speech [Crucial duty of the clergymen; united effort at eliminating the chaos]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Considering that our legislative assembly is dominated by the clergymen, we can speak frankly with the clergymen about the things that have occurred in this country and must occur.

Throughput history, the clergymen have been at the forefront of activities and the corrupt writings had camouflaged this activity of the clergymen so that either nothing was said or at times also the contrary was made apparent. After the migration of the Noble Prophet and in the course of the occultation of the (12 th) Imam (`a) until now, the ones that have safeguarded Islam and safeguarded the Islamic nation have been the clergymen. It was you who protected the people and introduced Islam to the people and enlightened the nation of Islam; and the one who is hostile to you is the enemy of Islam; those that are opposed to you are firstly, opposed to Islam; and they are opposed to you because they regard you to be at the service of Islam. That which is important for me is that we should all be united as single file. Regard me to be one of you. There is no class distinction involved. We are all in a single file and all of us must in this file, in this single line, be of service.

Now that an Islamic republic has been established- that I hope will be Islamic in content also- the responsibility of the clergymen has increased in relation to the responsibility of others. It has always been so, but now it has increased. The eyes are focused to see what the clergymen are going to do now that they have apparently come to power; what they are going to do with the people. Is it how the poisonous pens write about that we have been liberated from the Pahlavi dictatorship and have to suffer under the dictatorship of the robe and turban of the clergy? If we give them the excuse, they will exaggerate it one-hundred times and circulate it both abroad and inside the country. If they notice something inside the country, they exaggerate a subject one-hundred times in foreign countries and in the

Western and Eastern publications and so forth; and they write about us that so long as they were not in power they were constantly saying that there should be freedom and what not; whereas now that they have come to power, they themselves are behaving badly with the people. Now, the responsibility of you the clergymen- may God grant you success- is a heavy responsibility; in other words it is not like that of other individuals who have personal responsibilities. All have a duty to protect themselves and to observe the Islamic aspects; but because you are positioned at the head of society and are spiritual and guardians of the soul of the people, your duties are doubled; rather it is multiplied a hundred times; this means that to the same extent that your position is a respectable one and higher than of all others, your responsibility too is a great responsibility that is higher than all other responsibilities. If, God forbid, any one of us commits something wrong, those that are opposed to Islam shall blame Islam for it; they shall not say that such-and-such person committed a misdeed; they shall say that this is how the clergymen are; they shall say that this is also how Islam is.

This is a great duty that you carry on your shoulders; safeguarding the reputation of Islam. Now that the Islamic republic has been established, we must safeguard this Islamic Republic and not allow the foreigners, our enemies to inflict shame on the Islamic Republic and Islam; and that too because of us. We and you must with absolute care ensure that we act on the basis of the religious criterion. Power should be in your hands in accordance with the criterion; it should not be against the criterion. Today, we are suffering at the hands of individuals that do not want to allow the Islamic Republic's ideal to be realized. Right from the beginning you noticed that they opposed the referendum in which the people themselves wanted to vote for an Islamic republic. They burnt the ballot boxes; some of them boycotted. Then when they were defeated in this arena, they again began to oppose in other arenas. We were faced with a lot of opposition in this Council of Experts; when they were once again defeated in this arena, they began to poison the atmosphere and create disturbances and disputes- all of these under various names. And next it was the Consultative Assembly and the subject of the presidential elections that was to take place; again you are being faced with the same oppositions- a little bit more. If we should give an excuse to these people and our actions are contrary to the directives of the clergymen, this will totally be blamed on the clergymen and on Islam. Therefore, we are now caught with a big responsibility. In other words, to the same extent that your profession is an honorable one, proportionate to your profession is the burden of your responsibility. In the same way that the profession of the prophets was a great one, their responsibility was also great; except that they were able to cope with their responsibilities; and we must be serious in utilizing our capabilities as much as we can to safeguard Islam that has now been entrusted to us. We should safeguard this great trust which God, the Blessed and Exalted, has now put into our hands.

If you carry out your spiritual duties, you shall win over the hearts of the people; the people want you; and if, God forbid, some of you commit a wrongful act, it is possible that these hearts that are attached to you revert. The aversion of the hearts from you is the defeat of the clergy; the defeat of the clergy is the defeat of Islam. Until now, Islam has been safeguarded by this great barrier of the clergy. If, God forbid, this great barrier is demolished, Islam will be demolished. For this reason, the duty is extremely great; a very great responsibility lies upon us.

