Speech [Factors responsible for the triumph of the Islamic Revolution; problems and expectations; radical changes in offices and judiciary; the question of confiscation of assets]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I am thankful to the gentlemen for having come here and meeting with us up close. One of the blessings of this movement is this very fact that we were once distanced from each other and now, by the grace of God, we have come together to meet and are close to each other and are able to discuss our matters up close. I would also like to thank Mr. Jannati «1» for having accompanied you to this place. Of course, he is among the great personalities of this place and has the qualifications to tackle all issues. I hope that with his guidance, all the gentlemen will perform the services delegated to them in an appropriate manner.

You all know that it is because of the unity of expression of all strata of the people and more importantly, the focus on Islam that this movement has reached until here. In other words, a spiritual transformation has come about in society, that I am at a loss for words to name it except to say that it was a miracle; divine will. People who if a policeman would come in the great bazaars- like the Isfahan bazaar- and tell them that they must all hang flags and decorate their premises for the birth anniversary of Muhammad Rida Pahlavi on October 25, and to celebrate, not only would they not, but also it would not even dawn on them to oppose. It would simply not occur to them that one could oppose a policeman. Within a short period, these very same people- not of another generation- who previously were in awe of a policeman, poured out into the streets and said that they did not want that dynasty. They opposed the individual who considered himself to be the number one personality of the country. This was a radical change that cannot be gauged in ordinary terms; and there was such a great training that, other strata of the people joined it and underwent this transformation, this was a divine transformation; in other words, this event occurred by the will of God. Yet another transformation that occurred was the humanity that was born among the societies; and that blossomed in the course of the Revolution. The sense of cooperation surfaced among the people; such that in the demonstrations that took place- which you all are better aware of- the people came to the assistance of the demonstrators wherever they passed by. They would give them water, they would give them sandwiches to eat, and also do other things. One of my friends told me that in the demonstrations that took place in Tehran, he saw an old woman holding a bowl in her hand in which there was money. At first he thought that perhaps she was a beggar who wanted alms; but when he investigated the matter and spoke to her, she said that since it was a public holiday on that day, and the people who would pass that place may perhaps want to use the telephone to call and may not have small change with them, for that purpose she had kept the bowl containing small change there for those who needed to telephone- and there was a telephone booth right there- and they could use the change to call. Of course, this is a small instance; but the matter is one with great magnitude. Such a spiritual transformation has come over the people and the transformation has reached the crescendo that many people, particularly the youth came to regard martyrdom as a great personal triumph. I was in the city of Najaf when a young man came to me and asked me in all earnest to pray for him to be martyred. Now too, sometimes they make the same request. I received a letter yesterday, in which parents had asked me to pray for their children to be martyred. This too is a spiritual transformation; that these people like those who were present at the advent of Islam, would seek martyrdom, and would take the initiative, are now to be found among our nation. Such spiritual transformations have occurred among the people and there is no appropriate term to describe it, except to say that there was an invisible hand at work. And it was these things that caused them to confront the tanks and the guns- and all these things- with bare fists and to resist, sacrifice their lives and move forward; an advancement that appeared impossible on natural parameters.

Therefore, the foreigners- even the CIA of America- announced that this subject was not based on orthodox rules and admitted that their calculations had not turned out to be right. What they said was quite correct. It could not have been right on the basis of worldly calculations, that a nation which had nothing confronted these big powers who were backed by the power of America and the power of Russia and the power of England that were always present and supporting them. Nonetheless, the very nation that had nothing in its possession moved forward and with the power of faith managed to demolish this barrier. This secret must be safeguarded. If you want this uprising of yours to reach its conclusion, and in the manner that the Blessed and Almighty God has willed Islam be established, then this movement must be sustained with the same passion and fervor that is present now.

