Speech [The comprehensiveness of Islam]

Addressees: A group of Iranian students and residents abroad

[In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful]

The action we are now taking is for the benefit of society, it is to enable our young and our society in general to develop. This deed is a spiritual deed; it is a sacred deed which will become manifest in the next world; there you will actually see the true manifestations of all your deeds, manifestations which are presently beyond our vision The next world will reflect whatever is here in this world. Just as a sound echoes and reverberates when made here in this life, so too whatever deeds we perform here will be reflected there in the next world. We will realize the truth of our deeds once we have departed from this world; only then shall we truly see them for what they are. The Holy Qur'an states:" So, he who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it." «1» That is, whosoever performs a good deed here (in this life) will be confronted by that same good deed there (in the Hereafter). There, in the next world, this good deed will appear in pleasant forms; it will appear in forms which befit the deed itself. And after man's death, it will accompany him right until the very end." And he who has done an atom's weight of evil shall see it." «2» Whoever does evil, no matter how great, no matter how small, he too will see this deed in the next world. He will see its true manifestation there. Indeed, Heaven and Hell will be created from my deeds and yours. Our deeds are the essential ingredients of Heaven and Hell.

Therefore, do not waste this life. God, the Blessed and Exalted, has given this precious life to you so that you may make the most of it and do good while you are here in this world. God has provided you with guidance so that you may perform good deeds- deeds which benefit the society and which benefit you yourselves. And this He has done because He knows and is aware of the actual truth, that being that one will be confronted by whatever deeds one has performed here, in the next world. Just as the effect of medicines or poisonous substances consumed by man can be seen here in this world, so too the effect of a deed performed here will be tangible and visible there in the next world where it will assume the form of the deed itself. Indeed, there man will see his true self. Thus, reason dictates that during his brief stay in this world man ought not to waste his life, he ought not to allow it to be used in the path of evil whereby it becomes a weight around his neck. Instead he should put it to good use. Any good deed which you may perform here, God willing, is for your own benefit and for the benefit of the society in which you live. It will reappear to you there in the next world, God willing.

However, do not defer the performance of good deeds until the time when your life is drawing to an end. This intention is an illusion which man may well entertain but which is in fact one of those evil fallacies which merely prevent one from doing good, whereby one tells oneself that one is still young, that one is in the prime of one's life and so must make the most of one's youth; that one is to let his passions run wild and is to commit wrongdoings- that one is to go ahead and commit those ugly deeds one would like to commit, for God willing, one will be able to make amends at a later stage of one's life. But if man does not begin to fight against his illicit passions and desires while still in his youth- against those passions, both healthy and unhealthy, which have never before been restrained in any way- then there is no way that he can make amends for his evil deeds at a later stage. God forbid that you should at all give way to unhealthy desires; that you should allow yourselves to violate people's rights or to encroach upon that which belongs to others. And God forbid that during your brief stay here (in this world) - a stay which is indeed short for us all- you should spend these precious few days in the performance of evil deeds whose effect will never be lost but rather will prevail forever, to the end of time. While it is true that the doors to God-given bounties and blessings are open to you all and you are to freely make use of them, nevertheless, there must be a limit to how much you avail yourselves of them. That is to say, the extent to which we make use of these blessings must be within the limits set by divine law. Whatever we do must conform to divine law if we are to attain true development.

