Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri as a student of Grand Ayatollah Boroujerdi and Imam Khomeini himself gained too much from their highly jurisprudential lessons. He was also a prominent seminary teacher and a brilliant jurist who could make legal decisions through Ijtihad by independent interpretation of the legal sources, the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
Just like the great Imam Ayatollah Montazeri led a very simple life and had shown valor and bravery in struggles against the monarchical system. However, he was not endowed with good political instincts and lacked the ability to understand political complexities and its games as he himself had implicitly confessed it.
When the Assembly of Experts nominated him as deputy Supreme Leader of Iran, Imam performed his politico-divine duty and deposed him from the position out of political expediency.