As you yourself observed, there was so much fervor and enthusiasm in the people for the referendum, and they so zealously went to cast their votes. One such incident that was narrated to me- they narrated many such things, but one of them that they narrated and I think it was also there in the newspapers of which I am not sure right now- was that a man was crying and saying that he had committed a sin which he thought would not be forgiven; and that God would not forgive him, and that sin was that he had mistakenly cast the `no' vote instead of the `yes' vote. Or about some who were wheelchair bound and would come to vote; and the patient who in that state of acute illness had demanded to be taken to the polls and had died immediately after having cast his ballot. Such fervor and enthusiasm is unprecedented in the world. It is unprecedented in the world- wherever you may think of; for the people to cast their ballots with such fervor and excitement. Everywhere presidents engage in so much election campaigning when they want to be nominated; they spend a lot of money; they do so much promotion and advertising. They spend huge sums of money a month or two before elections and campaign a lot in order to gather a group of people to vote. Here, there was none of these issues. The issue was Islam, and based on their Islamic beliefs, the people themselves went with that zeal and excitement to cast their votes. Out of a population of thirty-five million, more than twenty million cast `yes' votes. This is unprecedented that so many people of a population, who are eligible to vote, cast votes. On the other hand, children aged nine and ten who as per the rules were not eligible to vote, were extremely upset. Some of them came to me and were quite upset while a group of them, the same children- gathered in that front yard and expressed their displeasure at not being allowed to vote. These matters have no precedent anywhere in the world. It is for this very reason that it is an Islamic issue; and has no precedent in the world.

The question is not the question of being" nationalists"; the issue is not the issue of being" party supporters". The same nationalists and party supporters were all defeated. We have managed to reach up to this place with the help of pure spirit and clean conscience; the people have reached to here with faith in Islam and with emphasis on piety and have moved forward. If this spirit is God forbid, taken away from the people and differences crop up we will face many problems. Right now, various individuals continue flaunting their power; and this is among the mistakes that they are making, or their saying that the people should become for example, nationalists or party supporters. They are making a mistake in creating certain fronts or various sorts of parties. These varied parties can never accomplish anything. They are not able to accomplish any task except for creating discord and causing dispute. And if, God forbid, they have bad intentions, they have come with a well calculated plan to sow the seeds of discord, then we must be wide awake, and be careful not to allow them to do their job, and this is an important matter right now. In other words, we are now in a very sensitive situation, which is worse and more sensitive than the time we were attacking for the destruction of this barrier. At that time, everyone had a single purpose and was on the move. When a person reaches the point where he is convinced that he has become victorious lethargy and emphasis on material needs gradually begin to take shape.

Now you are seeing the very persons who were poor for fifty years or more all around Iran; various clans; various tribes; in Tehran itself; in the cities; everywhere people have expectations. Well, poverty was widespread among the people. Poverty is not something that has happened because of the Revolution; this poverty has existed from before. However, some of it is of the Revolution; but those who complain that we have nothing- well, they had nothing from the past. Now a group has infiltrated among them and is asking," What has happened?" Is this what an Islamic republic is like? What has been done by the Islamic republic? They do not account for the accomplishments at all. Those who question," What has been done until now" are not counting the achievements. They do not take into account that if it was the former times, it would have been impossible for them to come here, and to sit and talk with me. It was impossible for Mr. Jannati to go to Isfahan and get in touch with you; it was impossible for you to be able to speak a word, or ask for justice. They would instantly arrest you and put you in prison- and in those prisons and those circumstances. Well, these prisons have been demolished. What else do they want to happen? These prisons have all been destroyed; and now, except the traitors who have committed treasons, there is nobody else in the prison. What do they mean by asking," What has been done?" Well, this, itself is an achievement that we are now seated together freely and are engaged in discussion. You are free to talk wherever you want and say whatever you please; the newspapers also even if they write nonsense but are writing freely; and the gates of the prisons are completely locked; except for these traitors who have looted the people until now. They do not take into account these accomplishments at all. Well, yet another accomplishment is regarding our oil which they would take away and what would they give us in return? In return, we would get armaments. The fact of these armaments was that it was meant for them to be used because we did not know how to operate those weapons. The weapons were meant for themselves so that if by chance the Soviet Union wanted to launch an attack on this flank; they would be able to retaliate. They took away our oil, pocketed the revenues from it and instead of petrodollars gave us armaments for their own use in Iran. The door on this was shut, and now the oil is at the disposal of the government itself. Whoever pays money gets the oil, and if they do not pay, they do not get the oil. This is also one of the things that have been done. That which has been accomplished must be taken into account while time is needed for tasks that" must be accomplished." Poverty was there from the past. At those times nobody would talk about it; now that a transformation has taken place and things have reached this point, they shout at the top of their voice that" look what has been done now. Why is there no end to our poverty?" Is it possible to eradicate the poverty that has been around for fifty years in a couple of days or a month or even two months? Well, they must give us time until the factories begin to operate, which they will not. They must give time for the agriculture and farming to get moving; but they prevent this from being done too, by going to the farmers and causing problems.