The differences that I hear about sometimes among some of the personalities, for instance, that exists among some of the clerics are extremely unpleasant. On what subjects do we have differences? What should be the cause of our differences? We all accept Islam. We all also accept the Qur'an. We all accept the Imams of Guidance. We all know that this is the right way; that this is the only way. All were opposed to the taghouti regime. All supported the establishment of an Islamic republic. These disputes that are heard of once in a while, which I hear are, God willing, not true; but if, God forbid, there is a difference, it is to the detriment of both the concerned parties as well as for Islam. One should not be under the impression that if I oppose you, it is only to your detriment alone; it is to the detriment of both of us; it is to the detriment of both the clergymen of, for instance, a city; it is to the detriment of the clergymen of that city; it is to the absolute detriment of the clergy; it is to the detriment of Islam. Great importance must be given to this matter. Consider for example that in a place where you are located, you notice that some personalities are opposed to some others; well, it is possible that there is a misunderstanding; it is possible that some mistakes have taken place. The gentlemen of the city themselves and the congregational leaders of the city themselves; and the sermonizers and pulpit speakers should go to the gentlemen and request them to forego their differences; to become friends; to become brothers; to join hands and be united. All of you want that Islam should develop and progress. Whatever that we all have is by the grace of Islam. We are nothing on our own; whatever we have is from Islam. If we are something, it is under the shelter of Islam. We must safeguard this Islam; and these minor differences that are present may not be correct in the opinion of the people even if both the conflicting parties regard themselves to be righteous. But again if they regard these to be righteous, nevertheless, it does not leave a good impression on the masses and perhaps it may cause the people to be a bit disgusted with the clergy and to say that, well, now that power has come into their hands, they are no different from what you see. They are telling us these things such as, now that the Islamic Republic is installed, they too have not been able to accomplish anything; they are not capable of doing anything. At the same time that when the clergymen are united, they can accomplish all the tasks well; they perform them better than others. This is because they are devoted to the position that they occupy. Whatever they may be, every prayer leader is devoted to his mosque; and every preacher to his pulpit; in any case, the devotion is present, it is a natural devotion. And we want that these things be safeguarded. Its safekeeping is incumbent upon Islam becoming powerful among the people. The more powerful Islam is with the people, the better shall be the circumstances of the mosques and the pulpits. It means that the congregation of the mosque is for the sake of God and the greater the power of the divine commandments in a particular region, the mosques will be more frequented; and the greater the power of these commandments, the pulpits will become more popular. If we are of those that want the mosques and the pulpits to become more popular, we must maintain our pillar of support- which is Islam- with total commitment and not permit these poisonous pens that now want to write against Islam or are doing so in foreign countries, inside the country to find an excuse to do so.

You are clergymen; the clergymen must be at the service of the soul of the people; they must protect their hearts. You are delegated to protect the hearts of the people. In two of the blessed verses of the Qur'an, it has been stated," And be thou upright as thou art commanded," «2» while another sourah:" So tread thou the straight path as thou art commanded, and those who turn (unto Allah) with thee." «3» The Noble Prophet is reported to have said:" On account of the station of this ayah (verse 112), Sourah Houd made me old." «3» There is also in Sourah ash-Shoura but he did not say that sourah. He said Sourah Houd because in this particular sourah the Prophet has been commanded to be steadfast himself as well as to be responsible for the steadfastness of the people:" and those who turn (unto Allah) with thee."

