Speech [The divine path and the satanic path]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

If, as you gentlemen say, if every kind of knowledge has a topic, then the subject of that of the prophets is the human being. And if there is a plan for every government, it could be said that the Noble Messenger's (s) plan was that verse which was revealed at the outset. It was that of the Apostle of God:

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

1. Read: In the name of thy Lord who createth,

2. Createth man from a clot.

3. Read: And thy Lord is the most Bounteous,

4. Who teacheth by the pen,

5. Teacheth man that which he knew not. «1»

The topic of the discourses of all the prophets, the object of their training and the subject of their knowledge is the human being. They came to train the human being. They came in order to take this natural entity from the plane of nature to the sublime, supernatural state; to one beyond the high heavens. The theme of all the prophets is man. Each one of the prophets that had been sent from the beginning was for the sake of mankind and for its training. This noble verse also, credibly and probably, established this point. It is addressed to the Noble Messenger himself, but even the addresses made by the Qur'an to the Noble Apostle are often general in nature:" Read: In the name of thy Lord." It points out the manner of reciting at the very beginning itself: it should be" In the Name of the Lord."

All the recitations and all the words that do not begin in the Name of God are satanic. There are two aspects: one is divine; the other satanic. When a recitation begins with" In the Name of God," it has begun by invoking the Lord's name. Knowledge in the Name of God, reading in the Name of God, looking in the Name of God, listening in the Name of God, speaking in the Name of God, learning lessons in the Name of God, everything in the Name of God. The world began in the Name of God. God, the Blessed and Exalted, started (creating) the world in His own Name. The creation of the world is in His Name. Man is a world; a small world but, in reality, a big one. Reading; the first thing taught to him and the first command that came to the Noble Messenger is:" Read, in the Name of Thy Lord." It is not that you should read just like that (without invoking His Name); learn your lessons, promote, preach or propagate just like that, study in the Name of God. This is the point. Preach, propagate, listen, and speak in the Name of the Lord, because if the Lord's Name is not associated with such things, they are in a sense nothing and nothing will become of them. Everything in the Lord's Name is something. All the calls are from God. The world began in the Name of God, and it will end in His Name. You, too, should begin in His Name, and end in His Name. The sign of God is in everything. We must have fear of His Name. The whole world is God's Name. You, too, are His Name. Everything has turned into reality in His Name. And all of you are His Name.

We have to understand and realize that everyone is from Him, and will all return to Him." Verily, we are from Him and to Him we shall return." «2» We are from Him and everything is because of Him. The others are not; they are nothing. Everything concerns Him. We have to understand this point. The prophets came to awaken us; to train us. The prophets came for the sake of mankind and to train mankind. The scriptures of the prophets are there to develop human beings. The Holy Qur'an is the book for mankind. The topic of the prophet's knowledge is about mankind. Whatever it has, deals with man. Man is the source of all good deeds. If he does not become a (proper) human being, he will be the source of all darkness. He is at the junctions of two paths: one being the human path; the other deviating from humanity and leading to some kind of animal that nobody knows. Teaching, learning, religious jurisprudence, philosophy, and the knowledge of monotheism are by themselves of no use unless connected with the Lord's Name.[The words] " Read, in the Name of thy Lord Who created," attribute the entire creation to being in His Name. His Name is the source of all creations. It is creation; absolute creation." Read, in the Name of thy Lord Who created." You must also study your lessons in His Name. You must discourse and debate in His Name. It is not enough to say," In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful" at the outset. Understand what the issue is, and we must understand what it is. The prophets came to make us understand what the issues were. All of us are wandering around in a perplexed state. The whole world is bewildered. They do not know what it is all about. Those who profess knowledge of human beings and of Islam are making mere claims! What do they know of man and of Islam? When somebody has a faint knowledge, a semblance of knowledge of man and of Islam, he thinks that he knows everything about man and about Islam. Nobody knows man in the true sense of the word; in the sense of being a human being, except God and those inspired by His revelations.

The angels objected to this" corrupt" entity- man- being created. God said:" You do not know." «3» After He taught man all the" names," and nobody could bear the" names" and the" trust" except man, «4» He told man to present them to the angels that had raised objections. Everybody was helpless; the angels, too, were helpless. «5» And even the esteemed angels were helpless; but not us. Man, we, are beings that are at the crossroads. Those among us who are good did not take the wrong path. They are now on the way; we have to see what will happen.