Divine law is unlike these worldly laws. The latter have taken but one or two aspects of life into account and relate only to the life of this world. This is all these worldly laws constitute and are restricted to and even then there is no certainty that man has been able to determine all the various aspects involved enabling him to design laws for them all. However, the laws of God contain provisions for everything. Injunctions have even been laid down which pertain to the time prior to man's conception- the time when two people come together to conceive a child. Consider a human being before being conceived by his parents- in God's laws there are instructions regarding measures which are to be taken to ensure that the child to be born is healthy and morally upright. There are religious instructions which relate to the choosing of a partner: instructions concerning the kind of husband to be chosen for a woman and the kind of wife to be chosen for a man. And once married, God's laws stipulate certain duties that are incumbent upon both spouses during their marital state- duties which have been stipulated so that the awaited offspring may develop into a morally upright and virtuous human being. There are injunctions which pertain to that very moment when a clot of blood is about to turn into an embryo; there are certain rules which are to be observed here. And this is all to enable the correct development of the fetus. Again, there are also rules with regard to a mother's pregnancy. Divine laws contain provisions which relate to the moment a child is born into the world and which concern how a newborn baby is to be reared; how the mother should relate to her child; and the responsibilities she has toward it. As the child grows the mother and father's responsibilities toward it increase, and the parents have a duty to bring this child up to the best of their ability. Then the stage is reached where the type of training given to a child is no longer to be solely parental in nature but must become essentially instructive; and again there are religious rules which apply to each of these stages and yet further laws which apply to the time when a child reaches an independent age. Indeed, Islam has provided laws for each stage of man's development. It has laws which apply to the time of man's death and laws which pertain even to the stage after death. Yes, while still here in this life, Islam has even provided us with laws which pertain to the next life. The laws of God, unlike these mundane, man-made laws which can see no further than this material realm, have also taken the spiritual realm into account, and hence contain provisions which relate to that realm. All of God's prophets (`a) have come to teach man how to develop in every way. No one other than the prophets is capable of teaching man how to develop in every dimension. Even if one succeeded in rearing a virtuous human being, a person who was morally upright, this training would only be designed for the life of this world. It would only teach one how to live in this world, how to lead a virtuous life here and so on. It could do no more than this since the second state of being which follows the life in this world is beyond man's reach and therefore he is unable to provide his child with the training needed for that later state. This responsibility lies solely with the prophets; and no one other than the prophets is capable of performing this function. The prophets have left teachings which refer to the temporal aspects of man's existence; they have provided instructions and laid down laws in this respect. And again, they have instructed man in the spiritual aspects of his being and in those aspects which concern the next life, thus laying down numerous injunctions and guidelines to this end.

You who are still young, who are still blessed with the gift of youth, should try to be of some significance here in this life. You who are yet students should endeavor to be persons who have a positive effect on this life. You should try to be beneficial; you should try to benefit your brothers (in Islam); and to be of benefit to yourselves, your society, your nation and your country. Try not to waste your lives whereby you lose this chance, for when you have reached my age you will then realize that you can no longer make up for the past. Make the decision now to do something worthwhile with your lives, for things such as infirmity and illness which come to you later in life, prevent you from being able to do anything anymore. Use this God-given strength that you now possess in the way of God. This strength has been entrusted to you by God, so use it in His path. To use this strength in God's path means using it for the benefit of society, for the benefit of an Islamic country. It means using it to strengthen Islam, to drive out the enemies of Islam, and to force the retreat of these people who have come to our country and are infringing upon the rights of the Muslims and depleting the state treasuries of the Muslims.

In addition, pay due attention to all of those religious rules, practices and so on which have been laid down with a view to your life in the next world. Work toward (reforming the self) both for this life and for the Hereafter. God forbid that you should expend all of your energy on satisfying illicit desires. Do not let your energy go to waste. Do not expend your time and energy on this world alone; but instead, benefit both from this world and from the next. Islam, unlike Christianity, does not tell one to sit on the sidelines and to remain inactive; and even then I wonder whether this is actually something which has been said by Jesus (`a) himself, or whether it has in fact been said by some akhounds who have then attributed such a statement to him. Again, I cannot see how the teachings of Jesus would be such that they would, for example, teach this mankind whom God has put on this earth and on whom He has bestowed many blessings, to deprive himself of these blessings. Surely this cannot be the case. Jesus (`a), this great prophet of God, would never teach someone to turn the other cheek were he to be struck by an oppressor! Indeed, these are the words of Satan and not Jesus. «3» Jesus, the great prophet, is a true human being in every sense of the word. It is their akhounds who claim to follow in his path, their priests who have invented such words. And even then do not be mistaken in thinking that they actually practice what they preach, for indeed they do not. Instead they tell their fellow-believers to practice it! This is surely not what Jesus taught.

