INSTITUTES HE ESTABLISHED
Since he took charge of Najaf's hawza, al-Khoei became the caretaker of all
Shi'a charitable institutions, mosques and husayniyyas, theological hawzas, etc. all over the world. Among the most significant of such institutes which he ordered to be founded, and which he supervised through his representatives, are the following.
 

1) In India, where there are an estimated forty million followers of his (according to his representative there Sayyid Muhammad al-Moosawi), he established the Educational Charitable Complex in Bombay which is regarded as the largest educational and theological project in the world, and it includes various departments each one of which specialises in a particular activity, and it is comprised of elementary and secondary (high) schools, various accredited colleges, a large hospital and a huge mosque, in addition to spending on attendants of theological centres in other parts of India such as
Ali Poor, Nibras and Hyderabad.
 

2) Madeenat al-'Ilm, the city of knowledge, at the holy city of Qum, Islamic
Republic of Iran, which is the largest theological institute in Shi'a world and where more than three thousand students are studying theology, and it includes dormitories for 500 married students, in addition to theological centres at Mashhad and Khurasan, spending, according to his representative in India Sayyid Muhammad al-Moosawi, more than one million Iranian toomans a month as grants to students of theology there.
 

3) Al-Khoei's Mabarrah in Beirut, Lebanon, which provides cultural and social
services for a large number of orphan children who have lost their families during the catastrophes to which Lebanon has been subjected, and it is a five building complex housing an orphanage, a vocational school and an institute, and it surely is a monument of what true charity can accomplish.
 

4) Ayatollah al-Khoei's School and Library of Mashhad, Islamic Republic of
Iran, the building of which is a masterpiece of a marriage between traditional and modem architecture.
 

5) Dar al-'Ilm School at Najaf al-Ashraf, Iraq, from which highly qualified jurists and mujtahids have been graduating, and which has accommodated more than 200 students of the higher level of theological studies, in addition to dormitories and a library, and it has been demolished by the filthy hands of Saddam Hussein's troops as part of a plan to demolish schools and mosques in Najaf, the holiest city for the Shi'as of the world.
 

6) Numerous other theological studies styled after Najafs hawza located in Thailand, Bangladesh (in West Bengal), India, Pakistan and other countries.
 

7) Imam al-Khoei's Library at Najaf al-Ashraf, Iraq, which contains 25,000 books and 6,000 rare hand-written manuscripts, and it was established by his late holiness for the benefit of researchers, critics, and scholars of theology, and it used to publish and internationally distribute quality Islamic literature, but its press has been confiscated by the oppressive authority of Saddam Hussein's regime.
 

8) Offices in Karachi and Islamabad, Pakistan, to disseminate religious education and the translation and distribution of quality Islamic literature.
 

9) He also had an office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the publication and distribution of religious literature.
 

AL-KHOEI FOUNDATION
In addition to all the projects enumerated above, his late holiness had ordered the establishment of an international charity to look after the followers of our creed in all corners of the Earth and to establish a high quality cultural and social system; therefore, Imam al-Khoei Benevolent Foundation was founded and first headquartered in Najaf al-Ashraf in 1988 with branches in Europe (including one in London, U.K.) and the Middle East.  The London branch office had been established by a select committee of nine highly respected dignitaries who formed its Central Committee. Those nine founding members were:
1) Sayyid Muhammad Taqi al-Khoei (son of the late Imam al-Khoei),
2) Shaikh Muhsin Ali al-Najafi,
3) Shaikh Yousuf Nafsi,
4) Sayyid Muhammad al-Moosawi (of Bombay, India)
5) Sayyid Fadil al-Meelani,
6) Sayyid Majeed al-Khoei (son of the late Imam al-Khoei),
7) Shaikh Hajj Kazim Abdel-Hussein,
8) Sayyid Muhammad Ah al-Shahristani, and
9) al-Hajj Mustafa Kawkal.

