4. He would always enter a room or step on a pulpit using only his left foot first. He would exit with the right foot. *8
5. The routines of the day were so regimented that the members of the family would organize their daily activity based on Khomeini's behavior using Khomeini as a clock. For example, their household maid reported that on the days that she was cooking rice for everybody, she would get started with the task when she would see that Khomeini was done with the morning studying. *8
6. Perfect Punctuality: In the mosques, temples and the shrines, many people have reported how they could use him as a clock because of his precise routines. He was so cautious with time that when he returned from his daily walks out, if he was ten seconds early, he would walk an extra 10 seconds in the yard before entering. *3*7
7. Khomeini was extremely frugal. His argument was that the money that his money was actually the money which had been collected to be spent for religious purposes and he did not have a right to it. Consequently, he would keep his expenses very low. However, a deeper look at this behavior shows that he handled finances with extreme precision and at times was unreasonably demanding. For example, his household servant reported that when they were living in Iraq, he had given him a couple of dinars (each dinar was equivalent to three dollars) to go to the store to buy groceries. When he came back with the groceries, he gave Khomeini his change and before he got to the door Khomeini screamed at him that it was half a Flous short (that is less than one-tenth of one penny). *8
8 The religious rituals were so important for him, that he would compromise very important events to complete minor noncompulsory rituals of Friday*19
9. Ayatollah Montazeri reported that when Khomeini's book "Resaleh" was published, he got a copy from Khomeini when he was at Khomeini's house. He had to argue with the old man because he was insisting to be paid ten Tomans (one dollar and thirty cents). *10
10. Cleanliness. He changed his outside attire as soon as he was back in the house to keep the germs out. Khomeini's daughter reports that Khomeini had a study room for himself and he would use so many perfumes and colognes that whenever she would go in his room, she felt that she was going into paradise. He is also reported as saying that ladies are mischievous and they kept all the good things to themselves, especially the perfumes. Six or seven times a day he used cologne to smell better and make the room smell better. *4
11. Hording money: When living in Iraq, which is quite hot, it took a long time before he permitted the family to get a fan. He actually refused air conditioning as a gift because of the money it would use for electricity. The mannerisms of expenditure of money for him and the rest of the family were astonishingly poor. The places that he rented to live in Qum or in Najaf were badly run down and cheap. *7 One should keep in mind that Ayatollahs at his level receive thousands of dollars a day from their followers for different religious reasons. Also, since they have hundreds of visitors a day, they usually have houses, which are quite large, and have two sections an internal part for the family and the external part for receiving visitors.Some people interpret his frugal behavior as a religious mannerism in which he did not want to be involved in worldly materials. *7
However, we know for a fact that when he arrived in Tehran from Paris, people who were going to see him had to see his brother-in-law first and make donations of millions of dollars for a few minutes of audience. He did not dislike money; he just didn't want to spend it. Like other people with his condition, money was hoarded for future catastrophes. *8
12. Khomeini was extremely critical of others and intolerant of bad behavior from peasants to the king himself. He was specifically critical of people in a position of authority. They were always hearing his nagging criticism. The last one of the famous victims of this crude criticism was President Carter who just didn't know what to do with him. At the time of hostage crisis Carter needed to resolve the hostage situation very badly. There was tremendous amount of pressure on him to do it.
Carter's hands were tied by his own beliefs. He wanted them out alive, not dead, even if it would cost him the presidency. Also, Carter did not want a war in Middle East. In that respect, he was very accurate. I remember the huge slogans in Tehran saying "Americans are not stronger than before and we are not weaker than Vietnamese". These two sets of beliefs made him incapacitated and caused him to lose his presidency. If he had taken a chance and had bombed Iran, the hostages would have been dead and that was not acceptable to him.
Meanwhile Khomeini kept ragging on him and he finally came up with the term "the great Satan is the US'. This type of taunting was difficult to resist, but Khomeini was smart enough that he knew he had intimidated Carter and his goal was not harming the hostages. The old opportunist used this event to kill all of his real enemies, who were the Iranian people.
13. Constricted affect: Khomeini did not manifest his feelings. He would cry occasionally in religious ceremonies related to one of the Shiite saints. However, this type of crying is a purely religious ritual. The contrast is obvious when we consider the fact that he was known not to have cried, when his son got killed. When he was returning to Tehran from exile and he was in the plane, a reporter asked him what he felt from returning to Iran after so many years of exile, Khomeini's reply was "Nothing."*19
14. There is one right way of doing things and that is my way of doing things. Khomeini was the best example of this old saying. He was so regimented and controlling that his interpretation of Islam and the form of government that he implemented in Iran at this time is a unique interpretation of the Quran, and of Islam as a whole. No one else in history has ever come up with this interpretation. This method of government, which is referred to as "Vellayat Faghih" (the rule of the qualified clergy), is based on a remote quotation from Imam Reza who was the 8th Imam of 12 Imams of Shiite sect of Islam.
15. Stubbornness. Khomeini had a habit of not retracting what he would say even if that would put his life and the lives of his followers at jeopardy. Once he would make a decision that he was going to do something, he would do it regardless of consequences. Although this characteristic paid off at the end, his insistence on conquering Iraq added six years to the Iran-Iraq war with hundreds of thousands of casualties. He finally had to bitterly accept the peace treaty because of an impending military defeat, and he died soon after. *15
16. Hyper religiosity. Although Khomeini is an Ayatollah and one assumes that an Ayatollah would be a very religious person, he was much more orthodox, detailed, and devoted, than other religious leaders. He adhered to the most minute detail of the faith and was totally intolerant of people who would not follow the rules of Islam as strictly as he did. *12
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