Speech [In praise of the struggles of Mr. Taleqani; the need for resistance and liberation from dependency]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

"Verily to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return."

I do not know whether it is me who has to convey condolences to you or it is you who must express condolences to me; or both of us together. I express my condolences to you for the loss of a great father; and you to me for having lost a beloved brother; and all of us to the nation for having lost a devoted servant; and all of us to Islam for having lost a mujahid. But we are from God and have come from there and shall return there.

We are from God; we belong to God; we have nothing of our own; whatever is present is from Him and we shall return to Him. And we must see how we have come here from there and how we are living here and how we shall go there. Are we who are here at the service of God, the Exalted, and at the service of the creatures; are we engaging in the sacred struggle in the way of God; are we following the straight path of divinity or are we deviating from it? If we are deviating whether to the left or to the right; whether to the left that is interpreted as the path of those inflicted with the wrath; and whether to the right that has been interpreted as the path of the astray opposite the straight path. If we traverse through this straight path; from the place where we start from, the path should be straight; it should not deviate; it should neither be eastern or western, be on the straight path; there should be no right or left involved and we move straight from here to the end, we shall be happy and shall make a nation happy. And if, God forbid, we deviate to the left or we deviate to the right then we are deviated. And if we occupy a position among the nation, we shall cause a nation to deviate. The late Mr. Taleqani was on the straight path; he would think straight; he would act straight. He deviated neither to the left nor to the right. Neither he was Westernized nor inclined to the East; he was Islamized; he pursued the teachings of Islam and was useful for a nation; and his departure is a loss; but he has linked to the place that was prepared for him in advance; the position that has been prepared for him.

And we must think that we also must be straight. If we are straight and invite the nation to resistance in the face of this Westernization that throughout history and especially in these past fifty and some years has pulled us in that direction; from one side they pulled us toward the East; from one side they pulled us towards the West and caused us to lose our identity. They caused our youth to become mediocre in relation to their potential; we are duty-bound, all of us are duty-bound; all the gentlemen and the respected ladies have a duty to invite the people on the straight path; the same path of Allah which is the straight path, and to avoid deviations. Deviate neither on the side of dictatorship in its absolute form nor deviate toward the West which is the path of oppression and injustice in the name of human rights; which is the taking away of all human rights.

The doctrines that are present in the world other than the monotheist doctrines are deviant doctrines that the individuals who crafted these doctrines did with an objective in mind and for a conspiracy; in order to trap the unaware youth. Those who would claim to be on the side of nations, to be the servants of the nation, to be the brothers of the people and would use words such as" brotherhood" and" fraternity" would draw inspiration from one another.

Perhaps some of you remember or none of you remember that when the leaders of countries had planned to come to Iran and have a conference here, when Churchill «2» arrived, as what has been known and reported, he came to the airport and went with a taxi to his place; when the president of America «3» arrived, he too went in like manner; but when Stalin «4» arrived, the aircraft that was carrying him also carried his cow along lest the milk that he drank from this region be contaminated! He arrived with a lot of protocol. That is how he would live in a royal and ultra-royal style and we were told that he also had a carriage made of gold! And I do not know but what I witnessed was that they would bring a lot of things for the American troops who were here and the British troops who were here. I even remember that they would bring lime grounded into a powder; they would bring clothing for them; but what I witnessed myself was when we were traveling from here to Mashhad by bus, these Russian soldiers who had been told that we were brothers with them and that there was no difference between us and them, «5» they would beg for cigarettes! They would beg from the people, from the passengers.

They were deceiving our youth! Both sides were deceiving; both the West was deceiving us and had made us a plaything and the East had made us a plaything; and until these deceptions are present; until these Westernization and Eastern influences are present in our nation, there is no hope for improvement.

Now, we must concentrate all our efforts to free ourselves from this intellectual dependence. Our thinking is dependent; our culture is dependent. Now, we must try to extricate ourselves from this dependent culture; whether it is the culture of that side which is all immoral and whether it is the culture of the other side which is all corruption; in other words, all of these are for putting us into a trap; for putting mankind into a trap.

