After the demise of
Ayatollah Boroujerdi, Mahdavi Kani went back to Tehran and continued his struggle against the
Pahlavi regime, something which he had started since he was 18, during the time of Ayatollah Boroujerdi. He was considerably active and effective in his participation in the Islamic movement of Iran led by Khomeini. Before the
Islamic Revolution, he was appointed by Khomeini to the Revolutionary Council and later took up various political and religious positions. He was the leader of the
Combatant Clergy Association, which he cofounded in 1977. Mahdavi Kani refused to join
Islamic Republican Party in 1979, because he believed clerics should remain non-partisan. He was appointed chief of the Central Provisional Komiteh for the Islamic Revolution that was a body in charge of trials and executions of the civil and military officials of
the Pahlavi era. He served as the minister of interior in the cabinet of
Mohammad-Ali Rajai to succeeding
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He was reappointed as minister of interior in the cabinet of
Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. He became the interim
prime minister on 2 September 1981 and was in office until 29 October 1981. He was also chairman of
provisional presidential council, after the assassination of president
Mohammad Ali Rajai and prime minister
Mohammad Javad Bahonar. He has also been a member of the Constitutional Amendment Council of Iran, appointed by
Ayatollah Khomeini, the
Supreme Leader of Iran, to review and amend the
Constitution of Iran in 1989. He was also elected as member of the assembly in 2008 in a by-election from
Tehran. Mahdavi Kani is the founder and former head of
Imam Sadiq University in
Tehran, a university specializing in
humanities. In March 2013, he was reelected to the post for further two years. ==Illness and death==