Following that, He states:" Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous." Read with the Lord. Perhaps this is what it means. There it was:" Read: in the Name of the Lord Who createth." The discourse, of course, is lengthy.

" Createth man from a clot." Man was created from this clot, from this water- such a power! Such a power that He says of man who is the whole world:" By the time, Lo! Man is in a state of loss." «6» The" time" [`asr] is a perfect man; it is the Imam of the Time (`a). That is the essence [`usarah] of all creation. Swearing by the essence of all creation is swearing by the perfect man." Lo! Man is in a state of loss." The" man" that is being referred to here is the man with a head and two ears that we call a human being. It is addressed to us. We are at the junction. One way is that of humanity, which is the" straight path". At one end of the straight path, there is nature, and at the other, divinity. The straight path begins from the" clot". Some of them, however, are natural. But what is important is that which is voluntary. One end of it is nature and the other end is divinity. Man begins from nature in order to reach the place where" I" or" you" does not enter:" I will become that which you cannot imagine."

It is up to you to adopt (one of) these two ways: either the straight path of humanity or the one deviating toward the left or right. To whichever side the deviation may be, it distances one from humanity. The further one goes, the more distant it becomes. Whoever deviated from the straight path gets more distant from the path, the further he goes- if he distances himself from the straight path of humanity. That is, the path the prophets came to introduce; they were assigned to introduce that path. In the Sourah al-Fatihah [Chapter: The Opening], God, the Blessed and Exalted, said:" Show us the straight path; the path of those whom Thou hast favored;" «7» those whom You have favored, those whom You have made affluent, those to whom You have been merciful and whom You have guided." Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray." «8»" Those who earn Thine anger" are a deviant group." Those who go astray" are also (placed) on one side- they have deviated and cannot be guided. The more they stray, the more will they be bereft of guidance. No matter how much you study, you will be far from the straight path if you do not invoke God's Name. And the more you study, the farther away will you go from it. If you become one who is most learned in the world, but it is not in the Name of God, you are then farthest away from God, the Blessed and Exalted! You will distance yourself from the straight path, at one end of which is the bridge of hell and with nature on one side and heaven on the other. The last stage is the divine epiphany [liqa' Allah]. It is where nobody except a human being can enter; only he can enter. We are now on the bridge of hell." Nature" is the substance of hell." Nature" is hell in the world that will appear. We are now moving in the substance of hell. If we are able to traverse this path, then the day that the bridge of hell appears; the day that it appears in the sight of these people, the one who has traversed this path will pass over this bridge. The one, who has not, will go to hell. He will fall by the way. His path is not straight. A straight path that has been described, and you have heard that it is finer than a strand of hair. The path is dark and narrow. It needs the light of guidance. May God guide us.

You gentlemen who have made a move for Islam and in the pursuit of knowledge, who have donned the robes of Islam and the prophets, you who are clothed in the dress of the clergy should not think that studying without invoking the Name of the Lord is of use to you. It could be harmful at times. Knowledge, sometimes, gives rise to pride, throwing one off the straight path. Those who promoted the faith were, generally, learned people. Those who invite the people to what is against the truth are mostly learned people. As their knowledge was not in the Lord's Name, they had deviated from the outset itself. The further the path strays, the more the deviation there is, and the more the distance from humanity. How often it is that a person is a great philosopher in the eyes of the people and an honorable jurist in the eyes of the people. He knows everything; he is a storehouse of knowledge but because he did not invoke the Lord's Name in his readings, he has distanced himself from the straight path, and from everything. The more the store (of knowledge), the greater is the burden (of sins). The larger the store, the greater is the burden and the darkness." Layer upon layer of darkness." «9» Knowledge is darkness sometimes; it is not light. Learning that begins in God's Name is the light that guides. It is learning for the sake of acquiring knowledge. The good thing about it is that one wants to learn; otherwise, learning for the sake of attaining position, becoming a congregational prayer leader or a preacher, or for gaining public acceptance amounts to deviation. These are deviations, and they are all subtle. According to the description that has been given, the straight path is finer than a strand of hair; it is very fine.