We shall pursue this straight path which is the path of humanity, which is the path of Islam and we can tell the difference from their administrations; at the time when Islam had not come to us so that it would have this side and that side like a fur cloak; at the time when Islam was direct during the era of the Prophet himself (s) and the era of `Ali ibn Abi Talib (`a); when you observe that era and the leaders of that era, the commanders of Islam of that era, the person who was positioned at the head of the administration for sustaining the order of the state, when you note how they lived, what was their own condition such that the one who was the Prophet of Islam would sit in a mosque which was unlike our mosques and the mosques that are existing now; a mosque that maybe did not even have a mat to cover the floor; a one-meter high wall or approximately of this height that was thatched with the leaves of the date-palm and made into a ceiling; a mosque with a single room and not so many! There was only one room. When they would be seated in the mosque with his companions, one who would enter from outside would not be able to differentiate which one of them was the Prophet and which ones were the others. They would need to ask who the Prophet was! This is how they sat- just like the rest. There was not even a blanket like this one here to sit on that would be regarded as a privilege; and you all know how Hadrat Amir (`a) was like. On the same day that they swore allegiance to Hadrat Amir and chose him, on the same day that his matter had been resolved, he took his pick and axe and went after his job. He would labor! He went somewhere after his job. This is how his administration was; he would himself work. This is an administration which if it says,"We are brothers" is being honest; that is, it is a brother who is lower than his brother; the rest of his brothers. Hadrat Amir is its head; as it is mentioned in history, in the utensil in which he had prepared ground barley flour, as he would consume barley bread, he had sealed the head of the utensil lest his daughters out of feeling that they had for him, add something such as oil to it and change the taste of the barley bread! This is how they lived; and he would state that he was concerned that some persons maybe living in the far flung area of his administration that may be hungry; who may not have bread to eat and he, too, wanted to be like him. Such an administration is an administration whose ruler can make a claim of brotherhood with others; of togetherness and being united with one another although he is not as well off as the others. He had an animal hide which he would spread under himself and his wife Hadrat az-Zahra and they would sleep on it. In the day they would spread fodder on the same animal hide to feed their camel. This was their living. These governments that claim to be for the masses should take a look at their own condition and then also take a look at the condition of their masses! Those that talk about human rights and claim to have established an assembly for human rights and say such things should see how they have behaved with human beings; where have they granted the human rights to them. We were one of those human beings, we too are a group of mankind; it is fifty and some years that they have taken away all our rights; that they took away all our things; these people who champion human rights are the ones who slaughter human beings en masse and cry out for human rights! When in Iran they execute Nasiri «6» or Hoveyda «7» they create uproar, why they have been killed! Is this anything other than that they wish to deceive us and give a bad name to our movement? They do not understand human beings let alone human rights. They have no regard and respect for humanity. All that they think of is the economic aspect and aspect of looting the people. Nothing else is involved; the infrastructure is the economy; it is the" infrastructure"! Everything has originated from there; a person who does not know what a human being is, also says such things.

In any case, the problems of the country are many; and we needed a personality like Mr. Taleqani. But it is not so that with the departure of Mr. Taleqani, we have been defeated. Islam is present despite the departure of the Prophet. The revelation came that if the Prophet is killed or dies, then will you revert from your religion? Islam is present; its Prophet also departs, its Imam also departs, its `alim[ scholar ]also departs; everyone departs. And our country- by the grace of the Almighty God- has awakened and an awakening has come into being for the strata of our country and our country has discovered itself; our nation has awakened and is now moving ahead on its own; it has arisen on its own; it shall tread the path on its own. And I hope that God blesses that servant and also makes all of us become servants; and may He favor our nation by making it more awakened in treading the path.

And foremost, I express my condolences to the ladies and next to the gentlemen; and you should know that I share in this sorrow. May God guide all of us on this straight path.