Speech [Enmity of power-mongers toward Islam; the expediency of the coalition of the `ulama' and all the strata of the people]

I must thank the `ulama' and the learned ones. The nation is indebted, primarily, to the `ulama', and secondly, to the rest of the social strata for its victory. You, the `ulama', as it is your duty to be the leader of the nation, should be in the vanguard of the society's affairs; purge the nation of its impurities. Thank God, you have risen to uphold the (Islamic) cause. On behalf of the honorable nation of Iran, I am thanking you. May God protect and bestow power upon the clergy, who are the nation's reserve and support. Your and Islam's enemies have introduced you and Islam in a bad light. The adversaries of humanity and religions comprehensively say that religion is aimed to be the opium for the people and the nation! Because they have understood that it is the religiosity and the clergy resisting them, they have stood in opposition against and have, since ages ago, attacked these two forces. They have lashed out at Islam, which is the greatest force, in a bid to introduce it in the worst possible light. They took efforts to propagate that Islam, if ever it was anything, it was merely a prayer or incantation! It was nothing but a human being-God ritualistic relationship as it is with Christianity. It is the same in Christianity; it has been distorted. The Christianity that Jesus Christ had brought cannot be like this. They opposed Islam and all other religions and counted them as the opium of humanity, i. e. something that the wealthy clique and ruffians had fabricated to tranquilize the people and silence the masses with empty promises. They had aggrandized this publicity to such extent that later it has been given to us in another form.

The issue of the segregation of religion and politics is an issue that was colluded with so much deceit and chicanery that even we have been deluded! Even the term" political clergy" is a word of abuse in our circle! (It is disgraceful to say) that so and so is a political clergy! Whereas in reality these gentlemen themselves have perused in authoritative supplications which state that men of politics are servants. «1» Nevertheless, this chicanery has been inculcated so expertly that we ourselves have been deluded into believing that religion is separate from politics. A clergy goes up the pulpit (preaching) while the king is busy with his plundering! It is sufficient to know for anyone who has studied Islam and the glorious Qur'an that these two educate a society in all (respects).

There is a difference between Islamic tenets and other laws extant in this world- I am not referring to divine laws, which are not observed now, and have remained unheeded to, as Islam has been. Islam and that which had been handed down to man from God differ from those laws made by man. One fundamental difference lies in the fact that man-made laws took only one weak aspect into consideration. For instance, man has legislated laws that are concerned with the maintenance of (social) order and discipline, social associations and the quality of temporal politics. Another dimension that man has overlooked in formulating laws and principles is the human element. However, when you deliberate on Islam, you will see that from humanity's point of view, it has ordered scheme and laws. Before man came to this world and even before his parents were united in matrimony, there was a plan to educate this seed (of creation) well. Islam has an organized code: how to choose a wife, how to choose a husband, what conditions and customs should be followed in marriage, conceiving a child and pregnancy. It is similar to the farmer who takes care of seeds after sowing them making sure that the soil is just right and the water healthy; he sees to it that they ripen at the right time taking care to comply with the norms of plant cultivation, so that it grows right. Similarly, Islam commences with man's education even before his father and mother get married. It aspires to maintain an earth that is salubrious and pure; a righteous wife should choose a spouse of humane qualities; other norms will have to be conformed to until the time the child is born. Thereafter it is incumbent upon the mother to observe the customs regarding pregnancy and nursing the child, after which the father takes the responsibility of bringing up the child and of relevant disciplinary norms that ensue. No human laws undertake the responsibility of any of these issues. This matter is exclusive to the laws of humanity. Another human aspect that has been neglected by other existing laws is the principle of self-edification- expediency because man is a humane creature that seeks to be divine. The Qur'an is a book that seeks to develop man, and Islam is a school that aims to make man in all aspects, not only to make him a material being but also a divine one. Islam considers all the facets of human life. Other principles and laws in the world have not outlined these issues like Islam does. Anyone can be brought up in any manner he wants: He should not just go hollering in the public market- he will be detained for it- but he is free to do anything that he pleases in the privacy of his home! One's privacy and what one does in it is of no concern of theirs. It is no business of anybody's! Islam, however, encompasses every aspect (even) one's privacy; it takes care of man when he is alone, when accompanied by someone, and so on in similar cases.