It may be that one has been a hypocrite all his life without having been aware of it. Whatever he had been doing during the course of his life was hypocrisy which he, himself, had never realized. It is so subtle that even the person, himself, cannot discern it! There are criteria for him to observe. The people that are men of action did not establish criteria for us to know and judge ourselves. There were criteria in the knowledge of the prophets concerning the development of human character.

Islam cannot be understood so soon. Islam cannot be understood after a couple of wars. Islam is not a religion of war. War has nothing to do with Islam. The doctrine of Islam- that which is now being called" doctrine"- is the introduction to the school of Islam. You and we do not know that doctrine, just as we do not know man. What we know is this natural being. This is not" man." It comes from the" clot"; a little more than that. It develops until it becomes an animal. Its" animal" state lasts for a long time. This state of" animality" is very lengthy. And it is possible for a person to remain arrested in this animality until the end of his life. Nothing avails if it is not in the Lord's Name. Everything ought to be in His Name.

According to what was said, you gentlemen are to proceed to the villages, towns and cities for purposes of propagation and guidance. Be careful that you do not act against the principles (of the religion) and against the pleasure of God, as doing so would be a crime for which you cannot easily make amends. You who are to go among the people in the name of guiding them should realize that your condition is different from that of the public; it differs from the situation of the people. You who will go to guide the people are the messengers of Islam and the Apostle of God. You must know what you have to do in this mission. Are the things that you are supposed to do, in the Lord's Name? Will you begin to guide the people and introduce Islam to them, even if it is to the extent you know, in the Name of God? Will it begin in the Lord's Name or will human ego, God forbid, interfere in it? Your worst enemy is this ego that is in man. «10» It is the worst of all the enemies that one has. The worst that the worldly enemies can do is to kill a person; to persecute him. But one's egoist self is apart from those (enemies) that kill man; it kills his humanity! Even if the whole world gathers to kill your humanity, it would not be able to do so as long as that thing that is within you is not absent or does not change. The worst of all enemies is this very ego that is the self. Now that you are about to set out to guide the people, you have to see whether this will be done in the Name of the Lord or in that of the self which is the same as being in Satan's name. You have to see how you are going to behave with the people of the places where you will go.

Let us suppose that there are some deviant people in the place to which you will go. Now, the Noble Prophet (s) used to worry about them; he would worry about these deviant people." It may be that thou tormenteth thyself (O Muhammad)." «11» (You have worried so much because they have not become believers that it seems you want to kill yourself!) We will suppose that when you went to your assigned places, you noticed some deviations there. Do not think that you can correct deviations by means of deviation. Deviation cannot straighten out deviation. Straighten it out with the Guiding Light of God and in the Name of God. Move in His Name; guide (the people) in His Name, propagate in His Name and correct the deviations in His Name. If you feel the devil within you say that this gentleman who has been here for a long time and is a titled person, should, God forbid, be deprived of his title, you ought to realize that this is not a divine thought; it is satanic. If you want to oppose a learned person who is (living) there and, God forbid, ruin his prestige, you should realize that such behavior is neither human nor divine; it is satanic. Be good to everybody. Deviant people can be corrected through kindness better than being harsh and using force. Sometimes it cannot be done even though it often can.

The Noble Messenger was the" Prophet of Mercy" who came for the sake of mercy. In that he used to order the incorrigible deviationists to be slain was for the purpose of removing what was like a cancerous tumor from the body in order to cure it. There was no other alternative. These cancerous tumors sometimes corrupt the society. This is being merciful to society. The people who do not at all know what Islam is do not understand its basis. The Westernized ones and those that follow the West think that Islamic tenets bespeak violence. They do not know at all what these tenets are and what their purpose is. It is like telling a doctor who cuts open someone's stomach with a knife, so as to remove a cancerous tumor, that he is being violent! Is this mercy or violence? Is the doctor who picks up a knife and cuts off one's arm, as it could cause the body to putrefy, behaving violently? Should a hue and cry be raised that this doctor is violent or it be said that he is a merciful doctor?! He is behaving mercifully in that he removes a limb and saves a person's life. Society is like a human being: one is sometimes punished for the sake of reforming society; a punishment that, at times, ends in killing one. A person who wants to corrupt a country or a group, and is not capable of being corrected, should be removed like a cancerous tumor from the society for the purification and protection of that society. Removing him lies in executing him. Islamic executions are like this; not like the ones in the West. The people in the West, swarm in, kill and destroy, all for the sake of opening a place for themselves. An Islamic execution is a merciful one. It is (like) a doctor who picks up his knife and saves the society from the wickedness of an entity that will corrupt society if it is not removed. Society is reformed if the punishment is to some extent of that prescribed by divine laws. There would be no more stealing if a few thieves had their hands cut off. There would be no more prostitution in the society if a few persons involved in it were lashed. Such things are cancerous tumors which the doctor is obliged to remove in order to save a person's life. He sometimes has to remove an eye with his knife. This is being merciful; this is giving protection.

