Changes in the Meaning of Religion under the Leadership of Imam Khomeini

The Islamic Revolution of 1978-79 can be considered as a new phase in the history of Islam. Before 1978, religion was an otherworldly affair and was confined to the private domain whose role in human society was limited to places of worship. This parochial approach to religion also holds true with regard to the great religions in the West. Such an approach to religion also exists more or less in Islam. Islam is a religion, which deals with both the worlds. Since this world is a place to prepare for the hereafter, from the Quranic point of view the two worlds are interdependent. But modernization and secularism caused a separation between ethic and faith and practices and political affairs. In the 1970s Imam Khomeini opposed such policies which were spread by rulers such as Shah. Imam Khomeini believed that Islam was an ideology which guaranteed justice in this world and salvation in the hereafter.