In any case, now there are certain groups that do not want this movement to attain its final objectives. One such grouping- which is a major one- is the same remnants of the former regime that in different guises want to prevent this movement from progressing and wish to bring back the previous problems and God willing cannot. But they want this to happen. They want to create disturbances and so forth so that there be no peace in the country.

And gradually, when there is no calm, the way will be opened for them, to in their own words, stage a constitutional coup and God forbid, the situation reverts to its former self; and God willing, this shall not happen. But we must be alert; we must take care that those who get inside the factories and promote `go-slow' tactics and idleness and shunning work, are not sympathetic toward the workers; rather their sympathies lie with America or the Soviet Union. They feel sorry for them, in other words, for their own interests, which are inextricably linked to theirs. They are the hirelings of foreigners, because they are on their payrolls. These people come and prevent any job from being done. They should not be allowed to enter the factories. You go after the workers and tell them not to allow these people inside the factories; and warn them that these people want to return them to the same previous condition.

You should work and perform your job faithfully, while the government is engaged in attending to the affairs of the people. It will build houses for workers, for everybody; it will create a welfare state, but it needs time. Not all these tasks can be accomplished at once. It needs time for factories to begin to operate, and for agriculture to get started. They ruined everything and decamped, and now it must be rebuilt. And I am optimistic that with the brave efforts of all the gentlemen, and each person of whatever section he belongs to, all the problems will be solved. Those sections and those individuals must do their jobs and work in the very area that they are located, in accordance with Islam.

Just today, I was told that in many of the offices they are not working hard enough and are being lax in the performance of their duties. Well, the individuals who are now engaging in go-slow tactics at the workplace- that is perhaps a habit carried over from their past- it is not lawful for them to receive a salary from the administration; salary is paid in return for work that is done. And we shall ask the government to deduct the salary of those persons who are indulging in go-slow tactics at work, at the extent of their remission and they should not be paid their salaries in full. A person who arrives at the office, takes his seat behind his desk and passes his time smoking cigarettes and demands several thousand tumans at the end of the month- must not receive his pay. They must note that now the country belongs to them; they must work hard. Every person wherever he is, must work hard so that the wheels of the country get moving.

A radical change must come about in these administrative offices; in the judiciary especially, there is a need for a sea of changes. I have previously mentioned this, but well, when it is established and the consultative assembly is formed, these radical changes must take place so that the trials do not take so long, because the prolongation of the trials results in the wastage of the time of the people. A person walks to and from in the corridors of the courts of law for ten years without knowing whether ultimately he will attain his right or not. Tasks that would not take an Islamic judge more than one or two days to arrive at a decision when referred to our courts, take just one year for the lawyer to begin the proceedings. At the beginning, the first thing he does is to challenge the competency of the court to conduct the trial. How long should it take until you prove the competence of that court and saying that, this court is competent indeed. Then he comes several times to prove his case. Once, a witness- one of the religious authorities had attested that such an such person is" guilty". It took him a long time simply to arrive at this verdict of guilt and deliver the verdict of guilt of the al-Athim. «2»