The prophets came in order to protect society from evil. The legal experts do not understand the basis of this! They do not know what the basic principle of Islam is. These Westernized ones who have gathered together for the benefit of the superpowers do not know anything about the essence of humanity. They merely see this animal with one head and two ears, and the surface of this nature; not nature in depth. They see nature on surface. They demand" human rights"! What do they know what a human being is let alone knowing about human rights! Do they know what a human being is that they want to know about human rights? Do they know what society is that they want to know its right? All of them are like this. All these things that you hear are being said on that side and repeated here. It is all for the sake of plundering this nation! It is for this reason; not for the sake of reforms. The wars that are now taking place in the world, and many countries, one after another, are fighting wars, with America from this side and the Soviet Union from that side helping them, are all deviant wars that are against humanity. The supporters of human rights sit with their legs crossed and smoke as they watch, without uttering a word, the wars that occurs in these parts and all the killing that goes on in these countries. But the same ones, who, when their masters killed armies of people, thousands of them, sat cross-legged and reclining comfortably without saying a word, raise a hue and cry when Islamic sentences are carried out in the case of some people that are like tumors, cancerous tumors, in the society and destroy it if not removed. Well, why did they execute Hoveyda or Nasiri?! «12» Or why do they execute those who killed armies of our youth?! Executing them is being merciful to the community. God's punishment is a mercy to the community. Of course, the hand that is cut off would complain if it could talk. But a limb had to be sacrificed to save a human being. Some people have to be killed for the sake of a community.

A cancerous tumor needs to be removed from society in order to protect that society's rights. They used to grieve in the same way over the departure of Muhammd Rida Khan! Even now they are praising that person who committed all these crimes! The foreign magazines and newspapers praise him even now saying that he would have instituted reforms! (They say that) he wanted to set the country right! They are sitting there on that side. No, they are not well informed, but they are there. They are not in the arena; they have not seen what has happened here. They know what took place, but it did not happen to them! So what if thousands of people are killed here; human life is not at all important to them. Right and the rights of man are not at all important in these societies that are the" supporters" of human rights. Human rights are not important at all. The rights of the superpowers are important! They believe in the rights of the superpowers. Their right lies in plundering all the countries!

You gentlemen, who will, God willing, go and attain success and will guide the people, should, first of all, invite them to (have) unity of expression. God, the Blessed and Exalted, has commanded the people to hold fast to the cable of God. Every society is not what it ought to be; the one that holds fast to the cable of God is the desirable one. It is the one that" Reads in the Name of God." The Lord's Name is the same cable to which everybody ought to hold fast. Invite the people to unity; tell them not to split into groups. The devils are now busy in trying to break up this solidarity that has arisen among our people and by which they were successful, thanks to God, in attaining victory up to this stage. This is not the time for the nation to split up and form various groups; such-and-such party, such-and-such association whatever they be named: the" Islamic Society" or the" Democratic Society". All the groups, today, ought to merge into one group; and that is the Islamic group, just as all the groups had merged to form one group, just as all the groups had merged to form one group and all the pledges and cries had merged into one cry: the cry of death to this regime; the cry demanding Islam and an Islamic republic. It was the merger of all the groups and the attention paid to Islam that resulted in the demolition of this huge, satanic barrier, thus upsetting all the calculations of the materialists.

