiliate, and demonstrate who decides what is “dangerous” and what is “defensive.”
They follow the June 13 unprovoked attack by the Zionist entity, which killed several Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists. This was not condemned. Instead, it was celebrated.
Just look at the tweet from Donald Trump shortly after that Israeli assault:
“Excellent and very successful. Iran must make a deal now or face even more destructive and deadly military action.” (Trump on Truth Social, June 13, 2025)
Then came the G7 statement, dripping with euphemisms and double standards:
“We affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel. Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror.” (G7 Statement, June 17, 2025)
Even before the first American missiles struck Iranian soil this morning, Trump was laying the groundwork not for diplomacy—but for dominance. Just days earlier, he issued an uncompromising ultimatum:
“Iran must accept total, unconditional surrender of its nuclear ambitions, or suffer the consequences. No more games.” (Trump on Truth Social, June 20, 2025)
And suffer it did. Just hours ago, after the US airstrikes on Iranian facilities, Trump—emboldened by re-election fever and media adoration—posted:
“The strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” (Trump on Truth Social, June 22, 2025)
He added later:
“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.” (Trump, June 22, 2025)
No court. No evidence. No due process. Just missiles and a tweet.
This is not just geopolitics. It’s symbolic violence. It is the enforcement of meaning. In social constructivist terms, it is the power to define who is “rational” and who is “rogue,” who is “responsible” and who is “radical.” The Iranian woman on the street, unveiled and unapologetic, who shouts in a viral clip, “We need the bomb!”, is not a threat because of ideology. She is a threat because she refuses the script written for her.
The Sage of Jamaran saw this long ago. In his humble abode, he wrote and preached about the nafs al-ammārah—the commanding self—not just within individuals but within empires. Empires that justify drone and airstrikes as “surgical” and embargoes as “peacekeeping.” Empires that refuse to look into the mirror of history.
Today, that mirror shatters again.
And so, we ask: Who polices the policeman? Who deters the deterrent? Who stops the Great Satan?
If the bombs can fall without consequence, what remains of law, of morality, of world order?
The world does not need more weapons. It needs more sages. More voices unafraid to call things by their real names. More eyes unclouded by the fog of propaganda. And more hearts, trained not only in law and logic, but in the mystical discipline of seeing through the veil.
[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mansoor L. Limba, PhD in International Relations and Shari‘ah Counselor-at-Law (SCL), is a publisher-writer, university professor, vlogger, chess trainer, and translator (from Persian into English and Filipino) with tens of written and translation works to his credit on such subjects as international politics, history, political philosophy, intra-faith and interfaith relations, cultural heritage, Islamic finance, jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (‘ilm al-kalam), Qur’anic sciences and exegesis (tafsir), hadith, ethics, and mysticism. He can be reached at mlimba@diplomats.com and www.youtube.com/@WayfaringWithMansoor, and his books can be purchased at www.elzistyle.com and www.amazon.com/author/mansoorlimba.]