Lawyers are such that they do not let the case progress, first the initial trial then the appeal and then so forth. It returns several times for reviewing. This is nothing except wasting the time of the people. The trial must be of one grade; there should be one qualified judge to finish the job of the people so that they can get on with their lives. Do what our judges would do before which was to make the parties sit down and listen to their argument and statements, then call the witnesses and then within two days, three days, a single day and sometimes in an hour or a couple of hours the case would be settled. The time of people is precious; it must not be consumed for a single trial.

There was this person who was a high court lawyer whom I knew; I had seen him; his name was Shaykh Rida, he was famous at that time. He was quoted to have said about a particular trial, that from the time the trial started it would outlast his lifetime, and after his death, his son would continue with it but would not let it to reach a conclusion. The situation of the courts of law is such that a lawyer can prevent a trial from ending swiftly. These things must undergo a radical change; it must be such that if we cannot make it one-hundred percent Islamic, at least we should bring it close to Islam. And God willing, I hope we can do it. Now let us assume we cannot, at least it should draw near to it. It should not be such that we should forget about it and in imitation of the west, do whatever is done in the west and all our administration becomes westernized. This is one of the mistakes that is made it was because of the weakness of the Muslims that they assumed that whatever they would see in the west was good and they should emulate it. They did not even evaluate to see whether an action was proper or improper. When they saw them manufacturing airplanes they assumed that their moral aspects were also correct whereas it is not so.

In any case, radical changes are necessary; radical changes are required in individuals for their purity, for their piety, for their being nationalists and serving the nation. With the guidance of the various strata and the elders, this must become possible. There must also be changes both in the qualitative aspects of the offices and in their forms. And God willing, I hope that these matters be realized and it becomes an Islamic state; and loftier than that, it should God willing, spread to the rest of the Islamic countries and it becomes a great Islamic state opposite the super powers. If the Islamic countries, with a total population of approximately one billion people, and with the huge resources that they possess, somehow unite, they shall become the biggest power. May God grant all of you happiness and health.

What I would like to say- and I have said right from the beginning- is that the courts must not operate based on previous methods. The courts of law must be Islamic in the fullest sense of the term; and should be careful that God forbid, no innocent person be somehow inconvenienced, or one whose sin is not too big be punished more than he deserves- these are among the important issues. The question of confiscation of properties is also an issue that in my opinion needs to be weighed very carefully; and should be applied only in exceptional cases where it is ascertained that all the properties owned by the individual have been accumulated through stealing and robbery, and through treason and plunder and so forth; otherwise, if someone was for example of the `SAVAK' secret police, or a person was for example, a legislator in the assembly; it is possible that he already possessed his wealth; this must not be confiscated because they have wives and children; they have a life to live. Just in these last few days, I received a letter from the wife of `Allamah Wahid Kermanshahi «3»- who has been executed- complaining that their properties have been confiscated and that they have nothing left. And I told them to get in touch with the confiscators and say that such a thing should not be done. Now let us assume that so and so person was a traitor and they deserved to be killed- we assume all of these- but well what is the fault of his family and wife and children? These gentlemen here are saying that regarding the confiscations, it is not such that they confiscate everything; rather they leave behind a sufficient quantity so that they can continue with their lives. But this woman had written a letter in which she had complained bitterly that they had left nothing for them and the family could not continue living. Her needs must be taken care of. In any case, this is one of the problems that you cannot confiscate the property of the people- with good reason. Just because he was a legislator in the assembly and has now been killed does not imply that his wealth should be confiscated. Being a legislator in the assembly is no license to kill. Of course, they have committed offences; they must return the salary that they have received; but this salary does not mean that all their properties must be confiscated. The privileges that they received from the government were against the norms. They must give them back and punitive action must be taken.

May God's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you.