They used to take the natural and material world into account. They did not reckon with its divine aspect. They did not consider the power of faith. They cannot" calculate" it; they do not know what faith is. According to their calculations based on materialistic conditions, it was not possible for a number of clerics who had to study their lessons, a number of university students who had to attend classes, a number of merchants that had to ply their trade, a number of farmers who had to farm- though they (ex-regime) did not leave any farming for them to do- and a number of workers that had to work, and with none of these (groups) belonging to the armed forces, to rise and overthrow a gigantic set-up- a system which was supported by all the powers; not only the superpowers, but all the powers. Of course, based on natural and material considerations and on those of the people who have no knowledge of the supernatural and of the power of faith, it was an impossibility; and the impossible happened. They had thought it to be impossible. But according to" Read: In the Name of thy Lord who createth," when the Lord's Name was invoked to this very extent- we are not able to reach the depth of the matter- to the extent that everybody said" Islam," and Islam being the Name of God, victory ensued thus, upsetting all the powers that were not able to keep him (on the throne). All the powers supported him. I am aware that all the powerful countries were after keeping him in power. All the claws had grouped this sinister throne and crown in order to keep him in power. But your power of faith and the might of Islam made these powers retreat and drove him out of this country, too. We will drive out the remnants as well.

We ought to be careful about a big danger that lies ahead of us today. I am more afraid of this danger than that arising from their coming here and killing and eliminating us. And that is the danger of our going astray, of taking deviant steps and so portraying our school in a bad light and misrepresenting Islam. What is important is that the school would remain in force even if all of us are to perish. We are the Shi`ah[ partisans ]of the Immaculate Imams, the majority of whom were either killed or poisoned. But their school remained secure. He (Imam Husayn) was killed but his school remained secure. In fact he revitalized it. He revived the school by getting killed. The Doyen of the Martyrs had seen the school being destroyed. The uprisings staged by the Doyen of the Martyrs and by the Commander of the Faithful against Mu`awiyah, and that of the prophets against the powerful entities and unbelievers did not concern the conquering of a country. The whole world meant nothing to them. Conquering countries was neither part of their school nor was it their purpose. Those who speak of Islam as having made conquests do not know what Islam is. They feel that Islam is also like the regime and America in thinking that the larger their country, the better. The kind of conquests of the prophets differed from that of the kings. Kings clamor for their own world. They make conquest for its sake and for their satanic power. The prophets set out to teach manners to a community; they would make the people become refined and good. Their conquests were for the purpose of making the people developed. The Doyen of the Martyrs (`a) saw that Mu`awiyah and his son- God's curse be upon them- were ruining the school and portraying Islam in an inverted manner. Islam has come to build human character. It has not come to build up power for itself; it has come for the sake of man. This father and son and those like them were showing Islam in an inverted way. They used to imbibe wine while they were also the congregational prayer leaders! Their parties were ones of debauchery in which there was every kind of vice. And they also led the congregation; they used to act as congregational prayer leaders. The congregational prayer leaders who were gamblers! They would also lead the Friday prayers. They were preachers, too. They would also preach from the pulpit! They had risen against the Apostle of God in the name of his caliphate. Their slogan was" There is no god but God," but they had risen against divinity. Their deeds and acts were satanic, but they claimed to be the Prophet's caliphs. This weakens the faith and shows the world that this is what Islam is. I am now apprehensive about this matter.

O God, please come to Islam's aid! Let our school not be portrayed today as being deviant because of our deeds and yours, or the deeds of the committees, the courts, the departments, ministries, and the like. The previous regime did not claim to be Islamic. Nobody would believe it even if it had done so. There was no danger from the previous regime. If a cleric did something wrong in the days of the ex-regime, the people would say that he was a" SAVAKi" (a member of the Shah's intelligence agency) or a courtier. Now that the SAVAKis are no more, and all of them have been buried, if you gentlemen did something wrong, it would be said that this is what the Islamic Republic is. Our school would become shaky. Gentlemen, your responsibility is great! Do not think that you can go and say something (wrong) and nothing will happen. No, each one of you has a responsibility; a very great responsibility. Our school today depends on our deeds. It depends on the deeds of the clergy. If, in previous times, a clergyman, God forbid, said or did something wrong, the people would taunt and curse him. And some of them would even say that the clergy were like that. The final thing they would say was that all the clergymen were like that. But then the regime was not Islamic. They would not say that the regime was Islamic. They would not say that the Islamic faith was such. Nowadays, our enemies abroad and, occasionally, within the country, pick up their pens and write against our school in order to present it in a bad light.

