Speech [Conspiracy against the Iranian victory; the nation's motives for the Revolution]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I would like to thank you, dear university students, for your taking troubles to walk here from far cities in this cold weather, to meet me, at this humble place of mine. You are well aware that we are confronting a superpower now. We want to see what the secret behind our victory was when we initiated this movement and we would like to find out what we should do from now on. You know we had neither weapons nor proper military training. You were studying at schools then and attending to other affairs. The clerics, too, were busy studying in their own fields of study. But we had one thing in common: strong faith in Islam; faith in God; and determination to rise up for God; all these factors contributed to the gathering of everybody under the banner of Islam. The name of God was heard in every language spoken on this land: everybody advanced with the words" God is Great". Everybody got involved and personal grudges were put aside. Everybody was shouting:" We want Islamic Republic." One voice came out of Islam; it came from the hidden world. This voice strengthened our nation to such a degree that they were able to defeat their foes single-handedly. From now on, we will need these heavenly voices and this unity.

Our enemies intend to take away Islam and this unity from us. They plan to separate us from one another. They have created turmoil in every corner of this land. They want to separate the Muslim nation, which according to the Holy Qur'an are equal to each other and are all brothers. These brethren share their joys and sorrows. This brotherly sentiment in Islam is the source of all blessings. These enemies of ours intend to take away these sentiments from us. One day, they create turmoils in Kurdistan, the other day in Fars.

They want to use dialects as a separating factor. Then they create disasters in Azerbayjan, shouting for the Republic of Azerbayjan, separate from the Islamic Republic. Based on their views of an Azerbayjan with no Islam. This is a conspiracy to separate brothers from one another. Islam and the Qur'an have called us brethren: The believers are brothers. «1» According to this holy verse all Muslims are but brethren, whether Turks, Persians, `Arabs or others. The ones who try to create divisions among these brethren and who attempt to misuse the simple-hearted villagers for their own political advantages are those who ruined our dignity during the past fifty years and have plundered us of anything we had. Now that they have failed, they are acting frantically. They realized that the Islamic unity in our country is great, that everybody has been shouting" God is Great". Everybody relied on God. Everybody was asking for the Islamic Republic. This unity was a sharp blow to America and her associates. Those who were America's agents now realized where the blows came from and they are using them as points for attacks and when you triumphed, they attacked.

The key to our victory was the unity of word: the unity among Azerbayjanis, Kurds, Balouchis and everybody in Iran. This unity prevailed all over Iran. Reliance on God was the issue; the issue of clanship was never brought up; the notion of belief or faith never was on issue. At the start of our revolution, every bit of energy was spent to break that satanic hurdle: in those days nothing else was made issue. Needs were not considered important, either. Nor was it of significance what our dinner was when we got home or where our home was. You may have seen on Television that, there are slum areas in the suburb of Tehran. The kind of homes and life they have is quite obvious. On television they were asked:" What did you do during the day?" They would answer:" In the morning we took our wives and children to the streets to take part in demonstrations. We did not care for the conditions in our shanty for our children." You, too, did not care what problems you had, or what difficulties you had at school or what kind of teachers you had miserable conditions of your lives. Our nation, in fact, forgot themselves and relied on God. They did not care from their whims and wishes. What they cared for was the establishment of an Islamic Republic. They cared for God. They forgot themselves. This was the secret behind their success.

For as long as man thinks only of himself, he may not achieve anything. You have your own desires to take care of; I have my own wishes to fulfill: everybody to his own. Thus we have forgotten God and all miseries start to engulf us if we forget God. In your victory, you behaved differently. You have forgotten your desires. In those days if anybody asked you about your business you would laugh at him by saying: now it is not time for this kind of questions. You dispensed with your desires and turned to God. This migration from within and heading for God is the most valuable thing in the world. This movement from your inner self towards righteousness, from within towards the unknown world is among the most desired migrations. This migration strengthened your morals to the degree that you were not intimidated by tanks, guns or machine guns. The young man, single handedly attacked the tanks. This was God's power in people's veins. It was the same power which strengthened Islam from its inception. This brought about your success: you have turned your back to the world, and headed towards the unseen world; dispensed with yourselves and sought God's blessings and power. Preserve this blessing! It is this Divine grace which has transformed your nation into a great (nation).

You, who feared a policeman, were frightened by the kingdom regime of the shah. You, who were bothered by a policeman's baton, did not fear machineguns. This is where God's power rests. Keep up this divine strength. By the word" keeping" is meant focusing on God's power. Do not care for the shape of your houses or your furniture. Be after human dignity. Take care of the thing which made you succeed in defeating your enemy, the enemy who wants to rob us of anything we have. This focusing on God is the most precious of all assets. If we could lead the wrong-doers towards the right path, we would do so. The prophets came to lead every infidel towards the right path. When these enemies attacked us we removed the obstacles. We will also break the present shackles. We were previously successful in breaking the enemy's back through our unity; this time, too, we will succeed. We will attack them with the weapon of our faith. Remember that it is this very point and key of your success that your enemies are aiming at to destroy, be aware that your enemies leveled their strikes against the secrets of your success. If you remember when you established the Islamic Republic your enemies wanted to delete the adjective" Islamic." However, they failed.