After the Rajab 1412 (March 1991) Intifada (uprising) of the people of Iraq
against the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, the Najaf headquarters were transferred to London, U.K., where the said Committee was charged with overseeing the activities of all branch offices of al-Khoei Foundation in India, Pakistan, U.S.A., Canada and Kuwait. Kuwaitis who suffered untold atrocities at the bloody hands of Saddam Hussein after he had invaded their country secretly received huge sums of money from the late Ayatollah who instructed his representatives there to help all families that suffered from the invasion regardless of their sect. No other Muslim organisation in the world helped Kuwaitis who were trapped inside the country, or who lost their means of income because of the execution of their bread earners, as they were helped by al-Khoei... His benevolence also reached all families that suffered from the Iraq-Iran war, and his assistance to them infuriated Saddam's government and led the latter to once confiscate his entire fluids at al-Rafidain Bank in Baghdad. The Deputy Director of the now London
Headquarters is also Director of the al-Khoei Foundation in New York that supervises cultural and theological studies of the Medina school and the Khoei Center. He is Mawlana Hujjatul-Islam Shaikh Fadil al-Sahlani who has been representing al-Khoei in the U.S. and Canada since 1990. In addition to all the above, his late holiness also sponsored and funded the activities of students of theology in Syria, Turkey, Palestine and the African continent.
In Canada, he fairly recently established an Islamic school and centre at Montreal. During the war between Afghani heroes and Communist kafir forces, the deceased Imam provided all support he could to the Mujahidin and he even permitted the distribution of collected religious taxes to Afghani Mujahidin.
 

HIS ASCETICISM
Ayatollah al-Uzma al-Khoei was the embodiment of asceticism, scholarship, and
renunciation of worldly riches. His son Sayyid Abdel-Majeed al-Khoei narrates anecdotes about the simple life his holy father used to lead. He says that his father never deducted his own share of the religious taxes his representatives were collecting on his behalf; instead, he used to spend on his family, relatives and friends from whatever gifts handed to him by some of his followers. "My father," says Sayyid Abdel-Majeed al-Khoei, "never bought himself a new outfit except after the one he wears is totally worn out. Some of those who were very close to him criticised him for wearing such shabby clothes, telling him that it did not fit his status as the supreme leader of the faithful to dress like that. His answer to them was that as long as the outfit he was wearing was clean, there was nothing wrong with its being old. Some even suggested to him to give his worn-out clothes to others and replace them with new ones." He was also passionate about seeking knowledge and sharing it with others. When his health deteriorated prior to his demise, and he was hospitalised, his medical team advised him to do something to entertain himself. He told them that reading always made him relaxed while lecturing was the only entertainment he had ever known. He used to wake up before sunrise, make tahajjud, perform his morning prayers, and then eat his breakfast with his family. His breakfast most often was no more than apiece of bread, some domestic cheese, and a tiny cup of tea, and he never ate by himself. Instead, he insisted on eating with other members of his family or those who helped them at home, or with his guests. Before midnight, he used to read a book, then listen to world news, tuning to local, Arab or international stations. He was often seen the next morning with blackness around his eyes. The sage could not sleep because of hearing some disturbing news about what was happening to the Muslims in this country or that.
 

THE IMAM AT HOME
His son, Sayyid Abdel-Majeed al-Khoei, says the following about his father; "My father was always smiling when he was with us. He always arbitrated between his sons whenever there was a dispute, and he was quite witty. If he saw one looking forlorn or happily excited, he would ask him about the reason, and every evening he would distribute candy for the children in addition to whatever other gifts he had received that day from the admiring faithful." Despite his extremely lofty status, he never hesitated to help his family in domestic chores, including kitchen chores. He never opened the mail coming to any of his family members. One of his sons told him once that nobody in the house had any secret to hide from him, and that it was perfectly alright with them if he opened their mail, but he insisted never to do so. He always instructed members of his family to deliver funds for highly esteemed but impoverished families without doing so publicly, telling them to help those whom the ignorant ones mistake as wealthy because of their abstention from begging for help.
 

