Speech [The comprehensive and edifying dimensions of the Islamic school of thought]

[IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL]

They have just informed me that the Shah has decided to carry out a wholesale massacre during the strike action to be taken tomorrow- action which the Muslim people propose to take because of the lives that they have already lost. I have said time and again that this person has become mentally unstable. He is now living in a state of insanity; and having reached the last days of his life he wants to take revenge on the people of Iran. He has already committed whatever crimes he possibly could, but now that the people have risen up to demand that he go and he has sensed that indeed he does actually have to go, like a madman he wants to first massacre the people and then go. He had once said:" If I am to go, I shall firstly turn Iran back into a heap of soil and then go; yes, I shall make Iran into a heap of soil and go;" and now he evidently means to abide by these words. «1» I found out about it today; that is, they said someone had phoned from Iran to say that he (the Shah) is getting ready to slay the people en masse.

We are at a loss as to what we should do with this regime. The oppressed nation of Iran does not know what it should do with this person who has now become insane and is suffering from a mental disorder. What course of action are we to take? I am concerned about tomorrow; I am worried that what we have been told may be true and that these people may be gunned down and come under the attack of tanks and cannon-fire; I am worried that lives may be lost and that having reached the final stage before his (the Shah's) departure, he firstly plans to do something to ensure that no one will be left behind and only then does he intend to go. This is the kind of creature with which we now have to deal and so we must truly pray for God's assistance. We must ask the Lord to grant a favorable end to this affair (i.e. the proposed protest demonstrations), for should such a massacre actually take place it would have truly disastrous results for Iran. Although it is true that his leaving would compensate for any kind of disaster, nevertheless, why should we have given him the opportunity to enact these deeds before he leaves? Needless to say, it is the machine guns and weapons of America that are behind him in all this, otherwise the people of Iran would never allow him to go ahead with such a deed. The fact is that these American guns and weapons are indeed here. However, he (the Shah) has reached the end of his life and there remains no doubt about his imminent departure.

There is something that I wish now to say to you gentlemen, and which I shall again make mention of, if and when we hold another gathering tomorrow; but before this let me say that tomorrow's gathering is for all the students and for all those Iranians who are living outside Iran. It is for everyone and you must regard it as you would your own home, as somewhere that belongs to you all. The doors of this gathering are open to whoever may wish to come. Therefore, if no hitches occur and tomorrow's gathering does actually go ahead as planned, then all of the gentlemen are welcome to attend. No one is interfering. Some have mistakenly suspected that someone, somewhere, is influencing affairs and that they hold sway over who attends our gatherings. This is not the case however. We are all united; we are all brothers together; and no one is to interfere in our affairs at all. These gatherings are for all of the gentlemen and everyone is equally welcome to attend. All participants at our gatherings should be regarded in the same light, everybody. We are all each other's equals. I am fond of you all. I pray for you all. No particular group can meddle with our affairs. It is not to be imagined that a certain group has a say in these affairs or that I am aligned with any particular group. No, I am with you all, and I pray for you all.

As for the matter about which I wanted to talk to you however, and on which I shall elaborate further at tomorrow's gathering should I have the time and the opportunity, it concerns a disaster, which has plagued Islam from the very beginning. That is, the disaster of Islam having been misunderstood. Those who have discussed Islam, be it in the past or the present, have not fully understood or grasped this religion in all of its different dimensions. Each of them has only ever looked at one of its many dimensions and has interpreted all of the issues found within Islam and within the Holy Qur'an according to his own limited perception. In the past, in centuries gone by, there used to be a group of Muslim theologians who expounded Islam according to their own understanding of it; each according to his own level of understanding and ability to reason. This group either consisted of philosophers who, because of their knowledge of this subject, understood Islam to be a philosophy, thus mistakenly believing it to be a philosophical school of thought, or it consisted of mystics and the like who, until only recently, interpreted Islam according to the understanding of a mystic, thus believing Islam to be a mystical school of thought. Therefore, from the time of these theologians down to the recent past, many of Islam's different dimensions have remained undiscovered. Theologians were familiar with some of the various dimensions of Islam, although of course not completely so, but each religious sect would study Islam according to its own understanding, its own learning. They would interpret all the verses of the Qur'an and all of the teachings of the Prophet and the Immaculate Imams (`a) «2» according to their own perception; according to what they had been able to grasp from Islam. They would relate every page of learning to that page which they had themselves grasped and understood. Therefore, these expositions of Islam make no mention of what Islam has to say about this world and about how it is to be governed; issues which relate to another of Islam's many dimensions. All of those issues which relate to philosophy and mysticism are to be found in these expositions, but nothing is said about the duty of those people who are living now, about the form an Islamic government should take, or about how people should relate to the physical world. They have nothing to say in this regard. These theologians have confined their discussions to issues concerning the metaphysical and to matters relating to mysticism and philosophy and so on. And so this situation has remained until the present, when it has now become the turn of this latest group of theologians, a group which has taken an opposite approach to that taken by its predecessors. That is to say this latest group has totally set aside those dimensions of Islam which concern its spiritual aspects, its philosophical aspects, its mystical aspects and has confined itself to objective and external aspects only. Hence, those in this group have perceived Islam as a materialist school of thought. Indeed, whereas the former group had perceived Islam as a spiritual school of thought as if it were totally unconcerned with temporal issues- even having expounded the Qur'anic verses concerning actual battles with the polytheists as concerning battles with the self and so on. This latter group of theologians, by contrast, although Muslim, although composed of good people, although just as religiously devout as the former group, has nevertheless understood Islam according to its material dimension. This is a situation which has come about over recent years, during a period when Western learning and knowledge has been promoted and reached us here in the East. Hence, whereas the former group propounded the subjective and the spiritual and ignored the objective and the temporal, the latter group propounds temporal concerns and disregards the spiritual. However, both of these groups are in error. Islam is neither confined to the spiritualism of which the former group speaks- yes, it has a spiritual dimension but it is not confined to this- nor is it confined to these temporal concerns of which the latter group speaks. That is to say, it covers temporal concerns in its teachings but does not exclusively confine itself to these issues.

