In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
I hope Your Eminence is healthy and fine by the will of Allah. Besides, I feel the need to remind you of an important and vital issue, so that through your faultless thoughts and eloquent spoken words you can do something about it in accordance with the pleasure of God, the Exalted, and the society's welfare. Of course, you are well aware of many an opportunity missed and many a stronghold surrendered to the opponents by the Muslims, remembering which leaves us nothing but remorse and sorrow. Muslims, some out of ignorance of the global situation or under the influence of the enemies' propaganda, and some in order to keep up their own businesses, have fought and opposed the wise who wanted to make reform, and will be opposing them until the Day of Resurrection. Now the only ray of hope left for us is, on the one hand, the branch of propagation and preaching, which you see in what conditions it is and what kind of people are unrightfully in its charge, and on the other hand, there is the field of religious education in which the branch of preaching originates. The solidity of religious education is now maintained by the blessed seminary in Najaf, Qum, Isfahan, Mashhad and some other cities, which are generally under the management and auspices of His Eminence Ayatullah al-`Uzma Buroujerdi; and as far as I can see these blessed seminaries are on the brink of liquidation because, on the one hand, his proxies in the cities are generally ineffectual and on the other hand, many of the `ulama of the cities prevent the religious funds from reaching him; furthermore, in Tehran and some other cities some spiteful persons publicize against him. What makes things worst is that His Eminence himself doesn't agree to turn to the businessmen and merchants and to describe the needs and requirements of the blessed seminary to them, the way the late Ayatullah Isfahani and the late Ayatullah Qummi (may their souls be sanctified) did. Furthermore, there are only a few who truly sympathize with him and the blessed seminary. All these reasons together have given rise to the current situation, in which, may God forbid, we may loose this stronghold too.
It is some months now that His Eminence has been in debt; either for the bread (i. e., sustenance) of Najaf and Samirra or for the monthly allowances of the Islamic seminaries in Qum and Isfahan, and sometimes even for the Mashhad and other places, too. In brief, while the expenses of the late Sayyid (may God bless him) are an extra burden for His Eminence the expectations remain the same and the religious funds do not reach him and are misappropriated. You know well that Tehran is the center of all the legal alms, contributing eighty percent of the whole income as I have heard; and Your Eminence is well known to all classes of people and your eloquent tongue is mainly effective with them; but mere preaching on the pulpit is of no use. There is a need for a private council of the respectable and benevolent merchants, asking for the help and support of the people like Mr. Haj Mirza `Ali-Naqi Kashani, Mr. Shalchi, Mr. Khosrowshahi, Mr. Bazargan, Mr. Mustafawi, and whoever else you think as appropriate, explaining the situation thoroughly; all hoping that, in the first place, they could pay back His Eminence's debts quickly, and then, each of them truly undertake contributing every month as much as they can afford. I fear that the least delay and negligence may end in regret and loss. May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.
Rouhullah al-Mousawi al-Khomeini