The factors which were the true means of your success, i. e. Islam and the Islamic Republic, were targets of attacks by your enemy. They said," We do not want the word `Islamic' for this government." Some of these agitators stated that a" republic" would suffice. However, they wanted to append the word" democratic"! They did not have any opposition against any other word because it did not deal any blow against their interests, but not Islamic." They had not suffered a blow from a republic; neither had they suffered from a democratic republic. But their interests were threatened by" the Islamic Republic." The term" God is the Greater" had made them suffer. They said: get rid of Allahu Akbar or the Qur'an. However, when you chose the phrase" the Islamic Republic," you were the winner.

You cast your votes for the Islamic Republic an unprecedented vote in the world. It was nearly unanimous with one or two percent less. They would say it was not necessary to have an Islamic republic and that" republic" or" democratic republic" would be better. Your enemy suffered a blow here. Then they talked of the constitution. They prevented its drafting. They said they preferred the convention of the Constitutional Assembly. What does the constitutional Assembly mean? It means a congregation of three hundred people from all walks of life. They wanted to penetrate into this congregation. We refused to do so. We said we would convene our Assembly of Experts and then would put it to people's voting. The experts would then be elected by people. The main factor for their dissatisfaction lay in the word" Islamic." They saw that you had succeeded because of Islam. They did not like to have an Islamic constitution. There were one or two unsuitable persons who could get elected. But compared to six hundred elected ones, one or two was not a big number; it was negligible. They propagated pernicious information against us and this led to the discontent of nearly ten percent of the population. But ninety percent of our population voted for our democracy. This genuine democracy was, in fact, put to people's voting two times. Once the nation elected the experts and once they voted for the constitution. This democracy is unique in the world. Nothing can be achieved. In the world without propagation. They could not carry out propaganda (the way they wanted); they did not (perhaps) because they were not allowed to. Nonetheless, some sort of mispropagation took place.

These events in Iran are miracles that resemble these at the outset of Islam. The issues of Islam and Iran are miraculous issues. Your advancement against that [satanic] power was miraculous. The language of an infant who has just learned to talk and the elderly man in the hospital was the same: all talked in favor of the Islamic Republic. Anywhere you went you would hear the same slogan. This was a miracle. People showed a lot of enthusiasm in casting their votes. They said a sick person cast his vote and then died. He had insisted to be taken to the ballot box. All disabled people cast their votes. Those who were not of the right age to vote protested. They gathered here one day asking to be granted the right to vote. We, too, took part and voted in favor of it. This was how the situation was.

Voting like this in Iran has not had any precedence. It is also unprecedented in the world. Or, it is not very clear whether there had been anything like this. These enemies of ours were defeated when they saw this. Ninety percent of the people voted twice for the constitution. Once more our enemies find fault in this. Are they worried why the nation has voted? If this constitution is put to people's voting one hundred more times the result would still be the same. Of course, if our enemies could brainwash these people not to vote for Islam, then they would stop voting and would make friends with our enemies. But as far as we are under the banner of Islam and the Holy Qur'an, the votes would not change. If the experts were to be elected once again, the result would still be the same. Our nation believes both in Islam and in this constitution. Our nation does not oppose Islam. Now there are a few who are opposing this constitution. It is unusual in the world for ten thousand opponents not to accept the votes of the majority. Our constitution is democratic in that according to the Islamic doctrine, affairs should be discussed in councils. When a council voted for something, it should be obeyed by all. Anybody who opposes this has done an undemocratic movement. His action is against Islam and Iran. It is against the welfare of the country.

The target of the assault is the exact place where you came out victorious. Be alert. You are to act out in accordance with the interests of your nation. I say this is a conspiracy against Islam. The reason is that those who were after Islam were assaulted. They, in fact, attacked the Islamic Republic. Be vigilant. Keep your eyes on the watch and you ears alert. Do not let individuals mistake. If you see anybody is doing the wrong thing, inform the people about this. Each one of you should engage in publicity.

Propagate the right things. If a clique goes to village and disseminate mischief, you, too go to the villages and make their vicious propaganda null and void. The enemies have targeted the things that you want, you want Islam. They do not want it.

You will not succeed in life unless you dispensed with your worldly desires. I hope everybody will do his best to see the Islamic movement established and Islamic commandments implemented here and not care about their worldly needs. So far as you have these bright Islamic countenances, you are victorious. We hope to succeed in economic, political and cultural aspects of our revolution. If, God forbid, the issue of military intervention were brought up, all of us would be soldiers for Islam. May God keep you all. May you be successful.