Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be laid to rest today
Collected Photo
Iran's former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will be laid to rest with state honors today, Thursday (July 9). He will be buried in his birthplace of Mashhad.
His body has already been brought back to Iran from the historic city of Karbala in Iraq. Afterward, his mortal remains were taken to the Imam Reza Shrine complex for the funeral prayers.
Khamenei was born in 1939 in Mashhad, the second most populous city of Iran, home to nearly three million people. The city is considered as a holy city by the Shia Muslims.
Imam Reza is one of the twelve revered Shia Imams, and his tomb is located in Mashhad. Shias believe Imam Reza to be one of the successors of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The decision to bury Khamenei there was made to honor his status as a supreme religious leader. It is believed that Imam Reza was assassinated by poisoning in the ninth century and was subsequently buried in Mashhad.
Khamenei’s son and the current Supreme Leader, Mojtaba, was also born in Mashhad. Additionally, the former President Ebrahim Raisi was born in this holy Shia city. Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in 2024 and was later buried in the Imam Reza Shrine complex.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on February 28. Four other members of the Khamenei family also lost their lives in the attack.
Unprecedented preparations for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral prayers and burial began in Tehran last Friday. On that day, Khamenei's coffin was kept at the Grand Mosalla Mosque, where diplomats and foreign dignitaries paid their respects.
On Saturday, all doors of the Grand Mosalla were opened to the public to pay their final respects. Following the funeral prayers in Tehran on Sunday, a mourning procession was held on the capital's main streets on Monday.
On Tuesday, the body was taken to the holy city of Qom. By Wednesday, the funeral programs crossed the border to Najaf and Karbala in Iraq. Following the rituals there, Khamenei's coffin was brought back to Mashhad. (Source: Mehr News)
