"A nation that reads is a nation that leads."
— Sayyid Ali Khamenei
Before he led a nation, Sayyid Ali Khamenei led a classroom. Born in Mashhad in 1939, the son of a scholar, he was reciting the Qur'an before the age of five and entered the theological seminary as a teenager. By his early twenties he had studied under some of the most formidable minds in Shia scholarship, Ayatollah Borujerdi, Allāmah Ṭabāṭabā'ī, and Imam Khomeini, across the seminary cities of Mashhad, Najaf, and Qom. He completed his ijtihād, earning the right to derive independent legal rulings, before the age of thirty.
But he was never content to remain inside the seminary walls. He joined the revolutionary movement against the Pahlavi regime while still a student, and between the 1960s and the late 1970s he was arrested, imprisoned, and sent into internal exile multiple times. He survived an assassination attempt in 1981 that permanently disabled his right arm. After the Islamic Revolution, he served as president of Iran from 1981 to 1989, and then as the Leader of the Islamic Republic from 1989 until his martyrdom on 28 February 2026.
What many people outside Iran do not realise is the sheer scale of Sayyid Khamenei's intellectual output. His bibliography, catalogued by institutions such as Hawzah.net, Qods Online, and the Iranian National Library, runs to hundreds of titles spanning original research, compiled lectures, Qur'anic tafsīr, translations from Arabic to Persian, and collected speeches on topics from governance and jurisprudence to ethics, history, marriage, and the arts.
His original works include titles such as An Outline of Islamic Thought in the Qur'an (now in its 40th Persian edition), From the Depths of Prayer, The Spirit of Monotheism, A Speech About Patience, and the scholarly study Four Main Books of Biographical Evaluation. His translations brought major Arabic works into Persian, including The Future in the Realm of Islam, The Peace of Imam al-Ḥasan, and An Indictment Against Western Civilisation. Dozens more titles have been compiled from his lectures by students and scholars — from the well-known A 250 Year Old Person (a unified portrait of the Prophet and the twelve Imams) to Palestine (2011), to compilations on Ashura, governance, and the Iran–Iraq war.
Only a fraction of this body of work has been translated into English so far. What we carry at Shia Books Australia represents the most significant English-language translations currently available, and we are committed to expanding this collection as new translations are published.
Cell No. 14: The Autobiography of Ayatollah Khamenei — $40 AUD (Amin Publications)
The first half of his life in his own words: from his childhood in Mashhad to the seminary, the prisons of the Shah's regime, and the dawn of the Islamic Revolution. The book has reached its 20th edition in Persian and remains one of the most read autobiographies in the Muslim world.
This is Sayyid Khamenei's magnum opus in English translation — a four-volume theoretical framework for authentic Islamic governance, published by Lantern Publications and translated by Blake Archer Williams.
Vol 1 — First Principles — $28 AUD. The theological foundations: prophethood, welāya, the concept of oul'ul-amr (those invested with authority), and the case for a divinely-sanctioned social order.
Vol 2 — The Imamate — $28 AUD. Scriptural and rational proofs for the Imamate, a survey of competing models of leadership, and the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate governance.
Vol 3 — The Just Ruler — $28 AUD. The attributes, rights, and duties of a just Islamic ruler, including a full translation and Arabic text of Imam Ali's Epistle to Mālik al-Ashtar — one of the greatest documents on governance ever written.
Vol 4 will soon be in our catalogue — browse the full series in our Islamic Governance collection.
Islamic Thought in the Qur'an — $36 AUD (Sahbah Books). Explains the most fundamental principles of Islamic thinking through the Qur'an — faith, the purpose of human existence, and how to achieve it. Written so clearly that it speaks to Muslim and non-Muslim readers alike.
Hadith of Life — $25 AUD (Aimat Al Huda Institute). Drawn from the opening commentaries of Sayyid Khamenei's advanced jurisprudence (ba'th khārij) lessons, this book offers an exquisite exposition of traditions from the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.) organised around three dimensions of an Islamic way of living: individual life, social life, and spiritual life. Concise, creative, and deeply practical.
Lessons from the Nahjul Balagha — $18 AUD (Al Buraq). A brief but powerful introduction to the phenomenon of Prophethood as it appears in the sermons and letters of Imam Ali (a.s.) in the Nahj al-Balāgha.