One aspect of human life in this material world is that man wants to establish social associations; he wants to establish a government in this material world; he wants to establish other places that concern his materiality. Islam considers these aspects, too. So many verses and narrations on politics have been recorded that have not been narrated in matters of worship. You consider fifty odd books on jurisprudence, about seven or eight books concern worship, the rest relate to politics, societal affairs and social associations and issue of this nature. We have put aside all these and have concentrated on only one weak aspect. They (government) have introduced Islam to us in such a bad light that we found ourselves believing that Islam did not have anything to do with politics! Politics belongs to Caesar and the pulpit to the clergy! They do not even allow us to occupy the pulpit! Islam is a religion of politics; it includes a government. You read Hadrat Amir's book and his directive «2» to Malik al-Ashtar «3» and see what it is. See what commandments concerning wars and politics from the Prophet and the Imam (`Ali) (`a) had been stated. We have these resources but we do not possess the competence to utilize them. Resources exist and we have everything, but we lack the competence to use them. It seems Iran has everything but it is given away to the foreigners. We have very rich books and traditions that cover everything but they have been badly introduced, i.e. by the experts.

Since the time that Europe opened its gates to Asia and the Orient, experts congregated and investigated. They were vigilant but you and I were in deep slumber in schools! They delved into study; they put every inch of Iranian land under scrutiny; they had a map of every spot where there was oil, or copper. They came into these waterless and barren deserts on the back of camels. They explored the oil reserves and sites, and whatever (rich) spot they located, they put in record. Their studies about us revealed that the thing that could hinder them was belief in and service to Islam. From thence on, they attacked Islam, segregated it from everything, even from the nation of Islam and the servants of the Qur'an some of whom could not be made to comprehend that Islam was a religion of politics. Perhaps they saw it as a shortcoming of Islam! Islam has system of sovereignty- not like this monarchial sovereignty now. It has a government; it has leadership and a caliphate. The Prophet of Islam established a government. Hadrat Amir had a government, a governor, a commander and others of this kind. They had an army and military rules and regulations. They had everything. We had delved into a study of all this, but because it has been so distorted for us, and we were always hushed into minding our own business and were told to just say our prayers, and were constantly told" what business is it of yours what we are doing; it is none of your business, it is none of your concern" that our task was reduced into congregating to mourn!

Experts (from the West) have observed the people's temperament; they discerned that the eastern temperament, especially that of the Muslims and for that matter Shi`ah Muslims, was characterized by high esteem and advocacy of the clergy. They thought of how they could separate the people from the clergy. They hatched plots to sully the clergy's reputation among the people. Majority of you were not living during the time of Rida Shah, but I, the people of my age, and the older men were living during his reign. Based on a conspiracy concocted abroad, they had subjected the clergy to measures so repressive that the latter could not even breathe. The people's ideas of the clergy were such that they would not even give a clergyman a ride in their automobiles! They had dissociated the clergy from the people. However, their plot was a complete fiasco. They did whatever they wanted, but God is the best of plotters. «4» However, their conspiracy succeeded in one aspect in that they could dissociate the clergy from the university. A clergy was not allowed to speak about the university, even among ourselves. I know of no one (who has ever gone to a university) University people would also think of the clergy as pernicious creatures that the British had dumped here! I myself was a witness of an incident. Once I was traveling by bus with two respectable gentlemen from Qum several years ago. There were others riding in the bus with us. One of them was telling the other:" It is ages I have not seen any of these figures." He was referring to us. Then he added," The British have brought them and have sent some in Najaf in order to deviate the people. From the university people's point of view, the clergy either was a courtier or tied up to the British! From your (clergy's) point of view the academicians were, well, I do not know,(westernized)! They have sowed the seeds of discord among the nation; they separated some people from the others and took advantage of this separation.

You witnessed how the various social strata formed in this short period a coalition that God had caused. This coalition and unity of expression between the material and spiritual wings, between the `ulama' of Islam and other classes from whatever clan they may be had caused a nation to rise up in rebellion. This unity of expression that the nation had adhered to and caused the nation to rise, defeated all the world's superpowers, tanks, and cannon. All of you know Muhammad Rida, the things they would say about him; he would eulogize himself and he was powerful, too. He was endorsed by a powerful man from Russia, by America, Britain, all Islamic governments, China, the superpowers and any other powers after them. And you, the nation whose everything had been plundered, have vanquished this great power barehanded and barefooted; you have risen because unity of expression was at work. You crushed the tanks with your fists. Blood prevailed over the sword. You dragged him down from his throne. He escaped and ran away but he took the wealth (of the nation) and everything we had, apparently about three billion dollars! As one writer put it, he and his family took three billion and hundreds of million.