However, regardless of what Christianity supposedly espouses, that which Islam advocates is unambiguously clear. Its injunctions are plain for all to see. Islam contains certain injunctions with regard to war. The Qur'an repeatedly discusses engaging in battle with the infidels and the corrupt. So draw your swords and cut down these harmful weeds- these people who want to lead mankind into corruption and these who have pounced on the people. Yes, you are either to draw your swords and rid the earth of those who behave in this way, or you are to pull them back into line. If possible, do the latter; but if not, then get rid of them for otherwise you may one day find that one such corrupt being has caused a whole society to become corrupt. Islam and the Qur'an contain many verses in regard to war and peace. They speak both of training the mind and the body. Everything can be found in the Qur'an. The Qur'an abounds with all of those issues needed to meet man's requirements. That is to say, man is a creature with many needs; needs which possess different dimensions. It is not a case of him having one type of need only. In the animal kingdom needs are purely physical; animals have no needs other than those on a physical plane. Hence, those who call on us to believe that this worldly existence is the be all and end all, are therefore in fact calling on us to be like animals! They tell a nation «4» of one billion people that they are simply to eat and sleep as do animals; that you are to do no more than this. But this is a mistake. Man is not like an animal. Man possesses intellect; he possesses other capabilities and powers- powers which must be put to some use. Yes, Islam concerns itself with spirituality, but it also concerns itself with this temporal world, just like those who concentrate on the affairs of this world. Islam concentrates on a healthy world; however, it is not a world in which people's possessions are appropriated and their lives and property usurped. No, Islam forbids such things. As for healthy desires and pastimes however, Islam and the Qur'an have in no way prevented these. That which Islam does forbid and which it opposes is that which leads people toward illicit desires.

If those in the clergy sometimes voice discontent and opposition toward the cinema, it is because these cinemas which are now widespread throughout Iran are there to corrupt the younger generation. After having frequented this kind of cinema over a period of time, these youngsters become corrupted. This is the sort of thing that we are against. Were the cinema to be morally and intellectually instructive then who would oppose it? But the fact is that we can see that our entire country, from its cinemas to its schools, is serving imperialism. That is, these institutions have been brought into our country from abroad; they have been brought to us as" gifts"- gifts which will corrupt our youth in every way. Indeed, should the mosque one day turn into one such institution, an institution which enjoins evil, then we would even close the doors to the mosque. In fact the Holy Prophet (s) «5» once destroyed a mosque- the" Mosque of Destruction" [Masjid ad-Darar] Mosque, which had been built as a place from where to oppose the Prophet and from where immoral teachings and the like were propagated. The Prophet (s) ordered for this mosque to be destroyed. «6» Similarly, if there were a mosque which was injurious to society, and which was beyond reform, then we too would order for its destruction. It is not that we would only consider destroying the cinemas. Our opposition to the cinema is an opposition to that particular type of cinema which is in Iran today. It is not that we oppose the cinema in itself for we have nothing against the cinema as such. Indeed, if the cinema is an uncorrupted institution, if it is not used as a means of indoctrination, if it serves to educate the young and if there is freedom, then it is but another means of providing instruction and guidance; it is just like a school. The present situation in Iran, however, is an exceptional one. From the time these usurpers of oil entered Iran and conducted investigations about it and about other Eastern countries, thereby realizing the benefits to be gained there- for the East is rich in resources which are needed by the West- they launched their propaganda campaign and began to take other such measures to further their interests. Their aim was to lead us astray, to brainwash us with imperialist notions, to ensure that our minds did not develop correctly. They wanted to prevent us from developing, to prevent our schools from producing true human beings, from producing a single morally-upright human being. Whatever has been passed on to us by the West is harmful for our youth. And it is because these things are harmful that we oppose them and that any reasonable person should also oppose them. No one opposes something which is of benefit, something which helps to develop the mind and to improve the powers of reason. The fact is that these Western powers have sold their ideas to the East to enable them to take away our national assets. And they continue to do so even now. Even now they are taking away Iran's assets; they are devouring them and almost...

As well as attending to self-edification, you, my good men, are to make the decision to join and co-operate with the nation of Iran- with these people who have now risen up and who have embarked upon this great movement for the sake of Islam and mankind. You are to help as much as you can. Each of you, wherever you may be, should help as much as possible. As fellow human beings we must do what we can to assist this weak nation which has risen up for your sakes and for the sake of us all, so that, God willing, this element of corruption may be removed, the hands of those who are destroying our every possession and are plundering our every reserve may be severed, and instead these things may remain for you to do with as you see fit. This is all that we argue. Let the papers go ahead and write whatever they like. When they write of the akhounds wanting to take the people back to the age of barbarism, this is nothing but propaganda which is put across to make the usurpation of oil possible. So beware, for all of these measures have been taken with a view to usurping our oil and devouring the resources in the East. To the Americans and to the Russians- to these two countries, one of which is taking away our oil and the other our gas- we say:" We want you to desist from taking these resources away. We want these resources to belong to us. We want this Pahlavi dynasty, which is serving you and betraying us, to be no more. We want someone; we ourselves have chosen to rule us;" although our present rulers in fact tell their newspapers to write the contrary. I pray that you may all be successful; that you may all receive God's assistance; and that God willing, you may serve Islam.