Ashura – In the Thought of Imam Khamenei — $28 AUD (Al Buraq). A collection of speeches warning that the conditions that produced Yazīd can return in any age — and that standing with Ḥusayn is not a historical exercise but a living obligation.
Imam Husain's Brothers in Arms — $28 AUD (Lantern Publications). Ten Muḥarram lectures from 1972 — delivered before the revolution — arguing that every one of the twelve Imams was politically active against tyranny, and that taqīya was never a licence for silence.
The Charisma of Husayn — $18 AUD (Mishkat Publications). A collection of Sayyid Khamenei's statements on two subjects: Lady Zaynab al-Kubrā (s) and Arba'een — exploring the personal and social dimensions of both, and offering practical lessons on how we can carry their legacy forward today.
The Prophet of Mercy — $32 AUD (Amin Publications). A heartfelt and beautifully written portrait of the life of Prophet Muḥammad (ṣ) — from his early years as an orphan in Mecca to the building of a radiant Islamic civilisation in Medina. Sayyid Khamenei presents the Prophet's mission as a continuation of the path walked by earlier prophets such as Mūsā and ʿĪsā, culminating in a powerful reflection on the impeccable moral character that Allāh appointed him to perfect.
A 250 Year Old Person — $34 AUD (Al Buraq). Seventeen chapters tracing the lives and missions of the Prophet and the twelve Imams as a single, continuous 250-year project — from the birth of the Prophet in 631 CE to the occultation of the Twelfth Imam in 874 CE.
The Compassionate Family — $25 AUD (AIM Islam). From his lectures and personal stories, Sayyid Khamenei offers guidance on developing Islamic character, choosing the right companion, and navigating the struggles of family life. Drawing on the domestic lives of the Prophet (ṣ) and his household, it outlines the qualities of a successful marriage and warns of the modern dangers that undermine the family structure. 132 pages of direct, unflinching advice.
101 Tips for a Happy Marriage — $29 AUD (Al Buraq). Compiled from his speeches on harmony between spouses, the role of marriage in human perfection, and practical conflict resolution from an Islamic perspective.
The Dawn of Love: Guidance for Young Couples — $20 AUD (Bab Al-Ridha Institute). A profound exploration of divine love as the ultimate path to spiritual awakening — guiding the reader through the journey of transcending worldly attachments and discovering the eternal connection with the Divine. Written with the depth of a scholar and the heart of a mystic.
Christ in the Night of Glory — $28 AUD (Sahbah Books). A rare and beautiful book recounting Sayyid Khamenei's personal visits — around Christmas and the Christian New Year — to the families of Armenian and Assyrian Christian martyrs who gave their lives for Iran. A portrait of interfaith respect at its most genuine.
Tabyeen: The Neglected Obligation — $42 AUD (AIM Islam). A compilation of his teachings on Jihād al-Tabyeen — the Struggle for Clarification — offering strategies for combating misinformation and standing for truth in an era of deliberate confusion.
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei: The Life and Legacy of a Wise Leader — $30 AUD. A 144-page scholarly portrait by Professor Saied Reza Ameli examining his leadership philosophy, his vision for scientific advancement and economic resilience, and his legacy of cultural sovereignty.
While not authored by Sayyid Khamenei, the following titles carry his personal endorsement and commendation:
Peace Be Upon Ibrahim – Vol 1 & Vol 2 — $28 AUD each (Tales of Valour). The profound sayings and stories of Iranian martyr Ibrahim Hadi, translated into English and endorsed by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.
The twenty-one titles listed above are what currently exists in English on our shelves. They represent a fraction of a vast intellectual legacy — one that spans jurisprudence, Qur'anic exegesis, political philosophy, ethics, poetry, history, and the arts. As more translations are completed and published, we will add them to our collection. In the meantime, what is available here is more than enough to transform a reader's understanding of one of the most significant Islamic scholars of the modern era.
Sayyid Ali Khamenei was a man who read eight-volume sets on bus rides, who taught seminary students while under house arrest, who wrote about prayer from a prison cell, and who spent his final decades building institutions of knowledge while the world tried to reduce him to a headline. The books are his real biography. Start anywhere. You will not stop at one.
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