Speech [The politico-devotional dimensions of Islam and the characteristics of Islamic government]

... for all of those dimensions which pertain to the human being. The human being does not solely comprise this outer, apparent being which eats, drinks and performs those other functions which animals also perform. This is not the extent of his being; differences exist between him and other animals. Other creatures also live an animal existence in this material world to the extent of that seen to be lived by the human being. Other living beings, whatever exists in this material world, whatever lives an animal existence, exists on a material plane as does the human being, and the same applies to the living matter which lives the life of a plant, an existence which is on a lower plane than that of the human being. Among all the living creatures which exist in the natural world, the human being possesses certain properties not possessed by other creatures. An inner faculty, an intellectual faculty, a faculty even more superior to that of the intellect is innate in the human being. From birth it is in man's instinct to transcend this material world to that world which lies beyond our comprehension, and each of the stages to be passed on this journey requires guidance and instruction. Just as there are relevant instructions and guidelines to deal with the material life of this world, so too there are further instructions which pertain to other stages of being, some of which man is able to grasp and others- which form the majority- of which are beyond man's comprehension. God, the Blessed and the Most High, is He who is All-Knowing and the mission of the prophets (`a) is to develop, promote and give instruction on those stages of man's existence of which man himself is unaware, stages which others, the materialists, are incapable of understanding and concerning which they cannot therefore instruct man, those stages of man's being of which mankind itself is oblivious. And such instruction is necessary, for without knowledge of the malady and the remedy, there can be no cure. The ultimate level of understanding which can be attained by any of the materialists, irrespective of the actual level they may indeed reach, is confined to that which they grasp of the features of this material world. But there is both a mundane world and a supra-mundane world, both of which enjoy a similar existence; although in reality the latter exists on a much higher plane than the former. Now, we are in fact asleep and cannot perceive that (metaphysical) world with our natural eyesight. But because man is capable of being trained and so can discover those spheres of existence which lie beyond the material realm, and because there is no one who can offer mankind the necessary training and instruction, God, the Blessed and Exalted, has appointed the prophets to come and instruct man so that he may reach those metaphysical stages, so that whatever possesses potential may realize that potential, so that instruction given may be divine instruction.

Those of you gentlemen who either reside outside Iran or are living inside the country, you young people of whom we are truly fond and whom we look upon as our own children, you who have entered a new stage in your lives; be you abroad or within Iran, you can now only see the visible exterior of this world and the actions you now take are taken in accordance with this vision. What I mean to say is that you are aware only of that material realm and of those things which pertain to it such as these acts of revolt which are now taking place. Although these acts of revolt are divinely-inspired and are of course divinely-decreed, their purpose being to allow these people to win their rights, nevertheless, even once this aim is achieved, these are material matters, matters which are related to the life of this world. Yet there are in fact higher levels of existence of which you must take note.

These acts of worship which were brought to you via the prophets and which the latter urged you to perform- acts such as prayer, such as fasting, such as performing the holy pilgrimage and so on- these are a set of commands, a set of prescriptions prescribed by those original and authentic doctors who came to help you reach the various stages on the road to perfection. This they did, so that just as you continually make use of the material world throughout your natural life, so too when your souls have departed from this material existence and your newly-enlightened souls have departed for another world, you may go to that world having received the correct instruction and you may live a life there which is full of bliss and happiness.

I hear that some of our youth do not properly or fully perform all of the externally visible Islamic acts of worship, acts such as prayer which is of extreme importance in Islam. And that which grieves us is that, God forbid, as Muslim youth you are not acting in accordance with these divinely-prescribed rules which have been given to us by the physicians of the soul, and that later, on the Day of Judgment, when remorse may fill your hearts, there may no longer be anything that you can do about it. Islam is unlike Christianity in that it has not concentrated on one aspect of man's being; Islam contains instructions to meet all of man's requirements. Those instructions, which are to be found in Islam- be they with regard to politics, to government, to the society as a whole, to the individual, or to Islamic culture- these are all instructions to match man's needs. That is to say, no matter what kind of needs man may have, no matter what kind of material needs he may have, Islam contains instructions, which pertain to those needs. This need within man for the metaphysical- a need of which at present you and I are unaware- is also provided for in Islam by relevant instructions and guidelines. Hence, this need can be satisfied, or in other words, Islam can offer us the correct training and can lead us to happiness.

