Speech [Faith, the source of the movements' progress]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I hope that all of us can be the guards of Islam. I hope that all the Muslims be among the guards of the Glorious Qur'an and the Imam of the Time. I thank you pasdars [Islamic guards] who are in pasdar uniform. During this period, you have been on guard duty wherever you had been stationed, and have been protecting this movement. I also thank Mr. Batha'i for having taken the trouble of coming here with you.

We whose aim is Islam should not think about anything other than Islam. We should not think about un-Islamic laws. Our aim is to see Islam wherever we go in this country. It should not be so that we voted for the Islamic Republic but there be no sign of Islam anywhere. The meaning of the Islamic Republic is that it should be a republic governed by Islamic laws. All laws other than Islamic ones are not laws, and are not acceptable to us and the nation. It was for Islam that our people swarmed into the streets, took to the rooftops, struggled day and night, sacrificed their youth and had their blood shed. They would not have done such things had it not been for Islam.

It was Islam that motivated you and gave you such might as to confront the big, satanic powers fearlessly. It was the power given to you by God as we are otherwise weak creatures who have nothing. We are all helpless even against a single gun. And we who were all helpless when faced by a single gun, and would fear a policeman; this same nation that was afraid of a policeman was given such power by God as to come out into the streets shouting that it did not want this regime. It said the essential thing that it did not want the regime. It was the power that God gave you and for which you should be grateful to Him. It was the power that faith in God gave you. It was an upheaval wrought by God. Even now some youth come to me occasionally asking me to pray for them to be martyred. They desire martyrdom. It was a transformation that arose in the nation by which life for them was not so important; they sought martyrdom. If the material things of life were important, they would not have gone to face tanks, cannons and machineguns. They want to face tanks and cannons: children this size and the `ulama' of religion; the bazaar merchants and the workers; even the army joined you. You saw how this same army, which had been formed by them over many years for themselves and their own purposes, turned its back on them within a short period and joined you. This was the power of God! This was something that God had bestowed upon you; you must safeguard this favor given by God. Safeguarding this gift of Him- which would, God willing, be the fountainhead of all victories- lies in our supporting one another in the other steps that we have to take.

Just as faith from the very outset was the source of the movement's success, your massing together, because of the faith in your hearts, led to your crushing victory over such a satanic power. This was a favor, a special favor, from God, the Blessed and Exalted. And so the calculations of all the people, who had only materialism in mind and did not reckon with spirituality, turned out to be wrong. Their calculations were based on material and worldly considerations and without any regard for spiritual matters. Those people were right who used to say that it was not possible for this power to be destroyed. This had been repeatedly mentioned to us, especially in Paris recently when groups of people would keep on coming to meet us. Some of them, though not spiteful- they were well intentioned- were, nevertheless, mistaken in thinking that, according to material and worldly considerations, a nation that has nothing should not succeed. These few weapons that you presently have were acquired after the Revolution. You had nothing before that. These are what you gained; otherwise you had nothing. People with empty hands, a people whose women were always in seclusion and would not step out of their homes, a people that were not willing to take a step in any matter, underwent a transformation- a divine one- by which they who had nothing overcame those that had everything.

Your fists, backed by faith, overcame these huge tanks. The blood of our youth prevailed over machineguns. This is what God gave you and you should safeguard it. You, the guards should now not think- you have such thoughts- that you are not being paid your salaries or that you are being paid less. Your attitude should be the same as it was at that time during the Revolution when you were advancing to smash the barrier, with none of you sitting by thinking of what you would have for dinner on going home at night. None of you had such things at all in mind- and I know that you had not- for if you had, you would not have gone to sacrifice your lives. The day when you set out for the field (of battle) and the streets; you with only your fists and they with monstrous implements (of war), you had no thought whatever of your salaries being low. Salaries were of no consequence. Life itself was not important, not to speak of salaries. This spirit of yours made you triumphant. Preserve this thing that brought you victory! You will be victorious as long as you have it. Pray that it remains with you. Make efforts; endeavor to preserve it. God has bestowed a gift upon you; safeguard it; keep it. Keeping it lies in not thinking about your salaries and ranks being low until such time as the problems are basically taken care of. Just as you, from the beginning, would look to the aim and not care about your own affairs, so must you now keep your purpose in mind and not your own problems. I am telling this not only to you; I am telling everybody. The merchants should not think of profit only. The workers should not think how the harvest will turn out this year; whether it will rain or not. These are the thoughts that will keep you away from that power; that divine power. You rose for the sake of God. The command that God, the Blessed and Exalted, gave to the Noble Prophet was to tell the people that He has something to say, an exhortation to make, that he will not say anything except an exhortation:" I exhort you unto one thing only: that ye awake, for Allah's sake, by twos and singly." «1» Move for the sake of God. Rise for His sake even if there is just one of you; you will triumph. Rise together for God if there are many of you.