Islam came in order to edify all the strata of the people and to eradicate all evil. Islam will become insecure; it will become tarnished if, God forbid, any violation or impropriety occurs because of your actions and ours, the actions of the courts, the Islamic guards, the committees and all the people who talk about Islam. All of them are professing Islam. It has now become the" fashion"- as you say- for everyone to mention Islam and the Islamic Republic. They are all talking about Islam nowadays: the ones that keep mentioning it and those who adhere to it, like yourselves who are the foremost among them. This is important; killing you or killing us is not. Islam will endure. Islam made greater progress after they had killed the Doyen of the Martyrs. Islam will be promoted by their oppressing and killing us. Well, you saw that their killing some individuals promoted Islam. But it will be a disaster if the things we do- our deeds, our words, our promises- destroy and wipe out Islam. It will turn out to be the greatest disaster. You gentlemen who are to set out should be careful. Islam, today, is tied up with your actions and ours. It is not as it was in the past.

Go to these villages and towns. Do not expect them to attach much importance to you. Do not do so; God gives you importance. There is no need for you to make any attempts; and you cannot even do so. You could make matters worse sometimes! Invoke the Lord's Name and everything will turn out right. Go to these towns and villages and guide the people. This is the time to give guidance. The most important guidance is to acquaint the people with their present duties in that they should know what kind of people to appoint as deputies- people that are pious, well informed, learned and knowledgeable about Islam to the extent they are- as this concerns the determining of Islam's destiny. They should not appoint the ones that do nothing but keep writing while having nothing to do with Islam. Keep away from them. Do not appoint them as they will spoil matters. They do not at all know what Islam is for them to draft the laws of Islam! The laws of Islam and the constitution of Islam should be drawn up by the people who at least know what Islam is, who are interested in it and are not inimical toward it. They should not leave this destiny in the hands of those people that consider Islam to be basically opposed to their own ways (of life); rather, opposed to" civilization," in their own words. Of course, the civilization which they say is like that of the Shah's; his" gate of civilization"! Our people must not entrust their destiny to these persons who are intellectuals as they themselves say, nor to every other intellectual. Many intellectuals are decent people. It is evident from the previous and subsequent words and deeds of those that have no interest in Islam, as to what they are.

All this time that everybody was clamoring for an Islamic republic, these hopeless people did not once mention" Islamic Republic" even out of dissimulation [taqiyyah]! They are so afraid of the name of Islam as Satan is of" In the Name of God"! They are afraid and they are justified in being afraid because Islam checks passions. Islam does not allow people to go and swim naked in these seas; it severely punishes the ones who do it! Going there naked with women and then the women going naked into the towns! It is just like the things that would happen in the time of the taghout. If such a thing happens, the people will flay them. The people are Muslims. They will not allow men and women to mix and to go into the sea and frolic. This is their "civilization"! They want such a thing from civilization! They want this from freedom! They want Western-type freedom. And it is that men and women should strip and go into the sea, or go to other places and swim! This is the civilization that the gentlemen want! This is the civilization that was imposed upon our country during the former regime: the men and women would go naked into the sea after which the women would come into the town in the same naked state! And the men would not dare to say anything. If such a thing happens now, we will settle their hash. The government has also taken action. According to what the Interior Minister said, the government has put a stop to such things. If the government does not stop them, the people will. Will the Mazandaranis or the Rashtis allow such things again on the seaside as it used to be in those days? Are the people of Bandar Pahlavi «13» dead that men and women go together into same spot of the sea and indulge in revelries! Will they let them? This is their civilization. This is the freedom they want. Such freedom! To go and gamble and becoming naked, indulge in revelries

Freedom is within the bounds of the law. Islam has put a stop to corruption. It has given various freedoms short of corrupt practices. What it has put an end to is corruption. And as long as we are alive, we will not allow, to the extent we can, these `freedoms' to be granted.

You gentlemen, too, are now free. You will go to the villages and districts in order to give guidance. Be sensible enough to make proper use of this freedom. Do not, God forbid, misuse it. Tell the people that they should know their deputies. The `ulama' should introduce them to the people. Those who know people should inform the public of one's background and what one used to do in that regime. He has now come- of course, he might be even holding a rosary in his hand- and is clamoring loudly about Islam. They have to see what he was in the past; what crimes he had committed or permitted. They ought to know these persons, and the local `ulama' should introduce them to the people. They should nominate the persons whose hearts beat for Islam.

May God make all of you successful. And all of you recite; take steps; preach from the pulpit. Everything should be" In the Name of thy Lord Who createth."

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