Speech [Description of the dimensions of Mr. Taleqani's personality; the power of Islam and responsibility of the clergy; the necessity to sustain the power of the youth and the university students]

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

We have lost a brother; and our nation has lost a father; and Islam a mujahid; all of us are aggrieved and affected by this great sorrow. May God bless him and grant you tolerance and patience. After long years of service, suffering, anxiety, and sacred struggle, he is no more among us and has, God willing, been united with his pious ancestors. We must learn lessons from the events that occur and gain knowledge and be warned of certain issues.

Why upon the death of Mr. Taleqani this upheaval and this explosion occurred in this country and in the rest of the countries? What happened that caused this explosion? We shall analyze his qualities and his aspects and then let the nation be the judge. In our analysis, we must not sit in a closed room and think and hold the pen in our hand and be under the impression that we are analyzing; we must study the condition of the nation and see why they accorded this respect to Mr. Taleqani! What was present in him, and what motivated the nation? Mr. Taleqani had various aspects to his personality; firstly he was a messenger; he was a servant; he was an intellectual; he was a commentator of the Qur'an; he was a devoted individual; he was opposed to the previous regime; he was opposed to the left or the right. Which one of the aspects of Mr. Taleqani aroused the people in such a manner and plunged all the strata into such a sorrow? Each one of these qualities can be found in many individuals and yet such a thing does not occur.

What we can understand from the circumstance of the nation and the outpouring of the nation is two or three important issues that resulted in this explosion in our nation and this extraordinary outpouring of our nation; one was this spirit of resistance and opposition with the system of oppression. Right from his youth until his soul departed and joined his pious ancestors, his motivation was opposition to the tyrants, oppressors and plunderers. He never tired and consequent to this attitude was numerous imprisonments; every once in a while he would be transferred from one prison to another. If, a nation that is opposed to a regime; a nation that has suffered at the hands of the taghouti regime; a nation that considers all its miseries to be from the taghouti regime and its masters, if it sees that someone has resisted, has opposed with all his strength whether in his youth and with the power of his youth or whether in old age and the weakness of old age and has suffered in this opposition and resistance; has been imprisoned; that he has been exiled, has been humiliated, has perhaps been tortured; a nation that sees that a person opposes in such a manner with its enemy, with someone that has destroyed all its national and religious reputation, this nation shows its gratitude toward him, meaning that this gratitude it expresses for its own servant. But this was not all of the motivation. This resistance was and is also present in some other personalities, but people do become affected and sorrowful, but this explosion does not happen.

Attach resistance and opposition with the system of oppression to the fact that he was a clergyman and would do this thing. A clergyman, a person who because of his spirituality was popular among the people; when they witness his devotion to service, this explosion is attained. You saw on the television at the time of his burial; you heard the slogans of the people; what was the slogan? The motivation of the people can be gauged from their slogans. In rooms and behind closed doors, the writers do not sit down to earn a position for themselves; to create motivation! Academic and illusionary motivations other than actual motivations are palpable. What were the people saying? What slogans were they chanting?" O the successor of the Prophet! You are being missed." This was the breath of the people; they regarded him as the successor to the Prophet; but a successor to the Prophet both on the spiritual front as well in physical resistance, in his opposition to the system of oppression. Succession both in confrontation with injustice, in opposition with the tyrants, in resistance against oppressors as well as in spirit, in spirituality; but the motivation was:" O successor to our Prophet". You saw what the people would do with the pickaxe with which they had dug his grave and had removed the soil with; they were expressing their love to it, they would kiss it, they would touch it; they would fight with one another over it to kiss it; why did they kiss it? After all a pickaxe is not something that should be kissed. Were they kissing the pickaxe because Mr. Taleqani was a democratic person? For the same reason that they kiss the shrine of the Immaculate Imams and our prominent personalities; that same reason compelled the people to kiss his pickaxe; it was not because of his intellectualism; it was because they regarded him to be the successor to their Prophet. The people regard Her Holiness Ma`soumah as the daughter of their own Imam that they kiss her mausoleum. The mausoleum is a bit of gold and a little iron; why do they kiss this iron and gold? There is a lot of iron and gold in the world. Well, they even earn coins, but do they ever kiss them? This motivation is the affection of the people for the origin. Why do they kiss the Hajar al-Aswad «1» and touch it and seek its blessing? Why do millions of people circumambulate a house made of mud and stone every year? It is because their motivation is a divine motivation. Whatever pertains to the order of God is to be respected. You kiss the cover of the" Word of Allah" and touch your eyes to it; well it is a cover, why? Because within this cover lies the words of God. Everything is for God. To whomever we accord respect, it must be for the sake of God. Our nation which a few days ago would kiss this pickaxe did so with the motive that Taleqani was the deputy of their Prophet. They themselves would cry out," O deputy of our Prophet! You are being missed." Why do you want to give up this power? Why do you have such a lowly and bad taste? Why do not these youth who wish to serve their country and themselves now make use of such a power? Do not they see this power? Do they not see that an old man of seventy and some years who did not have any strength left to engage in political activity in that sense, who is overcome by the infirmity of old age, who is ailing, when he is gone he create such an upheaval among the people of Iran and in the rest of the countries and stupefies the West and the East? Why do you wish to relinquish this power? Why do you repeatedly break this power? Why for anything that happens you take away the credit from Islam and want to give a Western name?