We cannot figure out how much this family had stolen from this country. One of the things that have been reported to me concerned one of the sisters of this man (the Shah), who has a mansion somewhere; I do not remember how much, but one thing I remember is that, according to a report reaching me, five million dollars, i.e. thirty-five million tumans had been spent just to plant flowers around it! We cannot imagine it in our dreams! We cannot believe it! You do not know what they had done to this country! You do not realize how backward they had pushed this country's spirituality. I say you do not know- I mean you do know, now you know, that is we know right now that all misfortunes, any misfortunes we have and ever had is caused by this family. A country can never attain competence unless the government is competent. A corrupt man will destroy a country. We witnessed how this corrupt man whose name is Muhammad Rida Pahlavi would designate a minister; he would choose someone who was corrupt like himself! Anyone who is willing to steal, that is thieves are cronies of thieves! Thieves are never friends of the holy. When he designated a parliament representative, he chose one of his own kinds. The selection of representative was not in the discretion of the people. People never had any freedom during these fifty years (of Pahlavi rule). Nothing was related to the people, not one single representative, or parliament or government. Everything depended on the foreigners. When they had singled out this depraved man, they put him at the helm of the country, imposed him upon the country until it lost everything. Then he would constantly eulogize himself and would make the radios and the presses do the same. He made it mandatory for everyone to eulogize him!

Consider his so-called" land reform" program." Land reforms" that they commended, praised, and publicized so much caused nothing but the mendicancy of the farmers and the decimation of agriculture. Now, if the nation joins hands, it might be able to restore our agriculture to its original state. They have created a market for America, which either burns or dumps its (surplus) wheat into the sea; and if it ever it gives (its surplus wheat), it gets money in turn! It gives (its wheat) and gets foreign exchange. Some market they created! You do not have anything. They say that all of Iran's agriculture is sufficient for only some thirty odd days! An Iran whose one province such as Azerbaijan or Khorasan could provide food for the whole country with surplus that can be exported, yet they say we have enough only to last thirty odd days! Where do we get the rest? We get it from Israel, from America or from other places. All this depredation was brought about by this despotic man who had written a book about his mission to his country stating in it that he had come to serve his country!! I say he is right! He had a mission to" serve" his country, which is to deprive it from everything! He had a mission to sever this country from everything, and to devastate its spiritual force. The greatest blow this country had suffered is the corruption of the force of the young generation. They lured them toward wine shops or cinemas, or took them to wilderness where they constructed centers of corruption and spread it. They did not spare one single decent youth for us. The greatest blow that this country had suffered is the dissipation of its manpower. Now the impact of this ruination has yet to surface. Some" service" he rendered! Some" service" to the country! He completely destroyed its agriculture and its culture and divested it of everything. If we had a culture, we would not be plunged into this misfortune. If only we had cultural luminaries, but were they independent? Culture must be independent. But will they ever allow such things? Would the intelligence organization allow such crookedness be straightened out?

They had ruined the economy. If the nation had given him a deadline, he would have exhausted its oil within ten or fifteen years ... but he left to do his own business! What has it (America) given in exchange for the oil? It has given us weapons! What weapons?! Modern weapons that the Iranian technocrats cannot understand what they are, and how they should use them! And why has it brought these weapons here? So that America will have a base in case, it starts a fight with the Soviets. It got our oil and, in return, it constructed a base for which it would be willing to give a country millions of dollars to let it construct such a base for itself! It takes our oil and builds bases for itself. This is our predicament. Then should not the clergy interfere with politics? Should the clergy keep silent about all this? And if a clergy dares to say something, he will be branded as a" political clergy"? America took everything we had. It had sullied and completely ruined the clergy's image among the people. It separated the clergy from the modern intellectuals and bled them dry of their potentials. You were also divested of everything you had. If this movement did not possess any attribute, but it brought with itself the loftiest fruit that we could ever get, which was having a good theology student-academician relationship. Only if they (regime) let it remain. Only if they allow it to live on! Strive to keep it! The key to your priority, the key to your victory is unity of expression. If they take this unity of expression from you, the same old bondage and plundering will prevail. It is not the same as before when you used to have an excuse that you could not do anything. Now you have realized that you can. You have a force and the nation is with you. You have a force in every city and village. Each day that you wish to accomplish something, the people will pave the way for your force to advance. Be together and form an assembly. Be accomplished and safeguard your unity of expression. Now they are trying to pit you against each other and take advantage of this. You should not allow this to happen. You must not allow their ruses to be put to work. That wicked man (the Shah) would do it until the time he left, and now this evil man «5» is doing it.

I implore the Exalted and Blessed God to grant you all success. I came back from abroad to serve you. I am your servant; I am the servant of the nation. I came in order to safeguard your chivalry. I came to topple your enemies. I came in order to make the nation independent, and if a government is to be founded then let it be an independent one. I came in order to sever foreign interests off our country. I came in order to expose the true image of these people who call themselves" nationalists" and what not, and who talk of" constitutional law" and such and such names but who actually want to bring back the same old problems. May God grant you success and familiarize us with our responsibilities.