Ayatollah Khamenei:
Imam Hassan al-Askari (as) managed to set up so much communications with the whole Muslim world through a huge information and education network in Samara which was like a military camp. It was not just to answer questions regarding prayers, fasting, tahara and najis (ritually unclean). He positioned himself in the capacity of Imam, with its exact Islamic meaning, and talked to the people.
May 10, 2003