Islam is a school of thought which has come for the edification of mankind; and we are to examine the different dimensions of this mankind, whose true nature, some argue, remains unknown, and are also to examine his needs. We must ask whether Islam, which has come for man's edification, only means to develop the animal nature in him, or whether it means to develop his spiritual nature; or yet again, whether its intention is to develop human beings as a whole. Human beings are unlike other creatures. Other creatures, such as animals for example, which are considered to exist on a superior plane to that of plants and minerals, merely exist on a physical plane, while also possessing a minute sense, a little but perverse understanding of the metaphysical, other than this they do not have a metaphysical state of being. Mankind, however, can pass through several phases of being; he can advance from his initial physical state of being until he finally reaches a spiritual state of being. Thus, man can transcend the physical to the metaphysical, and can then transcend the metaphysical to the divine until he then reaches the stage where he is actually able to comprehend this superior state of being.

Man is a multifaceted being; he is not a creature of but one or two dimensions. Some other creatures are often one-dimensional, some bi-dimensional, and yet others possess several dimensions; but none of these other creatures possesses all of the different dimensions collectively. It is only man who, among all other creatures, is a multi-dimensional being; a being who has needs for each of the dimensions he possesses. In order for him to develop in every dimension he has certain needs which have to be satisfied. With the exception of Islam, all of the other schools of thought are materialist schools- schools which have perceived man as an animal, as a creature which simply eats and sleeps, but which does so in a more desirable manner. This is true for all schools. Although it is true that animals share the same need as we humans to eat and sleep, these schools of thought have perceived man to be an animal like all other animals whose needs and development revolve around those corporeal criteria, those corporeal matters, which they have called" matters of reality." They mistakenly consider reality to be composed of this physical world only; whereas there are in fact other worlds that they have not perceived, worlds which are indeed more tangible- that is, worlds that are endowed with a more tangible reality than the physical world. The physical world has been placed last in the scheme of creation; it has been given the least recognition. Therefore, this world in which we now exist, this physical world, is the lowermost world. The lowest of all the worlds in the universe is the physical world. It is not a case of there just being man and this physical world, and of there being no other stages of existence to which man can ascend. There are several stages to mankind's existence. He who has simply concerned himself with the metaphysical aspect of mankind's existence and who has neglected to consider these other lower stages of his being has erred; and so too, he who has concentrated solely on this physical world, recognizing only the physical stage and ignoring the metaphysical.