God, the Blessed and the Most High, is not at all in need of our deeds or of us ourselves. Neither do the prophets need you and I or the deeds performed by us. When one examines the kind of lives led by the prophets and sees to what pains they went, when one examines the lives of Moses and Jesus, may God's peace be upon him, and especially the life of the Most Noble Messenger, our own Prophet [Muhammad (s)], and when one considers the history of Islam and the historical accounts given of these prophets and the lives they led, one realizes that a number of the latter actually formed a government during their lifetime, that they have certain rules and guidelines which relate to government. But in spite of this, when one takes another look at the lives and character of these prophets, one sees that they were in fact nothing like the presidents and kings of today. The prophets were different; they lived and conducted themselves differently. During the Most Noble Messenger's lifetime, for example, although he ruled over both the Arabian Peninsula and certain other countries, at the same time, when we look at his life and the way he interacted with others, we see that his way of life doesn't even bear a remote resemblance to the life lived by a district Chief of Police. As the sovereign of the Hijaz and as its supreme commander, the Holy Prophet, when seated beside his friends and companions in the mosque, could not be distinguished from the rest of the people. Those who entered the mosque could not identify him as that prophet who rules over all of those vast lands. This was the way in which he interacted socially. Do not suppose that just as I, because of my age, have been asked to sit on this seat here, so too he, the Prophet, used to sit on such a seat. No indeed, he used to sit there where you are seated (i.e. on the floor) and would sit as you are now sitting. Thus, people entering the gathering at which he was present, could not tell who the Prophet was and who was not. This is how he conducted his life, unlike the present heads of state, to obtain an audience with whom, one has to go to such great lengths and for such a long period of time, and even then not everyone is granted an audience for only certain people are allowed to meet with them. With regard to the Prophet however, the door to his mosque was open to everyone, and everybody would go to visit him: the wealthy, the poor, the dervish, the orphan, whoever, they would all go to talk and discuss their problems with him, to listen to what he had to say in reply, to listen to his teachings and so on. And once he had a house and had built a mosque there, do you suppose that this mosque was like that in Medina now? Not at all- it consisted of a piece of land around which they had built a kind of protective fence in order to prevent animals from entering, a fence which was made from pieces of wood and branches taken from trees. That is what his mosque was like. Initially they built two or three houses there, two or three rooms made from mud. The Prophet's house didn't even have the trimmings and decorations found in my and your homes. This is what the Holy Prophet was like.

What do we find when we turn to Hadrat Amir (Imam `Ali), may God's peace be upon him, the rightful executor of the Prophet's will, and we examine his life at the time when he was the sovereign- to use the word" sovereign" is in fact impertinent of me- when he was the leader of certain vast countries and when the entire Hijaz, the whole of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran were under his rule and formed part of his sovereign dominion. What kind of life did he lead? Was he like an emperor? In fact the Hadrat possessed one pelisse made from sheepskin which, according to the religious traditions and historical documents, he would spread on the floor at night in order for his wife and himself to sleep upon it. During the day he would scatter grass upon this very same covering so that his camels could come and eat; such is the Islamic government. Hadrat Amir, may God's peace be upon him, used to construct wells single-handedly, by using his very own pick. History relates how on that day when they paid allegiance to Hadrat Amir as their caliph- the caliph of such a vast domain at that- on that same day, allegiance having been paid, Hadrat took up his pick and spade and got on with the job in hand (i.e. the digging of a well). He worked. The work in which he was engaged at that time was not for his own personal benefit; it was not for him to gain some kind of return from the well. But rather, when water gushed from beneath the ground, like blood from a camel, he took up pen and paper and bequeathed the well to the poor. He bequeathed it to the poor for it to be used by them. This is the kind of ruler we want. We who go to such lengths and who shout out in protest, urge the nation of Islam to join us in our demands for a ruler, for a king, who is not treacherous. Hadrat Amir was busy reckoning the accounts of the public treasury, he was making a written account of the religious and other forms of taxes which were due from the people to the public treasury, and he was doing so in the light emitted from an oil-lamp- it seems that in those days oil used to be burned to give light. However, according to written accounts, «1» when someone came to speak with the Hadrat, the latter turned out the light and said:" Before, when the lamp was lit, it was lit to enable me to reckon the public treasury of the Muslims, but now that you want to speak with me concerning something which bears no relation to the public treasury, I have turned out the light. This lamp belongs to the public treasury and thus I have no right to use it under these circumstances."

On the contrary, just look at how these heads of state behave today, how these kings behave. Since we are not familiar with these people, let us take a look at Iran. Just take note of how this man (the Shah) behaves- this person who now stands responsible for so much corruption. Just look at what he does with the public funds, with the public treasury of the Muslims. The kind of ruler we seek is like those rulers described earlier. They continually ask: What is Islam? Islam is not something, which wants to disrupt everything. Islam preserves and follows the exact laws of nature: it roots out all forms of corruption one by one. Islam says that there is to be a government but that this is not to be a government of a plunderer, a government of a traitor. Hence, it is not a case of Islam wanting to destroy the governmental system. Indeed as we saw, Islamic rulers themselves in fact adopted a governmental system. But in Islam sovereignty means government, it does not mean committing these offences and so on, it means governing by Islam. In Islam the ruler is to be Islamic; the system is to be Islamic; and it is to be devoid of these plunderers and these acts of theft and betrayal.

