Enduring bond: How Gen. Soleimani’s loyalty to Ayatollah Khamenei shaped his life and legacy

By Humaira Ahad

On a quiet evening in the Iranian capital, Tehran, the courtyard outside the residence of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, held an unusual tension.

A group of Lebanese officials, visiting Iran to meet Ayatollah Khamenei, stood patiently in line. Standing slightly apart from them, Iran’s top anti-terror commander, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani – known as Haj Qassem to those close to him – observed the scene with calm, piercing eyes.

Ayatollah Ali Shirazi, the Leader’s representative to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), stood nearby, waiting for the Leader to arrive.

When Ayatollah Khamenei emerged from his modest, single-storey home, visitors remained still, their discipline a testament to the deep respect and admiration they held for the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

His gaze immediately fell on General Soleimani, whom he gently summoned forward.

As the Leader kissed General Soleimani’s forehead and then his arm, pulling him into a brief embrace, Shirazi would later reflect, “What you see on camera is only a shadow. The affection and trust in private meetings were far deeper. The Leader loved Haj Qassem, and Haj Qassem’s love for the Leader was even stronger.”

In an interview, Ayatollah Shirazi emphasised that their bond transcended mere formality. It was General Soleimani’s unflinching loyalty rooted in principles that were reinforced by shared spiritual and cultural convictions, which explained the relationship between the two.

Unwavering allegiance

For General Soleimani, allegiance was not a matter of factional or regional loyalty.

Speaking at the Kerman Martyrs’ Congress in 2010, Iran’s top anti-terror commander said, “People! Believe me: I do not belong to any party or faction, and I do not inclinetowards anyone except the one who serves Islam and the Revolution. But know this: By God! I know the Shi’a scholars, all of them and closely. For 14 years now, this has been my profession. I know the scholars of Lebanon, I know the scholars of Pakistan, I know the scholars of the Persian Gulf region. Whether Shi’a or Sunni, by God! I swear to God,” he said.

“The foremost among all this clergy, from the Iranian marja’iyya and non-Iranian marja’iyya, is this great man of history: Grand Ayatollah Khamenei.”

General Soleimani had worked closely with Shi’a clerics across Lebanon, Pakistan, and the Persian Gulf, but for him, Ayatollah Khamenei’s discernment was unparalleled.

“I correspond with many Shi’a scholars and interact with them closely, and I know them. We respect them…But this is one thing, and that is another. There is a distance between earth and sky. Let us pay attention to the wisdom of this man (Ayatollah Khamenei), the ethics of this man, the religiosity of this man, the political understanding of this man, and the governance of this man,” General Soleimani elaborated.

This profound respect guided his decisions on the ground, shaping how he approached rapidly evolving developments in the West Asian region.

“As far as the Syrian war is concerned, Haj Qassem would say, ‘The Leader says it will happen (defeat of Takfiri terrorist groups) and therefore it will.’ There was no room for doubt, much like Abraham knowing that God can raise the dead, yet he sought certainty. By this time, Haj Qassem had reached that certainty; he trusted that what the Leader declared was indeed possible,” Ayatollah Shirazi noted.

“I asked him directly: “I know, but I want to hear it from your own mouth.”Haj Qassem replied, “I have seen something (special) in the Leader that I cannot separate myself from him. He had perceived a grandeur in Ayatollah Khamenei, in his words, his actions, and his counsel that inspired confidence.”

Ayatollah Shirazi recalled how the top anti-terror general’s deep connection to God gave him a sense of certainty, reinforcing his unwavering faith and confidence in the Leader’s words.

Life of relentless service

Ayatollah Khamenei often praised General Soleimani’s extraordinary work ethic. Mission reports would show him working 18 to 19 hours straight over 48-hour stretches.

Physical injuries from previous wars – especially the Holy Defense war in the 1980s – had left their mark, yet the Iranian general worked with tireless purpose.