Islam has a set of scheme; it has a program which can be followed by this comprehensive, multifaceted human being- this being who is capable of going beyond the physical stage of existence to reach the metaphysical, and then of transcending the metaphysical to reach the divine. Islam wants man to develop into a complete being, meaning it wants to allow him to grow in accordance with his true nature. If man wants to make the most of this physical world, then Islam teaches him how to do so; if he wants to make the most of his stay in purgatory, «3» then Islam teaches him how to do so; if he wants to make the most of a spiritual existence, then Islam teaches him how to do so; if he wants to make the most of the powers of reason, then Islam teaches him how to do so; if he wants to make the most of religious learning, then Islam teaches him how to do so. All religions have come to develop those properties with which man is endowed; properties which are imperfect and which are presently immature. All religions have come to enable this unripe fruit to ripen; to allow this undeveloped fruit to fully develop. Those of you who have now come to reside in the West- the West which is obsessed with the material aspects of the world, and where no attention is paid to the metaphysical- must not be deluded by these Western schools of thought and thus mistakenly believe that man is nothing more than a creature who eats, sleeps and so on, and that no other considerations are involved. This is a mistaken belief which has developed because of those who have misunderstood Islam by concentrating wholly on these material issues and by retracing all of the verses and teachings in Islam to these same issues- verses and teachings which have come to allow man to grow. Yes, these people are in error; and so too were those before them who retraced every Islamic verse and teaching to metaphysical issues. Each of man's dimensions must be developed in turn. Man must develop on a physical level as much as he possibly can. He must make the most of this physical world, but within reasonable limits, limits which must obviously be determined by taking factors of temperance and virtue into consideration. Then once he has developed in this physical stage of his existence, he must go on to develop in the next, higher stage, and then again in the next. All of man's different dimensions must develop without exception in order for him to become a true human being.

To become a true human being is a difficult task, but nevertheless it is a task which man needs to undertake. The point I wish to make in saying these things is that you are not to mistakenly believe that Islam has come to train an animal; that it has come to prescribe the sleeping and eating habits of an animal. This is but one of its intentions. Yes, it gives such prescriptions, but this is merely one of its dimensions and the least important one at that. Islam also has other dimensions which relate to the training of mankind. It wants to train man to become a complete, mature being; a being which encompasses all of the different human dimensions in their entirety. And it has instructions which relate to these dimensions. Islam contains instructions concerning Islamic government; it contains instructions on its organization; it contains instructions on how to kill its enemies during battle; it contains instructions on how to motivate a society; it contains instructions on how to reach the metaphysical stage of existence; it contains all of these different kinds of instructions. Islam is not merely one-dimensional whereby one could claim to have understood it in its entirety were one to have a knowledge of its history for example, of its social history, or of its rules concerning the material aspects of life and so on. No, this is not the case. The issues with which Islam deals are loftier than those which are ascribed to it; and Islam's dimensions are manifold. Whoever wishes to become acquainted with Islam must make an accurate study of the Qur'an, for this is the key source of reference. He must take note of all the dimensions found therein. He must not make the mistake of accepting only those verses which relate to the physical world, and with issues concerning government, rejecting the verses which relate to resurrection. He who makes this mistake is unaware of the meaning of resurrection, or of what will happen when the Day of Resurrection arrives. He thinks that there is no truth in it; that it is but a fantasy. But he is gravely mistaken. It is indeed true, and its truth is more real than the reality of this physical world; but we have not yet reached the level of understanding required for us to grasp this fact.

Be that as it may, I wanted to advise those studying in Europe, may God grant them all success, against categorizing Islam and thereby believing it to be a school of thought like that of communism; believing the issues it covers to resemble those found in the Marxist doctrine; believing it to be a school of thought like other schools of thought; for this is not the case at all. Those who are unacquainted with Islam however, mistakenly believe it to be some such school.

The other thing I must mention concerns our being obliged to fulfill certain duties. Even as we are now peacefully seated here, Iran is in turmoil. I do not know what will actually happen in Iran tomorrow. We must decide what to do about this situation and I am presently giving it much thought. As you yourselves are well aware, it has now been almost one year since turmoil began in Iran. No matter which part of the country one looks at one sees that the people there are up in arms. No matter which part of the country's many cities one looks at, one can see strike action being taken there. For several days or so now strikes have engulfed the country. Almost all of the factories, newspapers and both governmental and non-governmental offices are now on strike. The general public is all involved in this unfortunate situation and are taking part in strikes. We who are here and are not caught up in all this turbulence must not forget those who are there. We are to help them as much as we can. We can help by the use of our pen; if we are able to disseminate information via the press here with regard to the position of the Iranian people, the oppression to which they are being subjected, and the crimes which this regime has committed against them, then we are to do so. You are to do whatever is in your power; and anyone who is unable to do anything to help can at least pray for those who tomorrow are about to suffer the torments of this dying regime.

I pray that God grant you all success. Tomorrow, if I am able and the opportunity presents itself, I shall again speak with you, God willing (the audience recites a s alawat [salutation to Prophet Muhammad and his pure progeny (`a)]). I must apologize to you, both for my late arrival and for my inability to sit here with you for a longer period- an inability which stems from the fact that I am about eighty years of age, and thus, unlike you, who fortunately are young and have the strength and stamina to remain seated for a long period of time, I do not possess such strength. I therefore ask you to forgive me for not being able to sit here in your company for any length of time (the audience cries, Allahu akbar ["God is the Great"]).