When we cry out for an Islamic government and we shout out:" Death to this depraved sovereign rule," this is because by looking back in history we are able to see for ourselves that former kings in fact committed very few acts of treachery. Yes, they were tyrants and so on, but whatever they were, they were nevertheless not treacherous. They were cruel tyrants, they were evil, they oppressed the people, yet even so, they did not give their country, their country's assets, away to other countries. I myself have never heard of a former king selling his country to someone; of him offering his country's assets to someone. This is something which has only taken place in the recent past and especially during the reign of this man (the Shah). This kind of thing has appeared during the reign of this depraved king who has destroyed whatever we had. Yes, that is the kind of life he lives, and this, as you see, is the kind of life we live, having to sit here in damp places such as this.

I have said this two or three times on previous occasions- I can't remember now whether I read it somewhere in a magazine or whether someone wrote to me about it- and that is that one of this gentleman's (the Shah's) sisters has purchased a villa somewhere or other, the cost of which was some phenomenally large figure; I can't remember what exactly. What I do recall however, are the words:" Five million dollars has been spent on flower-beds and floral layouts." That is thirty-five million tumans! «2» Yet we have seen how another sultan turns out the lamp for it not to give light during the two minutes it takes to speak to someone about customary issues, or to hold a friendly conversation for example. And as for his court and palace, we see that this is the mosque. He comes to the mosque, sits down, and everyone comes to him to discuss whatever they will. He also uses the mosque as a military base from where to assemble an army, which he then dispatches here and there in order for Islam to spread. Yet we see how the life he leads such that I described when I spoke of a sheepskin pelisse. On the eve of the Hadrat's demise, the night before his martyrdom, he was a guest in his daughter's home and the latter brought him some salt and milk. According to written accounts, he then said:" When did you ever see me eating two different kinds of food at the same time?" So his daughter took away the salt, but the Hadrat told her to take away the milk instead. Thus, this sultan of the Hijaz, of Iran and Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, Jordan and elsewhere, ate bread and salt. This was how this sultan, in spite of all his power and might, spent the last night of his life. And as for his daughter, what a great and noble lady she was! The criminal sister of this criminal man (the Shah) however, spends five million dollars on floral embellishments! This is the figure which was quoted as the cost of the floral layout for this villa she has purchased abroad. And only yesterday evening, in one of the local newspapers that had been brought to me, I read that the Shah and Farah (the Shah's wife) had held a celebration alone on the eve of October 26 (the Shah's birthday)! This had been because all of the other members of his family have gone. They have taken the money and gone! The nation's wealth has now gone to America. And furthermore, it has been said that several days prior to this, someone had telephoned from Iran and had said that an airplane full of jewelry, the crown jewels, had been flown to America. Now he (the Shah) realizes that he will probably be leaving soon, he is plundering the people; he is taking their wealth out of the country.

When we say we want an Islamic government we do so because we do not want such a chaotic situation to exist. Yet they say that the reason we want to rule via Islamic government is in fact so that we can bring the wheels of progress in this country to a halt! What they say is wrong however. This is nothing but false propaganda. Indeed, we want to set the wheels of progress in motion. At present, the wheels of this country are traveling in the direction of Europe. Your oil is now on its way to Europe and to America, and this is what we want to be stopped. We want a reasonable quantity of oil to be sold, and moreover; we want to be paid in cash for it rather than having our oil taken away and in return weapons being brought into the country and a military base being set up there for America. What we say is that such a chaotic state of affairs is not to prevail in our country, and not that we do not want any form of government. Yes, we do want a government, but a government like that described earlier, although not the same [as that established by Imam `Ali], for there is no doubt that neither we nor anyone else is capable of achieving what he did. Nevertheless, we want a government, which will not thieve; a government, which, at the very least, will not indulge in crime and treachery; a government which will not kill a group of people should the slogan:" Death to the Shah" rings out at any time. But in any case, this is the task now ahead of us and this is the Islamic government for which we must strive. Do not let them make you afraid of Islamic government. Islamic government is a government of justice. It is a government, which will afford you a life of ease and happiness, God willing. It is in the people's best interests. It is something, which can only benefit the people. And it is hoped that this task of establishing an Islamic government will soon be accomplished, God willing (the audience cries:" God willing").