Now, the steadfastness of the nation rests with you the clergymen; that is, the exhortation to" Be steadfast as thou art commanded." A movement that has attained its objectives needs to be steadfast. It is necessary to be resilient in the face of an Islamic republic that has been realized, it must be sustained; and it is your responsibility to sustain the steadfastness of all those individuals that are with you. The ones, who are attached to the mosques, should take care of the people who frequent the mosques; the leader of congregational prayers must sustain the resistance of the individuals who frequent the mosque. If you are a sermonizer, you must safeguard the audience. Whoever you are and wherever you are, the responsibility of the affairs of the people rests with you. And the Noble Prophet states that Sourah Houd caused him to become old because the resistance of the Muslim nation also was entrusted to him. This is something important. The resistance of every mosque and of every person attached to the mosque is the responsibility of the prayer leader of the mosque. The steadfastness of every listener is the responsibility of the speaker. The speakers must be resilient in order to be able to exhort the people to resilience. The prayer leaders must be resilient in order to be able to make others resilient. Therefore, we must know what our duty- which is the biggest duty- is. And after we know of the truth of our stand, we should be firm in our stand. There is nothing wrong in the truth of our position; we are on the right path; we are opposed to anything wrong; the monarchial regime was evil and you resisted vis-a-vis the monarchial regime; thus you are the truth; you resisted falsehood; it requires steadfastness. As long as there is no steadfastness involved, you cannot attain final victory. Now, we are at the halfway stage. We have not yet attained cent percent victory. We have demolished a barrier; you demolished the barrier; the power of the nation demolished it; Islam demolished it; the Qur'an demolished it; we are inconsequential; it was the faith of the people that demolished this barrier; after having demolished this barrier, when you went over to the other side, you noticed that everything was in disarray. Not only is the university in disarray; even your theological centers are in disarray, even our pulpits are in disarray; even our altars are in disarray; even frankly speaking, our theological societies are in disarray; behind this barrier we saw that everything was in chaos and we must all cooperate in eliminating these chaos. It will not do to place the responsibility for it on a single person or a group. If you want to place the responsibility of rebuilding these ruins on the shoulders of the government, or for example, on the shoulders of the grand maraji`, then it cannot be done.

Each person in whichever place he is located must reform his own location. For instance, in an administrative office in which there are hundred or two hundred people working in various posts; if this individual who is occupying a certain post says that the head of the department should reform or other persons who are working in different positions, then this will not reform. He must manage that position which he is occupying and manage it properly; that other person should also manage properly what he is in charge of managing so that when all manage their jobs properly, things will reform. When the clergyman performs his duty well, when the prayer leader does his job well and the rest of the strata perform their duties well; when the farmer does a good job of farming, when the laborer does his labor well; when the factory owners manage their factories well and on the basis of the Islamic tenets and on the basis of humanitarian ideals- after all, these are the things that constitute a state. When its workers and employers; its administrators and government and its people and its clergy and its traders, and everything it has- each of them performs the duties that have been entrusted to them by the Blessed and Exalted God properly, all of this state shall after some time function properly. If we move aside and expect the government to do the job- the government cannot do it. If the government moves aside and expects that the clergy should do this job; the clergy can also not do it. It cannot be done single-handedly:" The hand (help) of Allah is with the congregation". «5» If we all join hands we can do something. If right at the beginning of this victory- at the first step- you had, if the clergy had handed over the task to the bazaar traders to defeat them; the traders had handed over the responsibility to the clergy to go out and defeat them; they had handed over the responsibility to the laborers to do the job, now neither you would have been welcome here nor me. I would have been either in Najaf or in France and you too would have been suffering in your own hometowns at the hands of the Security Organization. When you all joined hands, when you congregated, a flood was let loose; a great flood is started that demolishes an enormous barrier. This is how the human beings are; each of them is capable of doing a tiny part of the job. If this gathering wants to act alone and independently, it cannot perform.

It was not that each person stuck to a different thing; this one something and that one something else. Those that air some opposition now would at that time not oppose; they were absorbed among the people. Our nation rallied around Islam, around the objective of an Islamic republic; they rallied for the rejection of the corrupt dynasty; this was a divine theme; God willed that this should be done; and we must safeguard this divine theme.

All of us must once again concentrate on performing our duties for the cause of God. Each person in whatever circumstance that he is in must work for God; and we should sustain this congregation by means of which we succeeded in demolishing this barrier and this gathering and this spirituality that has been created in the people; and the divine spiritual objective that has been created in the people should be safeguarded. So long as this is safeguarded, there shall be no defeat involved. Make sure that this is not taken away from you. So long as these two aspects of congregation and striving in the cause of Allah are present in our nation, our nation shall be victorious.

I pray to God, the Blessed and Exalted, to safeguard this congregation and this divinity.

I thank you gentlemen for having come here to meet with each other from a close distance; and to mention the issues that needed to be mentioned.

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