IMAM'S DEMISE
After the failure of the Intifada of March 1991, the Grand Ayatollah was briefly imprisoned then forced to appear on television with the Butcher of Baghdad Saddam Hussein who always kept pressuring him to issue fatawa, religious verdicts, supportive of Saddam and his government, something which he never did despite all the persecution to which he, his representatives and family members were subjected. Because of refusing to co-operate with the dictatorial government of Saddam Hussein, he was put under house arrest till his death. Saddam also exiled, jailed, or assassinated many of the gifted students, representatives and distinguished followers of al-Khoei and ordered the destruction of their mosques and libraries particularly those in Najaf and Kerbala. As if the Iraqi government predicted the death of al-Khoei, it cut off all telephone connections with his Kufa residence in the morning of Saturday, August 8, 1992 and with the houses of those who were close to him.
Having performed the afternoon prayers that day, the health of his late holiness suddenly deteriorated and a severe chest swelling was visible.  Doctors in the medical team charged with supervising his health conditions were called in, but they could not tend to him early enough. He informed his family and those in his presence that last night he felt that it was the last night he was spending with his family. He asked for water to perform his ablution, and as soon as he finished his ablution his soul passed away to its Maker exactly at 3:13 pm. Throngs of the believers started pouring into Kufa, surrounding his residence, and it was not long before the whole country came to know about the sad news. Military units of Saddam's "Special Forces" moved quickly to close all highways leading to both Najaf and Kufa as well as other cities in Iraq's central regions, then they moved to disperse the thronging crowds in the pretext of making preparations for the Grand Ayatullah's funeral the next morning. Curfew was enforced in the cities of Najaf, Kufa and other central cities, and heavily armed police and military units started patrolling the streets. Armed forces stationed at Baghdad and in central and southern Iraqi cities were all placed under maximum alert in anticipation of a popular reaction to the sad news and to the ambiguous way it happened and was handled by the Iraqi government. Patrol vehicles were visible throughout the streets of al-Thawarah, al-Shu'lah and al-Kazimiyyah, all of which are major Shi'a towns in metropolitan Baghdad. Iraq's radio and television stations suspended their usual programs to announce the sad news of the demise of the great leader, informing the public that his funeral services were scheduled for Sunday morning. At midnight on Saturday, however, the family of the deceased was ordered to bury the Imam before sunrise. Local government authorities prohibited the public in Najaf and Kufa from taking part in his funeral services, angering the faithful in Iraq and the world.
His body was washed Saturday evening at his Kufa house in the presence of a
handful of his family members, and the funeral prayers were conducted by his eminence Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of his closest aides and a member of his four-member juristic Shura (Consultative) Committee. (The other three members have been:
Ayatollah Shaikh Murtada al-Burujardi, Ayatollah Shaikh Ali Azghar al-Ahmadi,
and, of course, Ayatollah al-Uzma al-Khoei himself.) A three-day mourning period was announced by the government which prohibited the family of the deceased dignitary from holding the traditional Fatiha majlis, while the Ministry of Awqaf (Islamic Trusts) declared that it would conduct such majalis for his soul. Telephone connections between the cities of Kufa and Najaf and the rest of the world were by now cut off, too, till Sunday evening. The hypocritical news media of the Butcher of Baghdad Saddam Hussein was busy circulating lies about the demise of Imam al-Khoei, claiming that he
had received a great funeral service wherein the people and representatives of the Iraqi government participated, that his corpse was carried around all religious sites in the area, and even calling him "the martyr of the nation and the country." Baghdad's official newspaper Al-Jumhuriyyah called him "the martyr of Islam and the nation," publishing his photograph on its front page.
International news agencies, on the other hand, published photographs of his
coffin escorted by no more than six persons. Shortly before his death, the greatest scholar and leader al-Khoei expressed no concern about anything in this vanishing life more than the possibility of the loss of his precious manuscripts the writing of which had exhausted so many years of his life...Surely the Islamic world will find it very hard to compensate for the loss of such a man, nay, a legendary institute and a lighthouse of knowledge and
scholarship... Inna Lillah wa Inna Ilyahi Raji'oon.

[1] This article was abridged and published in Noor al-Islam magazine of
Beirut, Lebanon, in its issue dated November/December 1992.