While he was in Turkey, Imam Khomeini had added certain topics to the book ‘Tahreer al-Wasilah’ which was a marginal note on the late Abol Hassan Esfahani’s (a renowned theologian) book ‘Wasilah.’
In Turkey he had included the marginal note in the text and added some topics as well.
When in the holy city of Najaf they wanted to print the book, they gave me a copy of it to take to the Imam for his final opinion.
On the back cover of the book, the Imam was showered with a lot of praise. But when I took the book to the Imam and showed it to him, as soon as his eyes fell on the writing on the back cover, he became utterly furious and threw the book on the ground stating: “they have not told me about this; these words have to be obliterated.”
I did not dare to say anything and went out and told the person who was in charge of printing the book about the Imam’s reaction and added that it was useless to argue the case with the Imam for his was the last word.
The Imam was so infuriated by the praise written about him on the back cover of the book that he banged the book to the ground.
When the book was taken back to the printing press for erasing the words (of praise on the back cover), the person in charge of the printing press was quite amazed because he had neither seen nor heard of such a reaction until then and so he enquired in Arabic: “Who is this gentleman?”
Narrated by: Hujjat al-Islam wal Muslimeen Abdul Ail Qarhi
Taken from: Exclusive Memoirs from Imam Khomeini’s Life, vol. 6, p. 138.