One day Imam Khomeini called to see me and stated:
“The Baathist regime (of Iraq) intends to close down the Najaf Theological Seminary; and here I feel it is my duty to try my utmost and to the extent possible not to allow the Najaf Theological Seminary to close down. One of the ways to prevent this is to attend to the condition of the seminary students and increase their monthly stipend.
However because the stipend that I want to pay them is from the Imam’s blessed portion and belongs to the Savior Imam–peace be upon him–this money is accounted for, this ought to be disbursed to those individuals who have the potential to continue with their education in the theological seminary and have the capability to progress and attain top academic positions.
Whereas I have heard that in my stipend office, the names of inappropriate individuals have been registered on the payroll and are receiving money from me.
The names of these individuals should be eliminated from the stipend and (other) individuals should be investigated.”
I began this task of investigation and found out that what the Imam had said was indeed right.
Unfortunately I came across names of certain individuals who in the garb of seminary students were in fact working for the secret service organization of Iraq’s Baathist regime and were informants of the Baathist Party and so the names of all such individuals were eliminated from the Imam’s stipend office payroll.
Narrated by: Ayatollah Hujjat al-Islam wal Muslimeen Sayyid Jafar Karimi
Taken from: Impressions from Imam Khomeini’s Memoirs, vol. 5, chap. 7, p. 130