It was for God that you launched this movement because you took your life in your hands and set out in the streets, clamoring for Islam. You did this for the sake of God. Nobody gives his or his brother's life unless it is for His sake. That all this was done for God was because of your being aware of the guns, of the machine-gunning (of people), of the tanks and cannons coming and the soldiers being armed. It was the implementations of this commandment of His; the exhortation that God has given: (Tell them that) I have just one exhortation, and it is that your movement, your uprising should be for God. Everything is in this. Everything is in this one thing; this one exhortation. So far, you have complied with God's exhortation; do not let it go. Let the movement be for God from now on as well. Many of you, or all of you are awake the whole night- the time when a youth should be in the bed- standing with guns slung over your shoulders. If this is not for God, for whose sake is it? Nobody has forced you. At times it happens that officer, gun in hand, orders you to stand guard. This is not for the sake of God; it is because of the officer; because of the gun. Nobody has now forced you to get up and stand until morning. This is for the divine; for God. Youthfulness demands that a young man should be asleep at the dead of night. But you do not sleep; gun in hand, you are awake and so expose yourself to the risk of being killed. The devils are once again aiming to strike, God forbid. But you are standing (guard) in support of Islam. This is for the sake of God. If it is not for Him, what need is there for one to disturb his sleep and come from a secure and safe place to a dangerous one. What need is there for one to wake up and lose his previous sleep to get into danger. This cannot be anything apart from being for God; and neither is there any question of force. Nobody has told you (to stand guard). It is only because of a power within you; the power of faith. Safeguard it. It is that which has brought you victory up to here and has invalidated everything that the materialists say. The words of the communists are also invalidated by this. This power that defeated all those big powers would not have been able to do so had it been only worldly matters and such things that counted. All of you were saying that it is not logical and possible. Come, be constructive. Come down a bit from the things you say. It was faith that brought you up to here. Safeguard it so that it takes you to the very end.

We now have to endorse the Constitution that should be Islamic and must strengthen the basis. It should be endorsed early enough. The plan put forth by the government is the correct one. If, as the Westernized ones say, you, too, in accordance with the things the world likes, for instance, set up an assembly consisting of five hundred to six hundred individuals, and then they be confirmed one by one to sit in it, it would mean that we will have to sit down and wait mournfully for the next two to three years during which they will gain strength! It is not acceptable. We want the matter to be over soon, and the country to become Islamic, God willing. Both you and we should now be after pursuing this plan devised by the government. It is according to what they (the Westernized ones) want, but they want something that would 

Administering justice to the deprivedIslam is that whose leader and head has- according to what is written- stated:" I am afraid that somebody that side of the country might be hungry. Perhaps there is nothing there for him to eat. My life should be such that in case somebody out there is hungry, I should have peace of mind by going hungry myself." This is Islam. He, of course, mentions that we do not have the power to do so; and he is right. We do not have the power; but we do have the power not to fill our pockets anymore! I am addressing those who have many properties and palaces we have the power to take this oil wealth that belongs to these meek and poor people; this vast amount of money that we cannot imagine, most of which has gone into the pockets of this family; into its pockets and those around them. The amount that has gone into their pockets has also gone into America's pocket. We want to take this morsel out of their mouths and give it to the poor people and our oil industry workers who work so hard in wretched conditions. Should this wealth go into the pockets of these rich people and those who acquire properties and villas for themselves in foreign countries? Is it right? We want to take this wealth from them and distribute it among these people; these same people who staged this Revolution.

I pray to God, the Blessed and Exalted, for your health and prosperity. May God protect all of you. May you be successful.