O nation! O the intellectuals! O the enlightened! Make use of this power. It was this power that drove the taghouti regime to hell; you were not capable of doing this. Why everyday you see these manifestations of divinity and the power of God and yet you do not wake up? What disease is this that some of our enlightened are suffering from? I do not say to all of them; some of them. What disease is this that some of them are suffering from that when a nation throughout Iran beat their chests and commemorate someone as a" deputy of the Prophet"; that when they want to write they say about him that he was an enlightened man and for this reason the people! You too are an intellectual; why do the people not recite a funeral verse for you! Sir, do not give up this power! Those who love their country, who do not want to allow a plundering regime to come to power once again, who want to confront their enemies, if they have brains they should use this power; they should come and connect to this turbulent sea; I advise them. Tomorrow our universities shall reopen and once again a bunch of people who regard themselves as enlightened intellectuals and who regard themselves as being such and such for Islam, for the nation and regard themselves to be their servants again pour out and cause disturbances and prevent the motives of the nation to blossom in the way that it is.

Our friends are also not aware! They too; our friends also do not understand that they must not relinquish this power. This is a divine power." The hand of God is with the congregation." «2» Can you deny that Mr. Taleqani is dead? Can you deny that an outburst has occurred following his demise? Can you deny that this outburst has occurred from within the core of the nation without me or you engaging in publicity for him? Can you deny that it is the core of the nation that cries out," O deputy of our Prophet, we yearn for you"? Where can you deny such a thing? Can you deny the power of the nation? This is the power of the nation; connect to this power. O drops! Connect to the sea in order to be safe; otherwise you shall be dissolved and be destroyed. O the lowly thoughts! Awaken and link up with this sea; the sea of divinity; the sea of the message; the sea of the Glorious Qur'an. Come out of this Westernization! Sir, it is fifty plus years that these Westernized thinking has brought upon you all these tragedies; come to your senses. Think a little about Islam. Do not demolish this great barrier that demolished the big powers; you cannot also demolish it. However much you may want, you cannot demolish it. Gentlemen! The nation is attached to God. Our nation is against those who deny the existence of God. The nation is attached to the clergy; it regards them as the deputies of the Imams; it regards them to be the deputies of the Prophet. The slogan on the demise of Taleqani," O the deputy of our Prophet" speaks for itself. The reason why I mourn is because the deputy of the Prophet has passed away; not because a democrat has died! Not because an intellectual has passed away; because the deputy of the Prophet has departed. You should undertake a study of the condition of the nation; do not sit at home and think of the motivation and write whatever you can against the direction of the nation and keep on writing; writing is of no use; but why do you not connect with this nation? Why do you not speak about the facts? You keep on writing about the" reactionary clergy"; the reactionary clergyman is that very thing that they have injected into you.

The enemies of Islam have injected into you the phrase," the reactionary clergyman," in order to separate you from the clergymen. These pens that regard the clergymen as being reactionary either lack understanding and have not studied the circumstance of the clergy, or have a grudge and are paid for writing; they get payment for writing. It was the clergy that rescued this Iraq from Britain; the clergy pulled it out from the throat of Britain; it was Aqa Mirza Muhammad Taqi Shirazi «3»- may peace be upon him- who took it out from the throat of Britain; is the clergyman reactionary or is it you? That half a line edict of Mirza Shirazi «4»- may Allah be pleased with him- extricated our country from the throat of the foreigners:" From today, to use tobacco is forbidden; it is opposition with the Imam of the Time." This one sentence compelled the nation to rise in opposition. Why are you damaging this power? Be humans after all. It was the clergymen who in Iraq went to the warfront and were taken captives. The same late Mr. Khwansari «5»- may Allah be pleased with him- the late Sayyid Muhammad-Taqi Khwansari is one of those personalities who went to the frontline and was taken prisoner of war; for a long time he remained a prisoner of war.