“He did not work for himself. He worked for them, for the realisation of the Leader’s vision. That is how he lived. That is how he honoured the Leader’s guidance,” said Ayatollah Shirazi.

In a 2021 address, Ayatollah Khamenei highlighted General Soleimani’s courage under threat, noting that even when enemies threatened his life, General Soleimani remained undeterred.

“This noble man had told his friends: ‘They threaten me with something I myself am searching for in the mountains, in the deserts, across highs and lows. They are threatening me with the very thing I long for,” he would share his desire for martyrdom with the Leader.

Even amidst grief for comrades who were martyred, General Soleimani’s focus remained unshaken. “He lived well,” Ayatollah Shirazi stated. “He achieved his own wish; he longed for it. He would weep at the thought of martyrdom, and yet he pressed on.”

The US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in January 2020 that led to the assassination of General Soleimani, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU), and their companions, sent shockwaves across the region.

In a speech following General Soleimani’s martyrdom, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution framed the assassination as both a loss and a testament to divine justice:

“The martyrdom itself is one of the signs of divine power. We have many martyrs, among commanders as well as ordinary people, but a martyr who is killed by the most malicious of humans, namely the Americans themselves, and whom they boast about having succeeded in assassinating, I cannot recall anyone other than Haj Qassem. His struggle was great, and God Almighty made his martyrdom a great martyrdom as well," he remarked.

Embodiment of values

Ayatollah Khamenei described General Soleimani as a living embodiment of Shi’a and Iranian cultural values.

“He possessed a spirit of sacrifice and humanitarianism; for him, it was not about ‘this nation’ or ‘that nation,’ he was truly a lover of humanity, genuinely willing to sacrifice for all. At the same time, he was a man of spirituality, sincerity, and a seeker of the Hereafter, truly spiritual, truly a man of meaning and sincerity, with no trace of ostentation,” he said.

Before continuing, Ayatollah Khamenei shifted from recalling the man he knew personally to describing the qualities that had become visible to an entire nation.

“These are noble virtues, precious moral excellences. And the people saw this; these values became manifest in this man. In the deserts of this country and that country, on the mountains, and in confrontation with various enemies, he personified and radiated these Iranian cultural values… and thus, he became the hero of the Iranian nation.”

As the top anti-terror commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, General Soleimani coordinated resistance movements across multiple regions, unifying local struggles into a coherent front that decimated the Daesh Takfiri group and challenged Western imperialist and Zionist policies.

His influence stretched from West Asia to Latin America, drawing appreciation and recognition from allies as well as adversaries.

Enduring bond

At public gatherings, General Soleimani often sat beside Ayatollah Khamenei, visible to all. Their interactions and measured gestures communicated mutual respect and trust.

Ayatollah Shirazi observed, “Whatever the Leader said, Haj Qassem believed must be carried out, and he did carry it out.”

People close to the IRGC commander say that General Soleimani’s courage was inseparable from his indomitable faith.

He traversed barren terrains, spent long hours in foreign territories, and met countless leaders to fulfil the goals and objectives laid out by Ayatollah Khamenei.

Each conversation and negotiation was aimed at achieving outcomes aligned with the Leader’s directives.

Honouring the qualities that defined General Soleimani’s life, Ayatollah Khamenei stated in 2020, “They sat in American think tanks and conducted detailed studies and analyses of Haj Qassem Soleimani. After some time, they released a limited report, which also reached us. In it, they said that this man is a major obstacle to the goals of the United States. Among the traits they described were that he is brave, willing to take risks, and so on.”

The Leader continued, “They also said he is committed and faithful; his commitment is one of these traits. When people of faith combine that faith with righteous action, when they move in a jihadist effort, the result is a personality like his, someone admired even by his enemies!"

The story of General Soleimani is inseparable from the story of his relationship with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

On the battlefield and in strategy rooms across the region, he carried the imprint of a commander who paired tactical precision with absolute loyalty to the highest spiritual authority.

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