Do not break this power; it is not expedient; it is not in the interest of the nation; it is not in the interest of the country that a power which has clenched its fists opposite the big powers and has driven them out of the arena should now be paid in this manner and thereby such a power to be broken. This great fortress of Islam and this great fortress of the clergy are both hated by the foreigners. They are inimical to both Islam because Islam has been bad for them; Islam does not permit them to destroy our resources; as well as the clergy whom they regard as opponents- and this they want to break.

When Rida Khan came into power, all his attention was focused on breaking this power of the clergy. All his attention was on this, but he was commissioned; but he was not a functionary who was exempt. He used all his powers to remove this garb from their bodies.

In the Dar ash-Shifa Seminary, I had a chamber; at the peak of the suppression of the nation, suppression of the clergy, I had a chamber there. After my friends would finish their day's work, we would gather there. One day a secret agent came into the chamber, sat down and said that it had been decided that there would be just six clergymen in the whole of Iran; this was a decision taken because they were afraid of these turbans; why? Because these turbaned clerics were recognized as" deputies of our Prophet; we yearn for you;" people would listen to them; they were afraid of these mosques.

Recently they had kept a retired colonel as agent in every mosque! It was because they were afraid of these mosques. They tried to disrobe the clergymen and to downgrade the clergymen from the position that they occupied and praise is to Allah, they were not able to do so. Is it now your turn? Now, it is the turn of each one of you to go on nagging and complaining about the clergy; a clergy that has done so much service to the nation and has rescued this nation so many times from danger. Now the gentlemen have come forward with their pens in hand and with their actions and words in criticism of the clergy. I do not wish to say that whoever wears a turban is such and such, that he is deputy of the Imam, he is not; there is no such thing. But those that engage in breaking them do not break the bad ones; they are hostile with the good ones and are friendly with the bad ones! The bad ones that are in the same position as them and collaborate with them and who were and are at the service of the regime; they are not on bad terms with them. They are hostile to those who are good! They are opposed to Taleqani. I say do not break this power like you would break a bowl. This is a divine power which you should make use of.

I have also told the gentlemen clergy repeatedly and I say it now too, that firstly, your responsibilities are many; a great responsibility lies on your shoulders. This nation that are all chanting," deputy of the Imam" and" deputy of the Prophet" if, God forbid, they see a wrong in you, they will break the clergy. If the clergy is broken, Islam has been broken. The clergy has safeguarded Islam; if it is broken then Islam shall been broken. If at this point of time it is broken by us, we have committed treason against Islam and the Qur'an. Watch yourselves, be careful! You should concord your actions to Islam. If, God forbid, any one among you is deviant, expel him from your ranks.

And another advice that I have given and give to them is that you must safeguard this power of the university students and the strata of the youth; do not challenge them; all belong to the same nation; all of us belong to one country and home; both of you should protect this home of yours. The destinies of this country of yours shall after sometime be in the hands of these university students; they shall become its ministers and so forth; protect them. In the same way that I ask them not to lose this power, I ask you also not to lose this power; be brothers; be together. I say to the university students not to divide into so many groups; you have enemies; you must be well-equipped to face the enemy; to be well-equipped is to unite into a single group with unity of expression; if you form into a single group, our devoted Muslim youth who- praise be to Allah- are in the majority in the university, if they repeatedly not divide into groups and sub-groups and join together then a few persons that are corrupt and astray shall either join with them, or get lost and go away. You should not wait for the government to come and prevent them or the nation to come and prevent them; you with your own gathering and without creating any conflict, without any fighting, with your own coming together and your own unity of expression should thwart these plots. Tomorrow the university is reopening; thwart these conspiracies. The plotters are your enemies; they are the enemies of your nation. Both the clergyman must be a friend and brother of the university student and also the university student be such with the clergyman so that these two powers, these two thinking intellectual powers are able to protect their own country.

The time has passed. May God guide you and us. May God bless the departed souls of the servants of the nation. And may He shower His blessings on the late Mr. Taleqani and grant all of us happiness and health; and our country independence and freedom.

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